Kurt Epstein
Kurt Epstein (born January 29, 1904 in Roudnice nad Labem , Austria-Hungary , † February 1, 1975 in New York City ) was a Czechoslovak water polo player .
Life
Kurt Epstein grew up in a middle-class Jewish family who ran a tannery . He attended grammar school, took up the reserve officer career during his military service in 1924 and was stationed in Prague . Epstein was a good swimmer and a member of the Czechoslovak national team of water polo players. In 1928 he was a participant in the Olympic Games in Amsterdam and retired with his team in the preliminary round . Despite the German anti-Semitism and the call for a boycott by the Maccabi World Union , he also took part in the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin , his team lost to the team of National Socialist Germany and was eliminated after only one victory in the preliminary round . He comforted himself with the fact that the "negro" Jesse Owens had shown it to the racists.
During the German defeat and occupation of Czechoslovakia , he was mobilized as reserve lieutenant in Terezin . His entire family was a victim of the Holocaust . Epstein was imprisoned in the Theresienstadt ghetto , in the Auschwitz concentration camp and in a forced labor camp in Friedland (Jizera Mountains) .
After the war he married Franciska, a Prague Holocaust survivor, and had two sons and a daughter with her. He became a member of the Czechoslovak Olympic Committee for a short time , but emigrated to the USA after the communist takeover in 1948 , where he found it difficult to gain a foothold professionally.
His daughter Helen Epstein is a journalism professor and writer in New York.
literature
- Helen Epstein: The Children of the Holocaust . CH Beck, Munich 1987
- Helen Epstein: Returning , in: Naomi Berger; Alan L. Berger (Ed.): Second generation voices: reflections by children of Holocaust survivors and perpetrators . Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2001
Web links
- Helen Epstein: The House on Jan Hus Street , New York Times , November 4, 1990, accessed December 16, 2013
- Kurt Epstein in the database of Sports-Reference (English; archived from the original )
- Alan Levy: Helen Epstein: Growing Up Czech in New York , at The Prague Post, July 27, 1994
- Joe Eskenazi: A Jew, a Czech, an officer and an Olympian - no joke , Jewish news weekly of Northern California, on the homepage of Helen Epstein, March 24, 2006
Individual evidence
- ^ Helen Epstein: My Father, The Jewish Athlete , at: The Jewish Writing Project
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Epstein, Kurt |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Czechoslovak water polo player |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 29, 1904 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Roudnice nad Labem |
| DATE OF DEATH | 1st February 1975 |
| Place of death | New York City |