The great long jump contest between Germany's Luz Long and Jesse Owens is one of the most cherished memories of Berlin. Long was killed during the war.
80th Anniversary of the VE Day
by Philip Barker
This week, celebrations have marked the 80th anniversary of the end of the second world war in Europe.
When the Olympic Flag was lowered in 1936 at the Closing Ceremony in Berlin, those watching in the stadium could scarcely have foreseen that it would be 12 years before the Olympics were celebrated again.
It was nonetheless a time of great international tension.
Mussolini had already begun his invasion of Abyssinia (known today as Ethiopia and Eritrea), civil war erupted in Spain, and Japan invaded China.
Although Tokyo had been chosen to host the 1940 Olympics, the organisers were forced to accept that this was impossible whilst the country was on a war footing.
Helsinki was chosen as the replacement host city, but in November 1939, Soviet armies invaded Finland.
A Christmas card sent by organisers in 1939 did not depict the usual festive message but rather carried a picture of a sports centre, destroyed by Soviet shells.
By this time, Hitler’s armies had invaded Poland and war had been declared. Initially the fighting was in Europe, but later much of the world became embroiled in a conflict which lasted six long years.
Millions perished. Amongst those who lost their lives were many from the sport and Olympic world.
Over 400 Olympians are known to have died in the second world war.
Poland’s Stefan Adamczak, a pole vaulter in the 1924 Paris Games was amongst the earliest casualties. He was killed in September 1939.
The infamous Katyn massacre in 1940 by Soviet secret police claimed the lives of seven Polish Olympians.
Those known to have died were Zdzisław Dziadulski who had competed in eventing at the 1924 Paris Games, footballer Marian Spodja from the same Games, Jozef Baran Bilewski who had taken part in the discus at the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics, Stanislaw Urban who won rowing bronze in 1932 at Los Angeles, Wojciech Bursa who competed in rapid fire pistol at the Berlin 1936 Games and Zdzisław Kawecki who won team eventing silver at those Games.
Ice hockey’s Aleksandr Kowalski, who played in 1928 and 1932 is the only Winter Olympian to have died in the massacre.
Other victims of the conflict included Geo Andre of France who won high jump silver in 1908 and relay bronze in 1920.
At his fourth and last Olympics, Andre was chosen to read the oath on behalf of all competitors.
He later worked as a journalist but when war came he joined the resistance. He was captured and shot by the Nazis.
Billy Fiske won bobsleigh gold in both 1928 and 1932. He travelled to Britain to join the Royal Air Force before the United States entered the war. He was shot returning from a mission and died of his wounds.
German oarsman Herbert Adamski won gold in the coxed pairs in 1936 but died in the early months of the Russian campaign.
Perhaps the most celebrated German Olympian amongst the fallen was Luz Long, silver medallist in Berlin after an epic contest with Jesse Owens.
Long died in fighting during the allied invasion of Sicily,
Italian Silvano Abba won modern pentathlon bronze in 1936 but was killed in a cavalry charge on the Russian front near Stalingrad in 1942.
Perhaps the most poignant casualties of all were those who perished in concentration camps.
Alfred Flatow won three gymnastic events at the first modern Olympics in Athens.
He founded the Jewish gymnastics club in Germany, and was invited to the 1936 Games as a guest as the Nazis tried to maintain a veneer of normality to deceive the outside world.
He fled to the Netherlands as persecution intensified in Germany, but was deported to Theresienstadt concentration camp where he died.
His cousin Gustav who won two gold medals in team events suffered the same fate. He died only a few months before the end of the war.
In 1928 a predominantly Jewish squad won the women’s team gymnastics gold for the Netherlands. Stella Agsteribbe, Helena Nordheim, Ans Polak, reserve Judikje Simons and coach Gerrit Kleerekoper all died in concentration camps. Elka de Levie was the only member of the team to survive.
In all, 64 lost their lives in the camps.
One other notable wartime casualty was International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Count Henri Baillet Latour who died of a stroke in Brussels in January 1942. Belgium was occupied at the time and his funeral was attended by many leading Nazi officials. Hitler himself sent a wreath.
Baillet Latour remains the only IOC President to die in office.
The task of leading the Olympic movement fell to IOC Vice President Sigfrid Edstrom of neutral Sweden.
Before war broke out, London had been elected host for the 1944 Olympics and Cortina D’Ampezzo had been assigned the Winter Games. There was no question of either going ahead. Unofficial World championships in skiing did take place at the resort in 1941.
In the Olympic year of 1944, a celebration of the diamond jubilee of the Olympic Movement was held in Lausanne. This included gymnastic displays in the Place de la Riponne, an educational conference and a banquet at the Hotel Beau Rivage.
Very few Olympic personalities were able to attend. Edstrom himself was prevented from coming because of illness. Germany’s Karl Ritter Von Halt, Stefan Tchaprachikov, a Bulgarian diplomat who had been posted to Berlin, and Switzerland’s Albert Mayer were the only IOC members present.
When the fighting finally stopped in Europe, stories of those who had survived came to light. Hungarian gymnast Agnes Keleti saw her father taken away by the Nazis but she eluded capture and survived the war. She eventually competed at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics where she won gold in the floor exercise, a silver and two bronze medals.
She won four further gold medals at the Melbourne 1956 Games.
Keleti lived to the age of 103.
So many others of her generation did not live to see the post war return of the Olympic ideal.
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