Lilli Henoch (26 October 1899 – 8 September 1942) was a German

track and field Track and field (or athletics in British English) is a sport that includes Competition#Sports, athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name used in North America is derived from where the sport takes place, a ru ...

athlete who set four world records and won 10 German national championships, in four different disciplines. Henoch set world records in the discus (twice), the

shot put The shot put is a track-and-field event involving "putting" (throwing) a heavy spherical Ball (sports), ball—the ''shot''—as far as possible. For men, the sport has been a part of the Olympic Games, modern Olympics since their 1896 Summer Olym ...

, and the 4 × 100 meters relay events. She also won German national championships in the shot put four times, the 4 × 100 meters relay three times, the discus twice, and the

long jump The long jump is a track and field event in which athletes combine speed, strength and agility in an attempt to leap as far as possible from a takeoff point. Along with the triple jump, the two events that measure jumping for distance as a gr ...

. She 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 ...

, and during

the Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...

she and her mother were deported and shot by the Nazis in the Riga Ghetto in September 1943.

Early life

Henoch was Jewish, and was born in

Königsberg Königsberg (; ; ; ; ; ; , ) is the historic Germany, German and Prussian name of the city now called Kaliningrad, Russia. The city was founded in 1255 on the site of the small Old Prussians, Old Prussian settlement ''Twangste'' by the Teuton ...

East Prussia East Prussia was a Provinces of Prussia, province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1772 to 1829 and again from 1878 (with the Kingdom itself being part of the German Empire from 1871); following World War I it formed part of the Weimar Republic's ...

(Germany). Her father, a businessman, died in 1912. She and her family moved to Berlin, and her mother subsequently remarried.

Track and field career

Henoch set world records in the discus,

, and—with her teammates— 4 × 100 meters relay events. Between 1922 and 1926, she won 10 German national championships: in shot put, 1922–25; discus, 1923 and 1924; long jump, 1924; and 4 × 100 meters relay, 1924–26. After World War I, Henoch joined the Berlin Sports Club (BSC), which was approximately one quarter Jewish. She missed a chance to compete in the

1924 Summer Olympics The 1924 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the VIII Olympiad () and officially branded as Paris 1924, were an international multi-sport event held in Paris, France. The opening ceremony was held on 5 July, but some competitions had al ...

, because Germany was not allowed to participate in the Games after World War I. In 1924, she trained the women's section in Bar Kochba Berlin. She was a member of the BSC hockey team, which won the Berlin Hockey Championship in 1925.

Discus

She set a world record in discus on 1 October 1922, with a distance of 24.90 meters. She bettered this on 8 July 1923, with a throw of 26.62 meters. She won the German national championship in discus in 1923 and 1924, and won the silver medal in 1925.

Long jump

In 1924, Henoch won the German Long Jump Championship, having won the bronze medal in the event the prior year.

Shot put

On 16 August 1925 Henoch set a world shot put record with a throw of 11.57 meters. She won the German national championship in shot put in 1922–25, and won the silver medal in 1921 and 1926.

4 × 100 meters relay

In 1926, she ran the first leg on a 4 × 100 meters relay world record—50.40 seconds—in

Cologne Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city pr ...

, breaking the prior record that had stood for 1,421 days by a full second. She won the German national championship in the 4 × 100 meters relay in 1924–26.

100 meter dash

In 1924, she won the silver medal at 100 meters in the German national championships.

Post-Nazi-rise disruption of career

After

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...

came to power in 1933, Henoch and all other Jews were forced to leave the membership of the BSC, by the Nazi's new race laws. She then joined the Jüdischer Turn-und Sportclub 1905 (Jewish Gymnastics and Sports Club 1905), which was limited to Jews, for which she played

team handball Handball (also known as team handball, European handball, Olympic handball or indoor handball) is a team sport in which two teams of seven players each (six outcourt players and a Handball goalkeeper, goalkeeper) pass a ball using their hands ...

and was a trainer. She also became a gymnastics teacher at a Jewish elementary school. Because she was Jewish, the German government did not allow her to participate in the

1936 Summer Olympics The 1936 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XI Olympiad () and officially branded as Berlin 1936, were an international multi-sport event held from 1 to 16 August 1936 in Berlin, then capital of Nazi Germany. Berlin won the bid to ...

Killing

The Nazi German government deported Henoch, her 66-year-old mother, and her brother to the Riga Ghetto in Nazi Germany-occupied

Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...

on 5 September 1942, during World War II. She and her mother were taken from the ghetto and shot by an ''

Einsatzgruppen (, ; also 'task forces') were (SS) paramilitary death squads of Nazi Germany that were responsible for mass murder, primarily by shooting, during World War II (1939–1945) in German-occupied Europe. The had an integral role in the imp ...

'' mobile killing unit in September 1942, along with a large number of other Jews taken from the ghetto. They were all buried in a mass grave near Riga, Latvia. Her brother Max Henoch was deported to Auschwitz on 19 April 1943. He was then sent to Langentstein Zwieberge on 9 February 1945. He starved to death there and died on April 1945.

Hall of Fame and commemoration

Henoch was inducted into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 1990. In 2008, a ''

Stolperstein A (; plural ) is a concrete cube bearing a brass plate inscribed with the name and life dates of victims of Nazi extermination or persecution. Literal translation, Literally, it means 'stumbling stone' and metaphorically 'stumbling block'. ...

'' was installed in her honor in front of her former residence in Berlin.

References

External links

"Lilli Henoch and Martha Jacob – Two Jewish Athletes in Germany Before and After 1933"
by Berno Bahroa, ''Sport in History'', Volume 30, Issue 2, pages 267–87, 2010 {{DEFAULTSORT:Henoch, Lilli 1899 births 1943 deaths Sportspeople from Königsberg Sportspeople from East Prussia Jewish German sportspeople German female shot putters German national athletics champions German female discus throwers German female long jumpers German female sprinters German female handball players 20th-century German women People who died in the Riga Ghetto German civilians killed in World War II German Jews who died in the Holocaust Violence against women in Germany People executed by Nazi Germany by firing squad 20th-century German sportswomen