ATHLETICS

   

NATIONAL DUTCH OF ARTISTIC GYMNASTICS The Dutch national gymnastics academy at the Amsterdam Olympics in 1928 consisted of two coaches and 12 athletes. The two coaches and five gymnasts were Jewish. The Olympic event of 1928 was the first one when women participated in gymnastics competitions and the host team dominated the event obtaining a record score of 316.75 points that allowed them to climb on the first step of the podium, beating the Italian and English national teams. For over half a century the fate of these athletes has remained unknown. It is only known that Kleerekoper died on 2nd July 1943 at Sobibor. The naziz made registration of the women's name by using their husbands surname, but the women athlets were known in the sport yearbook under their maiden name. Four of them and their coaches, were killed when the "Reinhard Aktion" took place at sobidor and Auschwitz. "Aktion Reinhard" was the name given to the extermination plan against all those jewish who lived in the accupied territories. In the framework of this operation the following extermination camps were built: Aktion Reinhard, Belzec, Sobibor and Treblinka that had the only aim of killing in the shortest possible time all the jewish arriving there. They were indeed real "death factories".