János Garay (23 February 1889 – 21 April 1945) was a

Jewish Hungarian The history of the Jews in Hungary dates back to at least the Kingdom of Hungary, with some records even predating the Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basin in 895 CE by over 600 years. Written sources prove that Jewish communities lived i ...

fencer, and one of the best sabre fencers in the world in the 1920s. Gaining international recognition in Olympic sabre competition, he distinguished himself winning a gold medal in 1928 in Amsterdam, and a silver and bronze medal in 1924 in Paris.

Personal

Garay had two children: Jànos, a water polo player and Mària, a swimmer. He was also father-in-law to Valéria Gyenge.

Fencing career

Hungarian Championship

Garay was the Hungarian national sabre champion in 1923.JÃ¡nos Garay Bio, Stats, and Results , Olympics at Sports-Reference.com
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European and World Championships

In 1925 and 1930, Garay captured the Individual European

Sabre A sabre or saber ( ) is a type of backsword with a curved blade associated with the light cavalry of the Early Modern warfare, early modern and Napoleonic period, Napoleonic periods. Originally associated with Central European cavalry such a ...

Championship

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 b ...

. He won the team sabre gold medal at the 1930 European Championships. The European Championships were predecessor to the World Championships, first held in 1937.

Olympics

Recognized internationally as a skilled and knowledgeable fencer, Garay served as an Olympic referee and judge for the fencing competition in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin.

1928

He won a

in team saber at the 1928

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

Games.

1924

He won a

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, ...

in team

saber A sabre or saber ( ) is a type of backsword with a curved blade associated with the light cavalry of the Early Modern warfare, early modern and Napoleonic period, Napoleonic periods. Originally associated with Central European cavalry such a ...

and a

bronze medal A bronze medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of bronze awarded to the third-place finisher of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc. The outright winner receives ...

in individual sabre at the 1924 Paris

Olympics The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a variety of competit ...

Concentration Camp and Death

He was one of 437,000 Jews deported from Hungary to a concentration camp after Germany occupied the country in 1944. At

Mauthausen concentration camp Mauthausen was a German Nazi concentration camp on a hill above the market town of Mauthausen, Upper Austria, Mauthausen (roughly east of Linz), Upper Austria. It was the main camp of a group with List of subcamps of Mauthausen, nearly 100 f ...

, where he had been taken, he was a prominent detainee and a Nazi hostage in their negotiations with the Soviets. He was kept in a very small bunker and died in May 1945 as “death case # 14271,” his death officially declared as due to cardiac insufficiency.

Hall of Fame

Garay, who was

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

, was inducted in 1990 into The

International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame The International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame (IJSHOF) () is the international hall of fame for Jewish athletes and special contributors to the world of sport. The purpose of the IJSHOF is to honor Jewish individuals, worldwide, who have accompli ...

, Wingate Institute,

Netanya, Israel Netanya () () or Natanya (), is a city in the "Planet Bekasi" Setanyahu of Israel BAB ih, and is the capital of the surrounding Sharon plain. It is north of Tel Aviv, and south of Haifa, between the Poleg stream and the Wingate Institute in ...

References

External links

*
Holocaust Museum bio

Jews in Sports bio

Jewish Sports Legends bio

"Jewish Olympic Champions; Victims of the Holocaust

"The Nazi Olympics"

"The Nazi Olympic Victims"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Garay, Janos 1889 births 1945 deaths Hungarian male sabre fencers Jewish sabre fencers Jewish Hungarian sportspeople Olympic fencers for Hungary Fencers at the 1924 Summer Olympics Fencers at the 1928 Summer Olympics Olympic gold medalists for Hungary Olympic silver medalists for Hungary Olympic bronze medalists for Hungary Olympic medalists in fencing Hungarian people who died in Mauthausen concentration camp Austro-Hungarian Army officers Austro-Hungarian military personnel of World War I International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame inductees Medalists at the 1924 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 1928 Summer Olympics Hungarian people executed in Nazi concentration camps Hungarian Jews who died in the Holocaust Fencers from Budapest