Žarko Dolinar (3 July 1920 – 9 March 2003) was a Croatian biologist and table tennis player who won eight medals at the World Table Tennis Championships.[1]
He was born in a family of Slovene economic immigrants to Croatia.[2] In 1939, at the age of 18 he became the national champion of Yugoslavia.[3] Dolinar was champion of the Independent State of Croatia multiple times, and also competed for its national team on nine occasions.[4]
A university professor in both Zagreb and Basel, Dolinar and his brother Boris were honored as the Righteous Among the Nations for saving Jews during World War II. On a number of occasions, the Dolinar brothers provided Jews with forged identity documents and travel permits, used their connections to have them released from imprisonment, and helped them travel to safety.[7]