Attila Petschauer

Attila Petschauer (December 14, 1904 – January 30, 1943) was a Hungarian Olympic champion fencer of Jewish heritage.[2]

The native form of this personal name is Petschauer Attila. This article uses Western name order when mentioning individuals.
Attila Petschauer
Personal information
National team Hungary
Born14 December 1904
Budapest, Austria-Hungary
DiedJanuary 30, 1943(1943-01-30) (aged 38)
Davidovka, Ukraine
Sport
Sportfencing
Event(s)sabre
Medal record
Representing  Hungary
Men's Fencing[1]
Olympic Games
1928 Amsterdam Team sabre
1932 Los Angeles Team sabre
1928 Amsterdam Individual sabre

Fencing career

Petschauer was born in Budapest, and was Jewish.[3][4][5]

He fenced first at a salle in Budapest opened in 1885 by Jewish maestro Károly Fodor (Mózes Freyberger) from the age of 8 to the age of 20, and then trained at Nemzeti Vivó Club (NVC) which was established by the Zionist lawyer Marcell Hajdu.[6] He won four Hungarian National Youth Championships.[6]

He was a member of the Hungarian fencing team in the 1928 and 1932 Olympics. Petschauer was regarded throughout the late 1920s and early 1930s as one of the world's top fencers.[7][8] Between 1925 and 1931, at the saber world championships he was three times a silver medalist and three times a bronze medalist.[9]

Olympic career

In Amsterdam in 1928 at the age of 23 he was part of the gold medal-winning Hungarian team in sabre, winning all 20 of his competition matches. In the individual sabre competition, Petschauer won the silver medal.[10][6]

In the 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, Petschauer was again part of the champion Hungarian sabre team.[6] The Hungarians won the gold medal in team sabre, and Petschauer finished 5th in individual sabre.[10]

Murder

According to legend, Petschauer was arrested by the Nazis in 1943 and sent to a forced labor camp in Davidovka, Ukraine.[11][7][12][13]

Some claimed that Petschauer was tortured and murdered under orders of a Hungarian officer, a fellow former Hungarian Olympian named Kalman Czéh, during his service in a Hungarian-Jewish Forced Labor Battalion.[14][12] A fellow inmate, Olympic champion wrestler Károly Kárpáti, recalled: “The guards shouted: ‘You, Olympic fencing medal winner . . . let’s see how you can climb trees.’ It was midwinter and bitter cold, but they ordered him to undress, then climb a tree. The amused guards ordered him to crow like a rooster, and sprayed him with water. Frozen from the water, he died shortly after.”[15][12][16][17]

A fictionalized account of his life and death were dramatised in the 1999 film Sunshine, starring Ralph Fiennes.[10][18]

Recent research by historians Csaba B. Stenge and Krisztián Ungváry show that according to the records of the Hungarian Royal Army, Petschauer died of typhus in a Soviet POW camp. [19]


Hall of Fame

He was inducted into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 1985.[14]

Memorial event

The Attila Petschauer Event was begun in 1995 as a memorial to Petschauer by his descendant, Dr. Richard Markowitz.[16] It is known across the United States as one of the top sabre events.[20]

See also

References
  1. "Attila Petschauer Olympic Results". sports-reference.com. Archived from the original on April 17, 2020. Retrieved April 27, 2010.
  2. Paul Taylor. Jews and the Olympic Games: The Clash Between Sport and Politics - With a ... Retrieved January 23, 2013.
  3. The International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame - Joseph M. Siegman
  4. Day by Day in Jewish Sports History - Bob Wechsler
  5. Encyclopedia of Jews in Sports - Bernard Postal, Jesse Silver, Roy Silver
  6. Jews in the Gym: Judaism, Sports, and Athletics
  7. Masquerade: Dancing Around Death in Nazi-occupied Hungary - Tivadar Soros
  8. Jews and the Olympic Games: the clash between sport and politics: with a ... - Paul Taylor
  9. By the Sword: A History of Gladiators, Musketeers, Samurai, Swashbucklers ... - Richard Cohen
  10. "Petschauer, Attila". Jews In Sports. Retrieved 11 March 2016.
  11. Not Just a Game - Doug Zipes
  12. In the Darkroom - Susan Faludi
  13. "Olympians Who Were Killed or Missing in Action or Died as a Result of War". Sports Reference. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 24 July 2018.
  14. "Attila Petschauer". Jewishsports.net. Retrieved April 20, 2010.
  15. Lipman, Steve (August 8, 2008). "In Attila's Memory". New York Jewish Week. Retrieved April 17, 2009.
  16. Who Betrayed the Jews?: The Realities of Nazi Persecution in the Holocaust - Agnes Grunwald-Spier
  17. Jewish Jocks: An Unorthodox Hall of Fame
  18. London, Europe and the Olympic Games: European Perspectives
  19. https://www.academia.edu/35429986/Olimpiai_%C3%A9remszerz%C5%91k_trag%C3%A9di%C3%A1ja_a_Donn%C3%A1l_Petschauer_Attila_%C3%A9s_Sz%C3%A9kely_Andr%C3%A1s_mint_zsid%C3%B3_munkaszolg%C3%A1latosok_a_magyar_2._hadseregn%C3%A9l_Tragedy_of_Olympic_Medalists_at_the_River_Don_Attila_Petschauer_and_Zolt%C3%A1n_Sz%C3%A9kely_as_Jewish_Labour_Workers_at_the_Hungarian_2nd_Army_Seregszemle_2016_1.pp.108-114_ and https://index.hu/velemeny/olvir/2013/01/23/a_munkaszolgalat_embertelen_de_tulzo_mozgo_vesztohelynek_nevezni/
  20. "fencingcenterli.com". fencingcenterli.com. Archived from the original on 2006-08-25. Retrieved April 20, 2010.
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