Prim. Dr. Mihovil Silobrčić

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In 1941, Dr. Andrija Poklepović lived in Split and was a doctor on the staff of the department for contagious diseases in the municipal hospital, headed by Dr. Mihovil Silobrčić. Split was in the Italian occupied zone until September 1943, when the Italian army surrendered to the Allies and the Germans took over the area. Many of the Jews who had found shelter there were rounded up and deported to concentration camps. In July 1944, the Gestapo arrested the Dittersdorf family – Hugo,
Regina, and their two children, Ruth and Paul – and tens of other Jewish families, and they were sent to the prison in the Gripe Fortress in Split. There was an outbreak of typhus and the Dittersdorf parents and the son were sent to the hospital and their 12-year-old daughter was left behind in the prison. Despite the medical treatment, Mrs. Dittersdorf remained in critical condition. Her husband and son recovered, though, and they knew that they would be sent back to prison. Thus, they turned to Dr. Poklepović and asked to remain hospitalized. Poklepović asked permission from Dr. Silobrčić, who agreed to place the two Jews in a special isolation wing of the hospital, where they found themselves among a number of other Jewish patients. The existence of this “special wing” soon aroused the suspicions of the authorities and a German doctor visited there to check on the patients. (Through their intervention, the two doctors managed to deceive the Germans and most of the patients managed to remain in the hospital.)

The Dittersdorfs’ daughter, Ruth (later Bean), who had remained behind in prison, found a way to sneak out the prison to spend her days visiting her “sick” family in the hospital. At nights, she crept back into the prison. Silobrčić was aware of this and even supported Ruth – he let her hide in the nurses’ room in the hospital whenever it was necessary. One day, Silobrčić decided to keep Ruth in the hospital and he reported to theauthorities that she too had fallen ill with typhus. The Dittersdorf family and many other Jews were released from the hospital in November 1944, after the partisans had liberated the area. The other Jews were: Ivan Singer, Josipov, Abram Altaraz, Gleicher, Robert Drutter, Lenka Kabiljo, Saša Finzi, Stefanija Haim, Frida Schäffer, Rosa Steg, Berta Muller, Hugo Balović, Ingrid Berghoff, and David Finzi. On November 6, 1996, Yad Vashem recognized Andrija Poklepović and Mihovil Silobrčić as Righteous Among the Nations.'