Farkas Paneth (23 March 1917,

Cluj Cluj-Napoca ( ; ), or simply Cluj ( , ), is a city in northwestern Romania. It is the second-most populous city in the country and the seat of Cluj County. Geographically, it is roughly equidistant from Bucharest (), Budapest () and Belgrade ( ...

Austro-Hungary Austria-Hungary, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe#Before World War I, Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military ...

– 23 June 2009, Cluj,

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

) was a Jewish-Romanian

table tennis Table tennis (also known as ping-pong) is a racket sport derived from tennis but distinguished by its playing surface being atop a stationary table, rather than the Tennis court, court on which players stand. Either individually or in teams of ...

player and coach who played for

. He started playing on a tailoring table using firewood instead of a net. As a player, he won two Romanian Cup titles, nine national champion titles in the doubles and mixed competitions, and several runner-up prizes in the individual competition. In 1936, when he was playing

Alojzy Ehrlich Alojzy "Alex" Ehrlich (1 January 1914 – 7 December 1992), also called "King of the Chiselers," was a Polish table tennis player, widely regarded as one of the best players in Polish history of this sport, who three times won silver in the ...

, a Pole, at the

1936 World Table Tennis Championships The 1936 World Table Tennis Championships were held in Prague from March 12 to March 18, 1936. The championships were criticised for the bad management and poor tables. The Lucerna Palace arena (a 4,000-seat, underground concert hall) conditions ...

in Prague, one of their exchanges lasted for two hours and twelve minutes. The Romanian team ( Viktor Vladone, Marin Vasile-Goldberger and Farkas Paneth) won a silver medal in that competition. He coached both local teams in Cluj and the Romanian national teams, many of his disciples (

Angelica Rozeanu Angelica Rozeanu (née Adelstein; 15 October 1921 – 21 February 2006) was a Romanian table tennis player of Jewish origin, the most successful female table tennis player in the history of the sport, winning the women's world singles title 6 ye ...

, Maria Alexandru, Șerban Doboși, Radu Negulescu,

Dorin Giurgiuca Dorin Giurgiuca (December 8, 1944, Mihalț, Alba County, Romania - June 4, 2013) was a Romanian international table tennis player and coach. Table tennis career Moving at a very young age with his family to Dej, he started playing table tennis ...

, etc.) winning 16 world gold medals and 32 European titles (including youth competitions). While he coached CSM Cluj, his team won the

European Club Cup of Champions The European Club Cup of Champions, often known as the European Cup or ECCC, was a table tennis Table tennis (also known as ping-pong) is a racket sport derived from tennis but distinguished by its playing surface being atop a stationary table ...

five times. A member of a rabbinical family, he managed to escape twice on the way to

concentration camp A concentration camp is a prison or other facility used for the internment of political prisoners or politically targeted demographics, such as members of national or ethnic minority groups, on the grounds of national security, or for exploitati ...

s. He was the subject of a documentary movie by

Steven Spielberg Steven Allan Spielberg ( ; born December 18, 1946) is an American filmmaker. A major figure of the New Hollywood era and pioneer of the modern blockbuster, Spielberg is widely regarded as one of the greatest film directors of all time and is ...

about the life of the Jews during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. He was an avid

stamp collector Stamp collecting is the collecting of postage stamps and related objects. It is an area of philately, which is the study (or combined study and collection) of stamps. It has been one of the world's most popular hobbies since the late nineteenth ...

Awards and honors

*"Cultural Merit" Medal for Sport, Second Class (1936) *Honored Coach (1951) *"ITTF Merit Award" (1993) *National Medal for Merit, Third Class (2000) *Honorary Citizen of Cluj *A table tennis tournament in Romania is named in his honor

Books

*''Paleta și planeta'' (with Gheorghe I. Bodea), 1997 (first edition), 2003 (second edition)

References

External links

Obituary ITTFInterview
{{DEFAULTSORT:Paneth, Farkas 1917 births 2009 deaths Sportspeople from Cluj-Napoca Jewish Romanian sportspeople Jews from Austria-Hungary Romanian male table tennis players Romanian Holocaust survivors World Table Tennis Championships medalists 20th-century Romanian sportsmen

Awards and honors

Books

See also

References

External links