Jewish high jumper honored

Germany today honoured a high jumper expelled from the national team by the Nazis a month before the 1936 Berlin Olympics because she was Jewish.

Gretel Bergmann matched a German high jump record of 5ft 3in (1.60 metres) in Stuttgart on 30 June 1936. Two weeks later, her feat was expunged from the record books and she was kicked out of the team.

Now the German authorities are making amends to the 95-year-old, who emigrated to the US in 1937 and changed her name to Margaret Lambert. . .

Today's gesture by the German authorities follows a similar move in 1995, when the Gretel Bergmann sports arena, in the Wilmersdorf area of Berlin, was dedicated. Lambert did not attend that ceremony, having said she never intended to set foot in Germany again.

Posted by David on November 24, 2009 1:46 PM