Helene Mayer

Helene Julie Mayer

' (20 December 1910 – 10 October 1953) was a German-born fencer who won the gold medal at the 1928 Olympics in Amsterdam, and the silver medal at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. She competed for Nazi Germany in Berlin, despite having been forced to leave Germany in 1935 and resettle in the United States because she was Jewish.

Mayer had been called the greatest female fencer of all time,[3] and was named by Sports Illustrated as one of the Top 100 Female Athletes of the 20th Century, but her legacy remains clouded. At the Olympics in Berlin, where she was the only German athlete of Jewish origin to win a medal, she gave the Nazi salute during the medal ceremony, and later said it might have protected her family that was still in Germany, in labor camps. Some consider her a traitor and opportunist, while others consider her a tragic figure who was used not only by Nazi Germany but by the International Olympic Committee and the United States Olympic Committee to prevent a boycott of the Games.[4]

After the Olympics, she returned to the United States and became a nine-time U.S. champion. She received citizenship in 1941 but returned to Germany in 1952. Mayer died the following year, leaving few interviews and little correspondence, creating a mystery about her true feelings about competing for Nazi Germany.[4]

Contents
1 Family and early life 2 Fencing career 2.1 Olympics 2.2 International competitions 2.3 US Championships 3 Return to Germany and death 4 Legacy 5 Accomplishments 6 See also 7 References 8 External links Family and early life Mayer was born in Offenbach am Main, a suburb of Frankfurt.[5] Her mother lda Anna Bertha (née Becker) was Lutheran, and her father Ludwig Karl Mayer, a physician, was Jewish and was born in 1876.[6][7][4] Emmanuel Mayer, her paternal great-grandfather, and Jule Weissman, his wife, were the parents of Martin Mayer, her paternal grandfather who was born in 1841 and who married Rosalie Hamburg, her paternal grandmother.[6]

Mayer was the subject of the book Foiled: Hitler's Jewish Olympian: the Helene Mayer Story (RDR Books, 2002), which focused on how "the Nazis brought Mayer home from self-imposed exile in California to be the token Jew on their team."[6] Her birth certificate listed her as "Israelitischen"; as Jewish.[6] As a child, she was called the "Jewish Mayer," to distinguish her from the "Christian Mayer", a child who lived next door to her, as was reported by the press of the time.[6] In January 1933, the Offenbach Fencing Club rescinded her membership on the basis of new Nazi legislation banning Jews.[8][9] Her religious identity reportedly did not become an issue until Adolf Hitler rose to power in the 1930s.[4]

Fencing career

West German stamp from 1968 featuring Mayer Mayer was only 13 when she won the German women's foil championship in 1924.[9] Her technique and talent were spectacular, according to fencing experts who have seen footage of her fencing.[4] By 1930, she had won six German championships.[10]

Olympics Mayer won a gold medal in fencing at the age of 17 at the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam, representing Germany, winning 18 bouts and losing only 2.[11][9] She became a national hero in Germany and was celebrated, with her photo plastered everyone. According to a profile in The Guardian, "She was tall, blonde, elegant and vivacious."[4]

In 1931, her father died of a heart attack. She finished fifth at the 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, having learned, two hours prior to the match, that her boyfriend had died in a military training exercise in Germany.[11][9] She then remained in the U.S. in 1933 to study as an exchange student at Scripps College, earning a certificate in Social Work, later studied towards a master's degree at the University of California at Berkeley, and fenced for the USC Fencing Club.[11][9][9] She hoped to join the German diplomatic corps.[4]

After Hitler came to power in 1933, anti-Jewish laws put in place nearly ended her career. Her membership at her German fencing club was terminated, as was her study exchange. She found work teaching German at Mills College in Oakland, California, and later taught at San Francisco City College.[8] She was stripped of her citizenship in Germany in 1935 by the Nuremberg Laws, which considered her non-German.[4]

She accepted an invitation to compete for Germany at the 1936 Summer Olympics, held in Berlin.[12] Goebbels required of the press that "no comments may be made regarding Helene Mayer's non-Aryan ancestry".[8] She won a silver medal in individual women's foil.[8] She gave a Nazi salute on the podium, and later said it might have protected her family that was still in Germany, in labor camps.[8]

International competitions In 1928 she won the Italian national championship. She was the European champion in 1929 and 1931. She was World Foil Champion in 1929–31 and 1937.[11][9]

US Championships Ultimately, she settled in the United States and had a successful fencing career, winning the US women's foil championship 8 times from 1934–1946 (1934, 1935, 1937, 1938, 1939, 1941, 1942, and 1946).[8][9]

Return to Germany and death In 1952, Mayer returned to Germany, where she married an old friend, Erwin Falkner von Sonnenburg, in a quiet May ceremony in Munich.[8] The couple moved to the hills above Stuttgart before setting in Heidelberg where she died of breast cancer in October 1953, two months before her 43rd birthday.[13][8]

Legacy Mayer was named one of the top 100 female athletes of the 20th century by Sports Illustrated.[14] She was inducted into the USFA Hall of Fame in 1963.[2]

Accomplishments 1924: German Foil Champion 1925: German Foil Champion 1926: German Foil Champion 1927: German Foil Champion 1928: German Foil Champion Olympic gold medal, Foil, German Team Winner Foil, Italian National Championships 1929: German Foil Champion World Foil Champion 1930: German Foil Champion 1931: World Foil Champion 1932: German Olympic Foil Team 1933: U.S. Foil Champion (outdoors) 1934: U.S. Foil Champion 1935: U.S. Foil Champion 1936: Olympic silver medal, Foil, German Team 1937: U.S. Foil Champion World Foil Champion 1938: U.S. Foil Champion 1939: U.S. Foil Champion 1941: U.S. Foil Champion 1942: U.S. Foil Champion 1946: U.S. Foil Champion See also Biography portal flag Germany portal List of select Jewish fencers Helene-Mayer-Ring References

California, Federal Naturalization Records, 1843-1999 for Helene Julie Mayer; District Court, Northern District, California: San Francisco Petition

Helene Mayer . sports-reference.com

"Helene Mayer" . US Fencing Hall of Fame.

Les Carpenter (28 July 2016). "Nazi Germany's Jewish champion: the mystery of Helene Mayer endures" . The Guardian. Retrieved 15 February 2018.

Paul Taylor (2004). Jews and the Olympic Games: The Clash Between Sport and Politics : with a Complete Review of Jewish Olympic Medallists . Sussex Academic Press. pp. 235–. ISBN 978-1-903900-88-8.

Milly Mogulof (2002). Foiled: Hitler's Jewish Olympian : the Helene Mayer Story . RDR Books. ISBN 978-1-57143-092-2.

Anne Commire (2000). Women in World History . Gale. ISBN 978-0-7876-4069-9.

Franklin Foer; Marc Tracy (2012). Jewish Jocks: An Unorthodox Hall of Fame . Grand Central Publishing. pp. 59–. ISBN 978-1-4555-1611-7.

Janet Woolum (1998). Outstanding Women Athletes: Who They are and how They Influenced Sports in America . Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 183–. ISBN 978-1-57356-120-4.

Fechten - Deutsche Meisterschaften . sport-komplett.de

George Constable (2015). XI, XII & XIII Olympiad: Berlin 1936, St. Moritz 1948 . Warwick Press Inc. pp. 159–. ISBN 978-1-987944-10-5.

"The Nazi Olympics (Berlin 1936)—Jewish Athletes; Olympic Medalists" . United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Retrieved 16 July 2015.

"In 1936 Games, a Mills College teacher with Jewish roots won silver for Nazi Germany – J."

Jweekly.com. 12 August 2016. Retrieved 13 October 2017.

Doug Farrar. "83. Helene Mayer, Fencing" . Sportsillustrated.cnn.com. Archived from the original

on 20 October 2012. Retrieved 5 August 2014. External links 	Wikimedia Commons has media related to Helene Mayer. Janet Woolum: Outstanding Women Athletes: Who They are and how They Influenced Sports in America, Greenwood Publishing Group, Westport, CN, USA, 1998. S. 193. Jews in Sports bio Helene Mayer

at Find a Grave https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helene_Mayer

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helene_Mayer

Helene Julie Mayer (20 December 1910 – 10 October 1953) was a German-born fencer who won the gold medal at the 1928 Olympics in Amsterdam, and the silver medal at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. She competed for Nazi Germany in Berlin, despite having been forced to leave Germany in 1935 and resettle in the United States because she was of Jewish descent. She did studies at American universities, and later returned to Germany in 1952 where she died of breast cancer.

Mayer had been called the greatest female fencer of all time,[3] and was named by Sports Illustrated as one of the Top 100 Female Athletes of the 20th Century, but her legacy remains clouded. At the Olympics in Berlin, where she was the only German athlete of Jewish origin to win a medal, she gave the Nazi salute during the medal ceremony and later said it might have protected her family that was still in Germany, in labor camps. Some consider her a traitor and opportunist, while others consider her a tragic figure who was used not only by Nazi Germany but by the International Olympic Committee and the American Olympic Association to prevent a boycott of the Games.[4]

After the Olympics, she returned to the United States and became a nine-time U.S. champion. She received citizenship in 1941 but returned to Germany in 1952. Mayer died the following year, leaving few interviews and little correspondence.[4]

In Biographical Summaries of Notable People

Helene Mayer
Adds: residence and education
Gender: Female
Birth: Dec 20 1910

 Offenbach

Death: Cause of death: Breast cancer
Oct 15 1953

 Munich

Religion: Judaism
Nationalities: United States of America, Germany
Ethnicities: Jewish people, Germans
Residence: Hesse
Residence: Munich
Education: University of Southern California

In Famous People Throughout History

Helene Mayer
Adds: burial place
Gender: Female
Birth: Dec 20 1910

 Offenbach Am Main, Germany

Occupation: Fencer
Death: Oct 15 1953

 Munich, Germany

Burial: Munich Waldfriedhof, Germany
Description: German Fencer
Source: View the full record on Wikipedia.
In Different Languages
Language Name
English Helene Mayer
Hebrew הלנה מאייר
Serbian Хелена Мајер
Russian Хелена Майер
Czech Helene Mayerová
Persian هلن مایر
Arabic هيلينا ماير
Greek Χελένα Μάγιερ

In Jewish Holocaust Memorials and Jewish Residents of Germany 1939-1945

Helene Mayer
Adds: residence
Birth: Dec 20 1910

 Offenbach / - / Hessen

Residence: Offenbach a.M., Land Hessen
Place of emigration: USA
Death: Oct 15 1953

 Heidelberg

https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/GLNC-1YB

Helene Mayer was the daughter of a doctor. She learned to fence at the “Offenbacher Schule” of “Cavaliere” Arturo and his son Fritz Gazzera. She won her first German Championship in foil in 1924 when she was only 13, and by 1930, had been a six-time German Champion. In 1928 she won the Italian Championship and in 1929 and 1931 she won the European Foil Championships, the forerunner of the World Championships. In 1933 her club excluded her because she was “half Jewish”. Mayer left Germany at the time, because of their treatment of Jews, and settled in the United States, eventually winning the US foil title eight times (1934-35, 1937-39, 1941-42, and 1946). Competing for Germany she added a third World Title in 1937, when the event was called World Championships for the first time, and also won a silver medal with the German foil team. Mayer won the gold medal at the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics in the individual foil, came in fifth at the 1932 Los Angeles Games, and added another silver medal at the 1936 Berlin Olympics.

After international discussions began about boycotting the 1936 Olympics, Germany offered her a place on the 1936 Olympic Team as their token Jewish athlete, and she was the only German Jewish participant at the 1936 Berlin Games. During the 1936 Olympics Mayer wore the German uniform with the Swastika, and after her silver medal, gave the Nazi Salute (Hitlergruß) on the podium, which earned her severe criticism from the world press, one of her hardest detractors being the writer Thomas Mann, who had fled to Switzerland in protest of Nazi policies, and would later settle in the USA. In 1952 Helene Mayer returned to Germany, settled in München, married Baron Falkner von Sonnenburg, dying only one year later from breast cancer. In 1968, the German Post issued a stamp in memoriam, and in 1963 she was inducted in the US Fencing Hall of Fame.

(From https://www.olympedia.org/athletes/20711)

הלנה מאייר

', לאחר נישואיה פלקנר פון זוננבורג (בגרמנית: Helene Mayer-Falkner von Sonnenburg; ‏20 בדצמבר 1910 - 15 באוקטובר 1953) הייתה סייפת גרמניה ממוצא יהודי. אלופה אולימפית ואלופת העולם ברומח.[1] היא ייצגה את גרמניה הנאצית לבקשתם למרות שעזבה את ארצה לארצות הברית בגלל היחס המשפיל כלפי היהודים.

מאייר נחשבת לאחת מ-100 הספורטאיות הגדולות של המאה ה-20.

תוכן עניינים 1 ביוגרפיה 1.1 אלופה אולימפית 1.2 אולימפיאדת ברלין והמחלוקת 2 תארים והישגים 3 קישורים חיצוניים 4 הערות שוליים ביוגרפיה מאייר נולדה באופנבך לאב רופא. בשנת 1924 בהיותה רק בת 13 זכתה בפעם הראשונה שלה באליפות גרמניה ברומח. מאז היא זכתה באליפות בכל שנה עד שנת 1930 כולל.

בשנת 1928 זכתה מאייר באליפות איטליה הפתוחה בתחרות הרומח האישית.

אלופה אולימפית באולימפיאדת אמסטרדם (1928) זכתה מאייר במדליית זהב בתחרות הרומח האישית. במדליית כסף זכתה מיוריאל פרימן מבריטניה ובמדליית ארד זכתה בת ארצה אולגה אולקרס. היא ניצחה 18 קרבות והפסידה בשניים. מוקדמות (1-5), שלב חצי הגמר (1-6) ושלב הגמר (0-7).

באליפות אירופה בסיף שנערכה בנאפולי, איטליה בשנת 1929 זכתה מאייר במדליית זהב בתחרות הרומח האישית, הייתה זו הפעם הראשונה שתחרות זו נערכת.

באליפות אירופה בסיף שנערכה בווינה, אוסטריה בשנת 1931 זכתה מאייר במדליית זהב בתחרות הרומח האישית.

באולימפיאדת לוס אנג'לס (1932) סיימה מאייר במקום חמישי בתחרות הרומח האישית.

בשנת 1933 היא הוצאה מקבוצתה בשל היותה "חצי יהודיה" (אביה היה יהודי) ולכן אולצה לעזוב את גרמניה לארצות הברית בשל היחס כלפי היהודים. היא החלה ללמוד עבודה סוציאלית באוניברסיטת דרום קליפורניה.

אולימפיאדת ברלין והמחלוקת איגוד האתלטים החובבים בחר להחרים את אולימפיאדת ברלין (1936) בשל היחס המשפיל כלפי היהודים. כ"מחווה" הציע הוועד האולימפי של גרמניה הנאצית למאייר להצטרף למשלחת הגרמנית לאולימפיאדה שנערכה בברלין, למרות היותה יהודייה (היא הייתה הספורטאית היהודיה היחידה במשלחת). היא קיבלה את ההזמנה למרות המחאה של הקהילה היהודית בארצות הברית ושל מספר אתלטים יהודים אמריקאים. במשחקים עצמם היא זכתה במדליית כסף בתחרות הרומח האישית. במדליית הזהב זכתה אילונה אלק מהונגריה ובמדליית הארד זכתה אלן פרייס מאוסטריה, שלוש המנצחות הן יהודיות. בטקס חלוקת המדליות היא לבשה את המדים הרשמיים שכללו את צלב הקרס והצדיעה במועל יד, כמו שאר ספורטאי גרמניה, לטענתה על מנת להגן על משפחתה (אמה ושני אחיה התגוררו בגרמניה, אביה נפטר בשנת 1931). התנהגותה עוררה הדים רבים ברחבי העולם והיא ספגה ביקורת נוקבת בעיתונות. בין המבקרים הבולטים היו הסופר הגולה תומאס מאן.

באליפות העולם הראשונה בסיף שנערכה בפריז, צרפת בשנת 1937 זכתה מאייר ב-2 מדליות, מדליית זהב בתחרות הרומח האישית ומדליית כסף בתחרות הרומח הקבוצתית.

מייד לאחר האליפות היא היגרה לארצות הברית וקיבלה אזרחות אמריקאת בשנת 1940. משנת 1934 ועד שנת 1946 היא זכתה שמונה פעמים באליפות ארצות הברית ברומח. באותה העת היא לימדה גרמנית, צרפתית ואיטלקית במילס קולג', באוקלנד, קליפורניה. בזמן שהיא למדה באוניברסיטת ברקלי היא לימדה סיף. בהמשך היא לימדה מדע המדינה בקולג' בסן פרנסיסקו.

בשנת 1952 התחתנה מאייר עם הברון ארווין פלקנר פון זוננברג וחזרה לגרמניה, למינכן. בשנת 1953 היא נפטרה מסרטן השד בהיידלברג.

תארים והישגים מאייר זכתה 7 פעמים באליפות גרמניה ברומח (1930-1924). מאייר זכתה 8 פעמים באליפות ארצות הברית ברומח (1934, 1935, 1937, 1938, 1939, 1941, 1942, ו-1946). בשנת 1963 זכתה מאייר להכלל בהיכל התהילה האמריקאי של הסייף. קישורים חיצוניים ויקישיתוף מדיה וקבצים בנושא הלנה מאייר בוויקישיתוף הלנה מאייר , באתר Sports-Reference דוד דודסון, על החרב: ענף הספורט שסטר בפרצופם של הנאצים , באתר nrg‏, 27 בינואר 2014 אולימפיאדת ברלין 1936, ספורטאים יהודים, הלנה מאייר

(באנגלית) הלנה מאייר , באתר "Find a Grave" (באנגלית) https://he.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D7%94%D7%9C%D7%A0%D7%94_%D7%9E%D7%90...