Judith Haspel

[1] As a Jewish child, Deutsch was prohibited from joining most athletic clubs in Austria so she began her competitive swimming at Hakoah Vienna, a Jewish athletic club where she was soon winning swim meets and setting national records.[1] Her younger sister, Hanni Deutch Lux, who participated in the Berlin games and also swam for Hakoah, later said that during the opening ceremonies she and her Hakoah team members were greeted with "a silence filled with fear," and "felt mass hatred," concluding, "It really was one of my most horrible experiences."[2] When the Nazis later closed her swim club Hakoah around 1939 and forced its members to leave the country, Judith Deutsch emigrated to Palestine, where she competed in the Macabiah Games and became the Israeli national champion.[2] After leaving Austria, the country's sporting authorities stripped her of her titles and expunged her name from the record books.[citation needed] Haspel tells her story in Watermarks, a 2004 documentary film about the Hakoah Vienna women's swim team.
Hakoah Vienna swimmers and coach; from left: Judith Deutsch, Hedy Bienenfeld , Coach Zsigo Wertheimer, Fritzi Löwy, and Luci Goldner
AustriaVienna, AustriaHerzliya, IsraelSwimmingFreestyleHakoah ViennaHebrewViennaHerzliyaIsraelAustrianHedy BienenfeldJewish1936 Summer OlympicsRuth LangerAdolf HitlerPalestineIsraeliAustrian parliamentWatermarks