Helene Julie Mayer (20 December 1910 – 10 October 1953) was a German-born fencer who won the

gold medal A gold medal is a medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture. Since the eighteenth century, gold medals have be ...

at the 1928 Olympics in Amsterdam, and the

silver medal A silver medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of, or plated with, silver awarded to the second-place finisher, or runner-up, of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, et ...

at the

1936 Olympics 1936 Olympics may refer to: *The 1936 Winter Olympics, which were held in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany *The 1936 Summer Olympics The 1936 Summer Olympics (German language, German: ''Olympische Sommerspiele 1936''), officially known as the ...

in Berlin. She competed for

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

in Berlin, despite having been forced to leave Germany in 1935 and resettle in the United States because she was of

Jew Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""T ...

ish descent. She was studying in an American University and later returned to Germany in 1952 where she died of breast cancer. Mayer had been called the greatest female fencer of all time, and was named by ''

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence tw ...

'' as one of the Top 100 Female Athletes of the 20th Century, but her legacy remains clouded. At the Olympics in Berlin, where she was the only German athlete of Jewish origin to win a medal, she gave the

Nazi salute The Nazi salute, also known as the Hitler salute (german: link=no, Hitlergruß, , Hitler greeting, ; also called by the Nazi Party , 'German greeting', ), or the ''Sieg Heil'' salute, is a gesture that was used as a greeting in Nazi Germany. Th ...

during the medal ceremony and later said it might have protected her family that was still in Germany, in labor camps. Some consider her a traitor and opportunist, while others consider her a tragic figure who was used not only by Nazi Germany but by the

International Olympic Committee The International Olympic Committee (IOC; french: link=no, Comité international olympique, ''CIO'') is a non-governmental sports organisation based in Lausanne, Switzerland. It is constituted in the form of an association under the Swis ...

and the American Olympic Association to prevent a boycott of the Games. After the Olympics, she returned to the United States and became a nine-time U.S. champion. She received citizenship in 1941 but returned to Germany in 1952. Mayer died the following year, leaving few interviews and little correspondence.

Family and early life

Mayer was born in

Offenbach am Main Offenbach am Main () is a city in Hesse, Germany, on the left bank of the river Main. It borders Frankfurt and is part of the Frankfurt urban area and the larger Frankfurt Rhein-Main urban area. It has a population of 138,335 (December 2018). ...

, a suburb of Frankfurt. Her mother lda Anna Bertha (''née'' Becker) was Lutheran, and her father Ludwig Karl Mayer, a physician, was Jewish and was born in 1876. Emmanuel Mayer, her paternal great-grandfather, and Jule Weissman, his wife, were the parents of Martin Mayer, her paternal grandfather who was born in 1841 and who married Rosalie Hamburg, her paternal grandmother. Mayer was the subject of the book ''Foiled: Hitler's Jewish Olympian: the Helene Mayer Story'' (RDR Books, 2002), which focused on how "the Nazis brought Mayer home from self-imposed exile in California to be the token Jew on their team." Her birth certificate listed her as "''Israelitischen''"; as Jewish. As a child, she was called the "Jewish Mayer," to distinguish her from the "Christian Mayer", a child who lived next door to her, as was reported by the press of the time. In January 1933, the Offenbach Fencing Club rescinded her membership on the basis of new Nazi legislation banning Jews. Her ethnic identity reportedly did not become an issue until the

Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported t ...

rose to power in the early 1930s.

Fencing career

Mayer was only 13 when she won the German women's

foil Foil may refer to: Materials * Foil (metal), a quite thin sheet of metal, usually manufactured with a rolling mill machine * Metal leaf, a very thin sheet of decorative metal * Aluminium foil, a type of wrapping for food * Tin foil, metal foil ...

championship in 1924. Her technique and talent were spectacular, according to fencing experts who have seen footage of her fencing. By 1930, she had won six German championships.

Olympics

Mayer won a

in fencing at the age of 17 at the

1928 Summer Olympics The 1928 Summer Olympics ( nl, Olympische Zomerspelen 1928), officially known as the Games of the IX Olympiad ( nl, Spelen van de IXe Olympiade) and commonly known as Amsterdam 1928, was an international multi-sport event that was celebrated fro ...

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...

, representing Germany, winning 18 bouts and losing only 2. She became a national hero in Germany and was celebrated, with her photo plastered everywhere. According to a profile in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers '' The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the ...

'', "She was tall, blonde, elegant and vivacious." In 1931, her father died of a heart attack. She finished fifth at the

1932 Summer Olympics The 1932 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the X Olympiad and also known as Los Angeles 1932) were an international multi-sport event held from July 30 to August 14, 1932 in Los Angeles, California, United States. The Games were held duri ...

in Los Angeles, having learned, two hours prior to the match, that her boyfriend had died in a military training exercise in Germany. She then remained in the U.S. to study for two years as an exchange student at

Scripps College Scripps College is a private liberal arts women's college in Claremont, California. It was founded as a member of the Claremont Colleges in 1926, a year after the consortium's formation. Journalist and philanthropist Ellen Browning Scripps p ...

, earning a certificate in social work in 1934. She later studied towards a master's degree at the

University of California at Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of Californi ...

, and fenced for the USC Fencing Club. She hoped to join the German diplomatic corps. After Hitler came to power in 1933, anti-Jewish laws put in place nearly ended her career. Her membership at her German fencing club was terminated, as was her study exchange. She found work teaching German at

Mills College Mills College at Northeastern University is a private college in Oakland, California and part of Northeastern University's global university system. Mills College was founded as the Young Ladies Seminary in 1852 in Benicia, California; it w ...

Oakland, California Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third largest city overall in the ...

, and later taught at San Francisco City College. She was stripped of her citizenship in Germany in 1935 by the

Nuremberg Laws The Nuremberg Laws (german: link=no, Nürnberger Gesetze, ) were antisemitic and racist laws that were enacted in Nazi Germany on 15 September 1935, at a special meeting of the Reichstag convened during the annual Nuremberg Rally of ...

, which considered her non-German. Elek Ilona Berlin (1936)

She accepted an invitation to compete for Germany at the

1936 Summer Olympics The 1936 Summer Olympics (German: ''Olympische Sommerspiele 1936''), officially known as the Games of the XI Olympiad (German: ''Spiele der XI. Olympiade'') and commonly known as Berlin 1936 or the Nazi Olympics, were an international multi-s ...

, held in Berlin.

Joseph Goebbels Paul Joseph Goebbels (; 29 October 1897 – 1 May 1945) was a German Nazi politician who was the '' Gauleiter'' (district leader) of Berlin, chief propagandist for the Nazi Party, and then Reich Minister of Propaganda from 1933 to ...

required of the press that "no comments may be made regarding Helene Mayer's non-Aryan ancestry". She won a

in individual women's foil. She gave a Nazi salute on the podium, and later said it might have protected her family that was still in Germany, in labor camps.

International competitions

In 1928 she won the Italian national championship. She was the European champion in 1929 and 1931. She was World Foil Champion in 1929–31 and 1937.

US Championships

Ultimately, she settled in the United States and had a successful fencing career, winning the US women's foil championship 8 times from 1934–1946 (1934, 1935, 1937, 1938, 1939, 1941, 1942, and 1946).

Return to Germany and death

In 1952, Mayer returned to Germany, where she married an old friend, Erwin Falkner von Sonnenburg, in a quiet May ceremony in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and ...

. The couple moved to the hills above

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the Sw ...

before settling in

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; Palatine German: ') is a city in the German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914, of which roughly a quarter consisted of students ...

where she died of

breast cancer Breast cancer is cancer that develops from breast tissue. Signs of breast cancer may include a lump in the breast, a change in breast shape, dimpling of the skin, milk rejection, fluid coming from the nipple, a newly inverted nipple, or ...

in October 1953, two months before her 43rd birthday.

Legacy

Mayer was named one of the top 100 female athletes of the 20th century by ''

''. She was inducted into the

USFA Hall of Fame The United States Fencing Association (USFA) is the national governing body for the sport of fencing in the United States. The USFA was founded on April 22, 1891, as the Amateur Fencers League of America (AFLA) by a group of 20 New York City fenc ...

in 1963.

Accomplishments

* 1924: German Foil Champion * 1925: German Foil Champion * 1926: German Foil Champion * 1927: German Foil Champion * 1928: German Foil Champion ** Olympic gold medal, Foil, German Team ** Winner Foil, Italian National Championships * 1929: German Foil Champion ** World Foil Champion * 1930: German Foil Champion * 1931: World Foil Champion * 1932: German Olympic Foil Team * 1933: U.S. Foil Champion (outdoors) * 1934: U.S. Foil Champion * 1935: U.S. Foil Champion * 1936: Olympic silver medal, Foil, German Team * 1937: U.S. Foil Champion ** World Foil Champion * 1938: U.S. Foil Champion * 1939: U.S. Foil Champion * 1941: U.S. Foil Champion * 1942: U.S. Foil Champion * 1946: U.S. Foil Champion

References

External links

* Janet Woolum: ''Outstanding Women Athletes: Who They are and how They Influenced Sports in America'', Greenwood Publishing Group, Westport, CN, USA, 1998. S. 193.
Jews in Sports bio
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mayer, Helene 1910 births 1953 deaths Deaths from breast cancer Deaths from cancer in Germany Fencers at the 1928 Summer Olympics Fencers at the 1932 Summer Olympics Fencers at the 1936 Summer Olympics German female fencers American female foil fencers German emigrants to the United States German people of Jewish descent American people of German-Jewish descent Olympic fencers of Germany Olympic gold medalists for Germany Olympic silver medalists for Germany Olympic medalists in fencing Sportspeople from Offenbach am Main USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work alumni USC Trojans fencers Medalists at the 1928 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 1936 Summer Olympics Scripps College alumni Jewish female foil fencers