Tihomil Beritić was a medical student in Zagreb (Yugoslavia, today Croatia) when German troops invaded the country. Zagreb then became part of the “Independent State of Croatia,” which persecuted the Jews.
Tihomil Beritić lived together with his mother Đina. She took in a Jewish girl. Two-year-old Dina Büchler had been smuggled out of a camp. Her father had been murdered and her mother remained in the camp. Tihomil Beritić helped his mother and they cared lovingly for the girl. To disguise her identity they called her Marija and had her baptized.
After liberation in 1945, the girl was picked up by a relative, Blanka Fürst. The two of them immigrated to Israel in 1948 but remained in contact with Tihomil Beritić and his mother.
In 1994, Tihomil Beritić was honored by the Israeli Holocaust memorial Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations.