Gertrude Kleinová

Gertrude "Traute or Trude" Kleinová (born in Brno, Czechoslovakia; August 13, 1918 – April 9, 1976) was a three-time world champion table tennis player, winning the women's team world championship twice, and the world mixed doubles once.[1][2][3][4][5]

Traute Kleinová
Full nameGertrude Kleinová
Nickname(s)Traute and Trude
NationalityCzech
ResidenceBrno, Czechoslovakia, and the United States
Born(1918-08-13)August 13, 1918
Brno, Czechoslovakia
DiedApril 9, 1976 (aged 57)
ClubMaccabi Club of Brno
Medal record
Women's table tennis
Representing  Czechoslovakia
World Championships
1935 Wembley Team
1936 Prague Mixed Doubles
1936 Prague Team

She and her first husband were deported by the Nazis to the Theresienstadt concentration camp and eventually sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp, where her husband was killed. She was posthumously inducted into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.

Early life

Kleinová was Jewish,[1][2][6][7] and was a member of the Maccabi Club of Brno.[2]

Table tennis career

Kleinová was a member of the Czech national table tennis team that won the 1935 and 1936 Women's World Table Tennis Championships (the Corbillon Cup).[1][8] At the 1935 championships in Wembley, England, she advanced to the quarterfinals in singles, doubles, and mixed doubles.[9]

In March 1936, she also teamed with Miloslav Hamr to win the gold medal in the Mixed Doubles 10th World Table Tennis Championships in Prague. In the competition they defeated Americans Buddy Blattner and Jay Purves in the preliminaries, as they won 21–19 in the fifth game.[2][6][10][11][12]

In the Women's Doubles in 1936, Kleinová and Jindra Holoubkova-Juarez lost to Americans World Champion Ruth Aarons and Jay Purves in the quarter-finals, losing 21–19 in the fourth game.[13] In singles, she advanced as far as the round of 32.[9]

In 1937, in the Mixed Doubles at the World Table Tennis Championships in Baden, Austria, Americans Abe Berenbaum and Emily Fuller upset the defending champions Kleinová and Hamr in the round of 32, by a score of −11, −15, 5, 19, 15.[9][14] She also lost in the round of 16 in both singles and Women's Doubles.[9]

Kleinová married Jacob Schalinger, the Chairman of her table tennis division, in 1939.[1]

Concentration camps, and later life

Kleinová and her husband, as well as her coach Eric Vogel, were deported by the Nazis to the Theresienstadt concentration camp in December 1941. Each was eventually sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp.[1][2] She and Vogel survived, but her husband was killed.[1]

She later married Vogel.[1] After World War II concluded, in 1948 Kleinová and Vogel emigrated to the United States.[1][2] She died of cancer in 1976.[1]

Hall of Fame

In 1994, Kleinová was inducted into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.[1][2]

See also

References
  1. Jacov Sobovitz. "Traute Kleinova; 1918–1975". Jewish Women's Archive. Retrieved July 19, 2011.
  2. "Traute Kleinova". International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame. Retrieved July 19, 2011.
  3. "Trudy Vogel". FindaGrave. Retrieved January 8, 2015.
  4. "Trudy Vogel". Social Security Death Index. Retrieved January 8, 2015.
  5. "Trudy Vogel (obituary)". Aufbau. April 16, 1976. Retrieved January 8, 2015.
  6. Bob Wechsler (2008). Day by day in Jewish sports history. KTAV Publishing House, Inc. ISBN 978-0-88125-969-8. Retrieved July 19, 2011.
  7. Robert Slater (2000). Great Jews in sports. J. David Publishers. ISBN 9780824604332. Retrieved July 19, 2011.
  8. Czechoslovak Life. Orbis. 1986. Retrieved July 19, 2011.
  9. Kleinova Gertrude, Retrieved July 19, 2011
  10. "Table Tennis: World Championships: Mixed Doubles". Sports 123. Retrieved July 19, 2011.
  11. "World Table Tennis Championships – Gold Medals" (PDF). ITTF. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 12, 2012. Retrieved July 19, 2011.
  12. Tim Boggan (2000). "History of U.S. Table Tennis". USATT. Retrieved July 19, 2011.
  13. Tim Boggan (1999). "USA Table Tennis – USATT Hall of Fame – Ruth Hughes Aarons". USATT. Retrieved July 19, 2011.
  14. Tim Boggan (2000). "History of U.S. Table Tennis". Usatt.org. Retrieved July 19, 2011.
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