In the spirit of the upcoming Olympic Games set to open Saturday afternoon in Rio de Janeiro, Yad Vashem is dedicating two online exhibitions to commemorate Jewish and non-Jewish athletes. One Exhibition, “Jews and Sports before the Holocaust: A Visual Retrospective,” utilizes images and artifacts to portray different sporting events and competitions in which Jews participated. The exhibition features photos of Jewish athletes, including champion boxer Victor Perez, the Hapoel Football team from Poland, and the HaKoach Vienna Hockey team, competing at the Bar-Kochba International Sports Games in 1937.
The other online exhibition, “The Game of their Lives,” tells the stories of non-Jewish athletes who have been recognized as Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem. The exhibition highlights the inspiring accounts of a dozen brave men and women – most notably the rescue stories of world-renowned Italian cyclist champion Gino Bartali, Slovenian Olympian swimmer Margit Eugénie Mallász, and Czechoslovakian soccer player Martin Uher – which truly embody the Olympics spirit of “social responsibility and respect for universal fundamental ethical principles.”
Jews in prewar Europe excelled in practically every part of society, and not only as scholars and teachers, doctors and lawyers: many were renowned athletes, too. 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 comradely were formed between athletes from 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.