The Romani woman Hajrija Imeri-Mihaljić lived with her husband and five children in Ade near Pristina (Yugoslavia, now Kosovo). In German-occupied Kosovska Mitrovica, Jews were interned in a camp in March 1942. Hajrija Imeri-Mihaljić immediately realized her Jewish former employer Ester Bahar was in danger, and visited her in the camp. There was no chance for Ester Bahar to escape. However, Imeri-Mihaljić smuggled Bahar’s granddaughter Stela Acević out of the camp and took her into her home.
After the war ended, Imeri-Mihaljić told the child she was not her biological mother. She learned that Ester Bahar had been murdered in Semlin camp near Belgrade (Serbia). There was no trace of Stela’s parents, and the authorities placed the child in a Jewish orphanage in Belgrade. After a few months, Hajrija Imeri-Mihaljić went to Belgrade to see Stela. She was relieved to find that Stela’s mother was alive and Stela was well looked-after. They lost contact when Stela and her mother emigrated to Israel.
Hajrija Imeri-Mihaljić was honored posthumously as Righteous Among the Nations in 1991.