European Day of the Righteous Date in the current year: March 6, 2024

The concept of Righteous Among the Nations was introduced by Yan Vashem, Israel's official memorial to the victims of the Holocaust. Originally it referred to non-Jews who saved Jews from the Nazis during the Holocaust, risking their lives. German industrialist Oskar Schindler is probably the brightest example, but the list of Righteous includes more than 25,000 people from 49 countries.

Late Moshe Bejski, former President of the Righteous Commission, broadened this concept to all genocide cases and forms of totalitarianism. To honor his commitment, European Day of the Righteous is observed on the anniversary of his death. It was approved by the European Parliament on May 10, 2012.

This observance pays tribute to those who saved lives during the Holocaust and other mass murders, genocides, and crimes against humanity in the 20th and 21st centuries. It doesn't matter how many lives one has saved, one or thousand, as the inscription on the ring given to Oskar Schindler by the Jews he saved reads “Whoever saves one life saves the world entire”.