Het gouden Nederlands Dames Turnteam van de Olympische spelen van 1928

Fate of victorious 1928 Dutch Olympic team uncovered

A few weeks back we remembered those who died in the Holocaust and recently I came across the story of the 1928 Dutch women’s gymnastics team, who won gold at the 1928 Olympics in Amsterdam.

For over 50 years, the fate of almost half of that team remained unknown. The 1928 Games were the first in which women participated in gymnastics events. This is the tragic tale of the team, once the Nazis occupied Europe.

The 12-woman Dutch team became local heroes after recording a score of 316,75 points to beat Italy and Great Britain for first place, one of just six golds won at the Games by the Netherlands. Five of the gymnasts, as well as their coach Gerrit Kleerekoper, were Jewish. Only one of those six survived the Holocaust. Kleerekoper made a living as a diamond cutter, but his true passion was gymnastics. He painstakingly put together a gold-medal
winning team that competed in Drill, Apparatus, and Jumps, with medals only being awarded for allround team performance. It was known that Kleerekoper died at Sobibor on July 2, 1943, but it was not until the mid-1990s that the fortunes of Estella Agsteribbe, Helena Nordheim, Anna Polak, Elka de Levie, and Judikje Simons were
finally established.

The Netherlands Olympic Committee could find no trace of them, despite many years of searching, due to the fact that the Nazis, who kept very systematic records, did not bother to include the maiden names of their  female victims. The gymnasts had all likely married after 1928. However, thanks to one relentless Dutch engineer, Fred A Lobatto, who as a schoolboy saw the 1928 Games, the fates of the five Jewish female members of the Dutch gymnastics team were finally brought to light.

Judikje Simons, later Judikje Themans-Simons, born August 20, 1904, died March 3, 1943, at Sobibor, together with her husband, Bernard, their five-year-old daughter Sonja, and their three-year-old son Leon. Simons, who ran an orphanage with her husband in Utrecht that housed 83 children, had apparently been warned that the Nazis were heading her way, and was offered a hiding place by Dutch friends. However, she had no intention of forsaking her orphans, sealing her fate, and that of almost all of the children. It is believed that Jewish gymnasts were many times the first to be rounded up by the Nazis as their excellence in what the Germans considered
the purest of sports, dispelled their belief in the supremacy of the Aryan race. 

Four months after Simons’ death, Helena Nordheim, later Helena Kloot-Nordheim, born August 1, 1903, was gassed on July 2, 1943, at Sobibor, with her husband, Abraham, and their 10-year-old daughter Rebecca. 

On the exact same day at the exact same place, Kleerekoper, born February 15, 1897, also died with his wife, Kaatje, and their 14-year-old daughter Elisabeth. His 18-year-old son Leendert died at Auschwitz on July 31, 1944.

Anna Polak, later Anna Dresden-Polak, born November 24, 1906, died July 23, 1943, at Sobibor, together with her six-year-old daughter, Eva. Her husband, Barend, died at Auschwitz on November 30, 1944. 

Estella Agsterribe, later Estella Blits-Agsterribe, born April 6, 1909, died on September 17, 1943 at Auschwitz,  together with her six-year-old daughter Nanny and two-year-old son Alfred. Her husband, Samuel Blits, died on April 28, 1944, at Auschwitz.

The only Jewish gymnast of the triumphant Amsterdam team to survive the horrors of the Holocaust was Elka de Levie, whose story of survival remains untold. She died on December 12, 1979.

Bron: Milner, Jack; South African Jewish Report, 20 mei 2011, pagina 20 (de heer Milner heeft zijn artikel mede gebaseerd op een artikel uit de Jerusalem Post).