Elka de Levie (21 November 1905 – 29 December 1979) was an Amsterdam-born Dutch gymnast who won the gold medal as member of the Dutch gymnastics team at the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam. She was the only Jewish team member to survive the Holocaust; her teammates Anna Dresden-Polak, Jud Simons and Helena Nordheim and coach Gerrit Kleerekoper were gassed in Sobibor, while Estella Agsteribbe was gassed in Auschwitz. The entire team was elected to the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 1997.[1]
 De Levie (second from right) with her Gold winning team (1928) | ||
| Medal record | ||
|---|---|---|
| Women's gymnastics | ||
Representing the  Netherlands
| ||
| Summer Olympics | ||
 |
1928 Amsterdam | Team |
On 31 October 1929 she married Andries Abraham Boas, with whom she had two daughters, but the couple were divorced on 20 April 1943. She and both her daughters survived the Second World War by going into hiding. Elka de Levie died in anonymity in Amsterdam on 29 December 1979.[2][3][4]
See also edit
References edit
- ^ "International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame: Netherlands 1928 Olympic Champions".
- ^ Paul Yogi Mayer, Jews and the Olympic Games (2004), p. 238
- ^ Amsterdam City Archives, [de] Levie, Elka, NL-SAA-7063393
- ^ Uzi Dann, Olympic gold could not save them from the gas chambers in Haaretz, April 8, 2013
Further reading edit
- Brouwer, Erik (2010). "De Moord op een Gouden Turnploeg". In van Liempt, Ad; Luitzen, Jan (eds.). Sport in de Oorlog (in Dutch). L.J. Veen. pp. 29–58. ISBN 978-90-204-1936-8.
External links edit
- Database Olympics profile
- Elka de Levie commemoration, Yad Vashem website
- Elka de Levie at Olympedia
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