German Olympics group condemns vandalism of Jewish memorial

The "devious" attack on the outdoor display — touring Germany since 2015 — was a "blow for the whole of German sports," said Alfons Hörmann, president of the DOSB German Olympic Sports Confederation on Thursday. 

Plexiglass figurines of Olympic gymnasts Alfred and Gustav Flatow —killed by the Nazi regime at Theresienstadt during World War Two — and champion field athlete Lilli Henoch, who was deported from Berlin and shot dead near Riga, Latvia, in 1942 — were attacked by unidentified perpetrators on Monday night in Bochum. 

Read more: German DFB football federation 'horrified' by destruction of exhibition

"We also stand in solidarity with our member associations, the DFB (German Football Federation) and Makkabi Germany (Jewish sports federation in Germany), and all those who actively promote the values of sport," insisted Hormann. 

Previously, an exhibition depiction of Walther Bensemann, a Jewish founder of German football, including the 1920 launch of its magazine Kicker, had also been damaged.

"We condemn in the strongest possible terms the insidious attacks on the important memory of our sport comrades Lilli Henoch, Alfred and Gustav Felix Flatow and Walther Bensemann," exclaimed Hörmann on Thursday. 

German Culture Minister Monika Grütters — alongside Germany's DFB, — one of the original sponsors of the exhibition, on Thursday expressed indignation:

"Such an act on the anniversary of the 1939 pogrom bears witness to a contemptuous attitude toward humanity," exclaimed Grütters. 

Bochum 'stunned' 

The mayor of Bochum, located in Germany's Ruhr District, Thomas Eiskirch, who had opened the exhibition on October 7, said on Wednesday his community was "stunned." 

"Bochum was and remains a cosmopolitan and tolerant city, in which the culture of remembrance will always have its place," said Eiskirch after the remains of the exhibition were dismantled. 

Bochum had been the 17th stop of the nationwide tour, devised by Germany's ZdS Center for Sports History based in Berlin.

Jewish stars of German sport 

Left badly damaged, the figurines featured Jewish stars in German sport until 1933, when Hitler's Nazi regime seized power, and beyond, including the fascist staging of the 1936 summer Olympics. 

Monday night's figurine destruction came as post-war Germany remembered victims of the Nazi pogrom against Jews across Germany on the night of November 9, 1938. 

Read more: Jewish club in Frankfurt holds first junior games

In 2017, the touring display's figurines were vandalized three times in one month in Frankfurt, reported the German news agency DPA.  

And two had been damaged in the central Hesse state city of Wetzlar recently. 

'Discharged' by BSC, Berlin 

Lilli Henoch was a 10-time German Champion in discus, shot put, long jump and the 4 x 100 meters sprint relay. In the 1920s, she broke four world records and was also renowned as one of then-Germany's best hockey and handball players.  

A trained physical education teacher, she was hired by the Berlin Sport-Club (BSC) in January 1933 as coach for female athletes but a few weeks later was "discharged." She and her mother were deported by train to Latvia in 1942 and perished. 

They were shot and buried in a mass grave in forest surrounding Riga, states the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.

Gymnast Alfred Flatow became Olympic Champion on the individual Parallel Bars and in the team event Parallel Bars and High Bar at Athens in 1896. 

His cousin Gustav Flatow was Olympic Champion in the team event Parallel Bars and High Bar, also at Athens in 1896.  

Alfred was killed at the Nazi Theresienstadt concentration camp in 1942 and likewise Gustav in January 1945, before the end of World War Two. 

ipj/rc (dpa, SID, AP)