Germany recognizes 1936 high jump record by Jewish woman

The German Track and Field Association has restored the 1936 high jump record to a Jewish woman. Gretel Bergmann was expelled from the German Olympic track and field team for the 1936 Games in Berlin, which she joined in 1934, because she was Jewish, despite matching the then high-jump record of 1.60 meters (5 feet, 3 inches). What was then Germany’s national record that was erased from the history books by the Nazis. Bergmann, 95, fled Nazi Germany in 1937 and now lives in New York. Restoring her record was an "act of justice and a symbolic gesture of respect,"  the DLV said in a statement. She will also be honored in the German Sports Hall of Fame.

Born in Laupheim, near Ulm, Gretel Bergmann began her career in athletics in 1930 she joined Ulmer FV 1894, achieving a German high jump record in 1931 when she crossed 1.51 meters. After the Nazis' accession to power in January 1933, she was expelled from the club for being Jewish. Bergmann moved to Britain from Germany later that year to find better training conditions. The following year, she became the British high jump champion.

Noticing her success and possibly concerned she might compete for Britain in the Berlin Games, the Nazis demanded she return to Germany. "They told my father, 'Make her come back or else'. He came over himself to make clear how serious it was, as he knew I would have refused otherwise," she said. "It was terrible for Jews. We were completely outcast and I couldn't even go into a stadium as a spectator. There was no place for me to train."

Convinced her Jewishness would bar her from the German team, she said she spent two years worrying how the Nazis would stop her. "I thought they might kill me," she said. "I wanted to compete just to embarrass Adolf Hitler, just to show what a Jewish girl can do. This was to be my revenge." However, as soon as the Germans were convinced the US was not going to boycott the games, it dropped her from the team and erased any trace of her record. I know I would have won the gold. The madder I got, the better I did," she told the ‘Daily Telegraph’ newspaper.