Germany restores 1936 women's high jump record to Jewish winner

[sabra]

Source: Chicago Trib/AP

NEW YORK (AP) — Gretel Bergmann matched a German high jump record on June 30, 1936.

Two weeks later, the 5 feet, 3 inches she jumped in Stuttgart, Germany, was all but obliterated and she was kicked off the team.

Bergmann was Jewish. She would miss that year's Berlin Olympics. There was no way the Nazis would allow a Jew to compete and possibly win.

Now comes news that Germany's track and field association restored the mark, calling the decision an "act of justice and a symbolic gesture" while acknowledging it "can in no way make up" for the past. It also requested that she be included in Germany's sports hall of fame.

This was all a pleasant surprise for the 95-year-old Bergmann — a victory for the strong-willed woman who later changed her name to Margaret Lambert after emigrating to the United States in 1937.

"That's very nice and I appreciate it. I couldn't repeat the jump today. Believe me," said Lambert, who lives in the New York City borough of Queens.

Read more: http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/sns-ap-ath-nazi-record,0,7908145.story

[gateley]

1. I'm so pleased she's still alive to receive the news. And so pleased Germany

did the right thing. Thanks for posting this!

[Arger68]

2. I agree, one of the nicest things I've seen in a long time. n/t

[elleng]

3. DITTO, DITTO, DITTO!!!!

[Crabby Appleton]

6. I agree completely. nt

[EFerrari]

4. Beautiful.

[COLGATE4]

5. And it only took them 73 years to get around to it!!!

[Demeter]

7. I'll Bet It Took Angela Merkel

The lady is a champ! Both of them.

[RedCloud]

8. Now how long before Obama rewards his base?

He took away our triumph when he started hiring all these conservatives after 8 years of Bush false victories.

[chollybocker]

9. Winner of Most Egregious Attempt to Link the Obama Admin with Nazi Germany.

:eyes:

[bitchkitty]

13. Get a grip.

I've got my issues with the President too, but your comment has absolutely NOTHING to do with this article.

[fujiyama]

17. Geez don't you know?

Obama is Hitler. Glen Beck and Sarah Palin told me so.

[chollybocker]

10. Great story, sabra!

Thanks. :)

[niyad]

11. thank you for sharing this--and so glad to know she is still alive to know it.

[Gormy Cuss]

12. So wonderful that she lived to see this day.

:toast:

[Hawkeye-X]

14. Two weeks ago I was reading the chronicles of the Holocaust

and there was a section about Bergmann - and was wondering if she was still living when Germany gave her honor back. It's so nice to hear that she's still alive, 70+ years since the '36 Olympics.

Hawkeye-X

[applegrove]

15. Wonderful that she is alive to get justice. Amazing she survived at all.

[kwassa]

16. the backstory is very interesting ...

Lambert, interviewed by telephone, said she was on the German Olympic team from 1934 to 1936 but had gone to England at the age of 19 in search of schooling. She won the 1934 British High Jump Championships and had hoped to compete for Britain. But the Nazis learned of her success.

She said they forced her to jump for Germany, threatening her family even though Lambert figured the Nazis would never let her partake in the Olympics. It was a political stunt meant to appease the Americans.

She found the Jews living in horrible conditions upon her return to Germany.

"Jews were not allowed in restaurants, in movies, in whatever," she told the U.S Holocaust Memorial Museum. "And even though I was a member of the German Olympic women's team, I was not allowed in a stadium. I couldn't practice."

Lambert said the treatment of the Jews angered her and made her compete harder.

"The madder I got the better I did," she recalled.

[DavidDvorkin]

19. That's strange

Why didn't they just let her stay in Britain and compete on their team? She might have won a medal for Britain, I suppose; perhaps that was part of it.

[cmkramer]

18. HBO documentary

There was one about her last year I think. I didn't realize she was still alive. But how wonderful for her that she gets acknowledgment while she' still living.

[therealbarack]

20. It took long enough

[David__77]

21. A material amends would be nice.

They should send her some money as reparations.

[Uncle Joe]

22. I'm glad she lived to see the day.

Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, sabra.:thumbsup:

[tonysam]

23. A big recommendation for this thread. n/t

[fascisthunter]

24. good!

and about time...