Responsibility, respect and sportsmanship

A glimpse into the lives of Jewish athletes before World War II.

By DANA PORATH
Selma Schulmann participates in the shot-put event at the Bar-Kochba international sports games in Berlin, 1937. The games took place at the Grunewald field and included soccer, handball and hockey (photo credit: COURTESY JÜDISCHEN MUSEUM IM STADTMUSEUM BERLIN)
Selma Schulmann participates in the shot-put event at the Bar-Kochba international sports games in Berlin, 1937. The games took place at the Grunewald field and included soccer, handball and hockey
(photo credit: COURTESY JÜDISCHEN MUSEUM IM STADTMUSEUM BERLIN)
The lives of Jews in prewar Europe were rich in culture and tradition. Jews excelled in practically every part of society. Not only were they scholars and teachers, doctors and lawyers, but many were renowned athletes as well. Jews competed in the most coveted sporting competitions throughout Europe, including the Olympics.
Sports often served as a bridge between the Jewish and non-Jewish worlds.
Friendships and camaraderie formed between these two societies. During the Holocaust, some of these bonds would help save Jews, when non-Jewish athletes bravely risked their own lives to rescue their Jewish compatriots from Nazi persecution. These brave individuals who stood up against the evil that prevailed at risk to their own lives would later go on to be recognized by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations.
In the spirit of the Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games, Yad Vashem has dedicated two online exhibitions to commemorate both Jewish and non-Jewish athletes, from which the images and explanations presented here are taken.
The first exhibition, titled “Jews and Sports before the Holocaust: A Visual Retrospective,” utilizes images and artifacts to portray sporting events and competitions in which Jews participated.
This exhibition features photos depicting Jewish athletes, including champion boxer Victor Perez (see photo No. 1), the Hapoel Football team from Poland, and the Hakoach Vienna Hockey team competing at the Bar-Kochba International Sports Games in 1937.
The second exhibition, “The Game of their Lives,” tells the stories of non-Jewish athletes recognized as Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem. The inspiring accounts of the brave men and women highlighted in the exhibition truly embody the Olympics spirit of “social responsibility and respect for universal fundamental ethical principles.” 
The writer is the director of the Internet department, communications division at Yad Vashem. See more at: yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/sport
Champion boxer Victor Perez was born in French Tunisia and became the world flyweight champion in 1931 and 1932. He was arrested in Paris in September 1943 and detained in the Drancy internment camp. In October 1943 he was deported to Auschwitz on convoy 60. He was killed on January 22, 1945, on a death march.
Three members of a rowing team prepare to train on the Sola River in Oswiecim, Poland, in 1933. All of the girls seen in the picture were murdered during WWII. Identified are Gezela Band on the left and Chava Dochleuter on the right. Band, born in Oswiecim in 1914 to Mendel and Helena, was a housewife. Prior to World War II she lived in Oswiecim; during the war she was in Tarnow, Poland, where she was murdered in 1944 at the age of 30. Dochleuter née Akerman, who had been a member of WIZO, was murdered during a deportation.
Dutch diving champion Bob Denneboom was born in Amsterdam on December 23, 1909, and in addition to being an award-winning competitive diver he was an artist. During the war, he went into hiding at his weekend cottage in Egmond-Binnen. When the coastal region was evacuated, Denneboom abandoned his hiding place and on January 1, 1943, went to live with his close friend, gymnastics teacher Jan Kasper Klein, who gradually took in Denneboom’s entire family, hiding a total of 17 Jews in his house. On May 28, 1974, Yad Vashem recognized Klein as one of the Righteous Among the Nations. After the war, together with Wim Schatens, Denneboom gave comical demonstrations from the high diving board at the opening of many swimming pools, and was granted lifetime free entry to the pools that he had opened. Denneboom died in 2001.
A Jewish soccer club in 1937. One of the players, Michel (Menahem) Saul, holding the trophy, was born in Salonika, Greece, to Vidal and Mazaltov née Guerchon. He was single. During the war he was in Paris. He was murdered in Auschwitz-Birkenau at the age of 25.
A Bnei Akiva soccer team in Antwerp, Belgium, in 1939. Benjamin Brachfeld, standing on right, managed the team. He was born in Jurkow, Poland, in 1901 to David and Haya née Schamroth. He was a diamond broker, active in the Mizrachi movement, and married to Ernestine née Muller. Prior to and during WWII he lived in Antwerp. Brachfeld was murdered in 1943 in Bismarckhuette, Poland.