Ruža Fuchs lived with her husband Otto in Zagreb (Yugoslavia, today Croatia). She was a Germanist and had German ancestors. Her husband was a journalist. She gave birth to her first daughter Silva in 1940.
As of April 1941, Jews were persecuted in the newly founded “Independent State of Croatia.” Ruža Fuchs was Catholic, but her husband was Jewish. Their marriage initially protected him from persecution.
In 1942 Ruža Fuchs happened to run into her Jewish friend Eva Domany, who was seeking a hiding place for her young daughter Vesna. Fuchs did not hesitate to take in the child, and Eva Domany was able to join a partisan unit.
Ruža and Otto Fuchs cared lovingly for the child, whom they passed off as their own daughter. In 1943 Ruža Fuchs had her second daughter Milana. In 1944 Otto Fuchs was murdered despite his being married to a non-Jew. Ruža Fuchs continued to care for Vesna Domany until 1945, when her mother returned and picked her up.
In 1989 Ruža Fuchs was honored by the Israeli Holocaust memorial Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations.