Remembering Sacrifice: A Sports Perspective

He was was executed in a concentration camp during the war, along with Salvi, a double gold medallist in gymnastics who was murdered in Mathausen for continued anti-Nazi activities in Italy.

Perhaps the most famous dissenting voice was Austrian international footballer Matthias Sindelar, who vehemently opposed Nazi Germany's annexation of his homeland.

Obliged to play in a match designed to celebrate the Anschluss and reputedly instructed to allow the German team to win, Sindelar missed numerous chances but nevertheless scored a goal in Austria's 2-0 win.

He later retired and died with his girlfriend in mysterious circumstances at their apartment, variously the result of an accident, murder, or suicide.

Conversely, at least one athlete was killed for collaborating with his occupiers. That individual happened to be French football international Alexandre Villaplane, who became notorious for his treatment of resistance fighters. After being convicted of treason, torture, and murder, Villaplane was executed by firing squad in December 1944.

For those who decided to resist, the prospect of death was indeed a constant spectre. In Poland, the Home Army represented one of the largest organised resistance movements in occupied Europe and contained many sports people, including athlete Józef Noji and three-time Olympian skier Bronislaw Czech, who were killed in Auschwitz concentration camp, while Robert Benois, a Grand Prix motor driver and French resistance leader, was arrested in 1944 and executed at Buchenwald.

Others expressed their opposition differently but nevertheless had similar fates: cycling silver medallist Tomasz Stankiewicz was executed in Palmiry for distributing resistance literature, while footballer Antoni Lyko was killed in Auschwitz after being arrested by the Gestapo.

Various, incredulous "reasons" condemned countless sportsmen and women to their deaths in the concentration camps. Those who somehow survived could never be the same, such as retired Norwegian footballer, manager, and association secretary Asbjørn Halvorsen, who was tortured and sent to a camp because he refused to collaborate.

Those who perished witnessed and experienced unimaginable things in their final days. Victims included four of the five Dutch Jewish women and their families who won gold in the 1928 all-around team event (Estella Agsteribbe, Helena Nordheim, Ans Polak, and Jud Simons); three of the contrastingly unsuccessful men's team (Moses Jacobs, Elias Melkman, and Israel Wijnschenk); footballers Eddy Hamel (Ajax FC) and Julius Hirsch (German international); Allan Muhr, a Jewish American who represented France in its first rugby match in 1908, and became commander of the Red Cross's American military service until captured and later killed; Victor Perez, a Jewish Tunisian boxer who was shot during a death march; and Attila Petschauer, a Jewish Hungarian three-time gold and bronze medallist.

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