Attila Petschauer

Attila Petschauer competed at the 1928 and 1932 Olympics, winning team sabre gold both years and an individual sabre silver in 1928. At the European Championships, Petschauer won silver medals individually in 1925 and 1929, and bronze medals in 1923, 1927, and 1930. He also helped Hungary win team sabre European titles in 1930-31.

In World War II most Hungarian Jews were deported to concentration camps, but Petschauer’s status as an elite sportsman exempted him initially. In 1943 he was deported to the Davidovka concentration camp in Ukraine. The story, as it has been usually told, was that during a prisoner line-up Petschauer was called out by the commanding officer of the camp, Lt. Col. Kálmán Cseh von Szent-Katolna, who had competed in equestrian for Hungary at the 1928 Olympics. It was mid-winter and bitter cold, but the guards forced Petschauer to undress and climb a tree, and while up there, they sprayed him with freezing water. It is also said that he was beaten with a wire whip until his spine was exposed and he died shortly thereafter. This story was told in the 1999 film “Sunshine,” starring Ralph Fiennes. However, this has now been questioned as Hungarian military archives state that Petschauer died during an outbreak of typhus that spread through a Soviet POW camp.