Lilli Henoch

Lilli Henoch (26 October 1899 – September 1942) was a German track and field athlete who set four world records and won 10 German national championships, in four different disciplines.[1][2]

Lilli Henoch
Memorial plaque at Askanischer Platz 6, in Kreuzberg
Personal information
NationalityGerman
Born26 October 1899
Königsberg, East Prussia (Germany)
DiedSeptember 1942
Riga Ghetto, Latvia
Sport
SportTrack and field
Event(s)Discus, long jump, shot put, 4 × 100 meters relay
ClubBerlin Sports Club;
Bar Kochba Berlin
Achievements and titles
National finals
  • German national shot put champion (1922–25)
  • German national discus champion (1923 & 1924)
  • German national long jump champion (1924)
  • German national 4 × 100 meters relay champion (1924–26)
Highest world ranking
  • Discus world records (24.90 meters, 1922; 26.62 meters, 1923)
  • Shot put world record (11.57 meters, 1925)
  • 4 × 100-meters relay record (50.4 seconds, 1926)
Stolperstein in front of house at Treuchtlinger Straße 5, Berlin-Schöneberg

Henoch set world records in the discus (twice), the shot put, and the 4 × 100 meters relay events. She also won German national championships in the shot put four times, the 4 × 100 meters relay three times, the discus twice, and the long jump. She was Jewish, and during the Holocaust she and her mother were deported and shot by the Nazis.[3]

Early life

Henoch was Jewish, and was born in Königsberg, East Prussia (Germany).[1][4][5][6] Her father, a businessman, died in 1912.[6] She and her family moved to Berlin, and her mother subsequently remarried.[6]

Track and field career

Henoch set world records in the discus, shot put, and—with her teammates—4 × 100 meters relay events.[1]

Between 1922 and 1926, she won 10 German national championships: in shot put, 1922–25; discus, 1923 and 1924; long jump, 1924; and 4 × 100 meters relay, 1924–26.[1][4]

After World War I, Henoch joined the Berlin Sports Club (BSC), which was approximately one quarter Jewish.[6] She missed a chance to compete in the 1924 Summer Olympics, because Germany was not allowed to participate in the Games after World War I.[3][7] In 1924, she trained the women's section in Bar Kochba Berlin.[6] She was a member of the BSC hockey team, which won the Berlin Hockey Championship in 1925.[6]

Discus

She set a world record in discus on 1 October 1922, with a distance of 24.90 meters.[1][4] She bettered this on 8 July 1923, with a throw of 26.62 meters.[1][4] She won the German national championship in discus in 1923 and 1924, and won the silver medal in 1925.[1][4][8]

Long jump

In 1924, Henoch won the German Long Jump Championship, having won the bronze medal in the event the prior year.[6][9]

Shot put

On 16 August 1925 Henoch set a world shot put record with a throw of 11.57 meters.[1][4] She won the German national championship in shot put in 1922–25, and won the silver medal in 1921 and 1926.[1][4][10]

4 × 100 meters relay

In 1926, she ran the first leg on a 4 × 100 meters relay world record—50.40 seconds—in Cologne, breaking the prior record that had stood for 1,421 days by a full second.[1][4][6][11] She won the German national championship in the 4 × 100 meters relay in 1924–26.[1][4]

100 meter dash

In 1924, she won the silver medal at 100 meters in the German national championships.[12]

Post-Nazi-rise disruption of career

After Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933, Henoch and all other Jews were forced to leave the membership of the BSC, by the Nazi's new race laws.[6][13] She then joined the Jüdischer Turn-und Sportclub 1905 (Jewish Gymnastics and Sports Club 1905), which was limited to Jews, for which she played team handball and was a trainer.[6][13][14] She also became a gymnastics teacher at a Jewish elementary school.[14]

Because she was Jewish, the German government did not allow her to participate in the 1936 Summer Olympics.[3]

Killing

The Nazi German government deported Henoch, her 66-year-old mother, and her brother to the Riga Ghetto in Nazi Germany-occupied Latvia on 5 September 1942, during World War II.[1][3][7][13][15] She and her mother were taken from the ghetto and shot by an Einsatzgruppen mobile killing unit in September 1942, along with a large number of other Jews taken from the ghetto. They were all buried in a mass grave near Riga, Latvia.[1][2][3][4][16] Her brother disappeared, without a trace.[13]

Hall of Fame and commemoration

Henoch was inducted into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 1990.[1][17]

In 2008, a Stolperstein was installed in her honor in front of her former residence in Berlin.[13]

See also

References
  1. "Lilli Henoch". International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame. Retrieved 2 November 2011.
  2. ""Forgotten Records" – Exhibition on Jewish sports in track and field in the 1920s and 1930s". German Road Races – Ansicht. 19 June 2009. Retrieved 2 November 2011.
  3. Paul Taylor (2004). Jews and the Olympic Games: the clash between sport and politics: with a complete review of Jewish Olympic medalists. Sussex Academic Press. ISBN 978-1-903900-88-8. Retrieved 2 November 2011.
  4. Joseph M. Siegman (1992). The International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame. SP Books. ISBN 978-1-56171-028-7. Retrieved 2 November 2011.
  5. Bob Wechsler (2008). Day by day in Jewish sports history. KTAV Publishing House, Inc. ISBN 978-1-60280-013-7. Retrieved 2 November 2011.
  6. Gertrud Pfister and Toni Niewirth (Summer 1999). "Jewish Women in Gymnastics and Sport in Germany; 1898–1938" (PDF). Journal of Sport History. 26 (2). Retrieved 2 November 2011.
  7. "The Nazi Olympics: Berlin 1936 | The Holocaust; Persecution of Athletes". United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Retrieved 8 April 2016.
  8. "Athletics – German championships (Discus Throw – Women's)". www.sport-komplett.de. Retrieved 2 November 2011.
  9. "Athletics – German Championships (Long Jump – Women's)". www.sport-komplett.de. Retrieved 2 November 2011.
  10. "Athletics – German Championships (Shot Put – Women's)". www.sport-komplett.de. Retrieved 2 November 2011.
  11. "World Record Progression in Athletics: 4x100 m relay – men & women". info-mix.info. 2009. Retrieved 2 November 2011.
  12. "Athletics – German Championships (100m Women)". www.sport-komplett.de. Retrieved 2 November 2011.
  13. Simon Sturdee (8 August 2008). "Berlin ceremonies mark Olympic history's darker side". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 2 November 2011.
  14. Gertrud Pfister. "Lilli Henoch; 1899–1942". Jewish Women's Archive. Retrieved 2 November 2011.
  15. Ira Berkow (21 July 1996). "The World Outside the Stadium". The New York Times. Retrieved 2 November 2011.
  16. Lipman, Steve (6 August 2004). "The Forgotten Olympians". The Jewish Week. Retrieved 2 November 2011.
  17. Harvey Rosen (17 January 1990). "5 New Names in Jewish Hall of Fame". The Jewish Post & News. Retrieved 2 November 2011.

Further reading
  • "Lilli Henoch. Fragmente aus dem Leben einer jüdischen Sportlerin und Turnlehrerin", Ehlert, Martin-Heinz, Sozial- und Zeitgeschichte des Sports, Volume 3, Issue 2, pages 34–48, 1989
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