Judith Deutsch-Haspel Erased For Refusal

In 1935, Judith Deutsch-Haspel was Austria’s most decorated female swimmer, holding multiple national records and being named the country’s top sportswoman. When she and fellow Jewish swimmers Ruth Langer and Lucie Goldner refused to compete for Austria in the 1936 Berlin Olympics as a protest against Hitler’s regime, Austrian sports officials retaliated by erasing Deutsch-Haspel from the record books and banning her from all future competitions. Her titles and times were only officially reinstated decades later.

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