SubscribeLest we forget: Henry Wittenberg
The Olympic wrestling gold medal-winner in 1948 passed away last week at the age of 91.
According to his obituary in The New York Times:
Wittenberg had been a two-time wrestling champion at the Maccabiah Games in Israel, the international competition for Jewish athletes.
He visited Jerusalem before the 1972 Munich Olympics, giving pointers to the Israeli wrestling team. On the night of Sept. 4, 1972, Wittenberg and his wife, Edith, spent time at a Munich hotel with their friend Yosef Gutfreund, an Israeli wrestling referee.
The next day, Gutfreund and 10 fellow Israelis — athletes and coaches — were killed when Palestinian terrorists invaded the Olympic village.
“The whole concept of the Games was turned upside down,” Wittenberg told Newsday 20 years later. “It was murder for political reasons. People go to war and get killed, all right. The Olympics were fun.”
Receiving the gold medal. (Olympic Foto Association)
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