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1928 Amsterdam | Individual sabre |
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1932 Los Angeles | Team sabre |
Attila Petschauer (December 14, 1904 – January 20, 1943) was a Hungarian Olympic fencer.
Fencing career
Born in Budapest, Petschauer was a member of the Hungarian fencing team in the 1928 and 1932 Olympics. Petschauer was regarded throughout the late 1920s and early 1930s as one of the world's top fencers.
A fencing prodigy prior to reaching his teens, Petschauer was dubbed “the new D'Artagnan" by his mentor. In 1923, barely age 19, he earned the Individual Sabre bronze medal at the European Championships.
In years that followed, he earned Individual Euro silver medals in 1925 and 1929, and bronze medals in 1927 and 1930. At the Euros of 1930 and 1931, Petschauer’s Hungary Sabre team won gold medals.
Olympic career
In Amsterdam in 1928 he was part of the gold medal-winning Hungarian team in sabre, winning all 20 of his competition matches. In the individual sabre competition, Petschauer won the silver medal, losing in a close competition to fellow Hungarian Odön Vitez Tersztyanszky.
In the 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, Petschauer was again part of the champion Hungarian sabre team, but finished 5th in the individual event.
Concentration camp and brutal death
The German occupation of Hungary at the outset of World War II resulted in the deportation of most Jews to concentration camps. But Petschauer’s reputation as a celebrated sportsman accorded him a special “document of exemption,” Nonetheless, during a routine check of identification while he was out walking, Petschauer found he had left some of his “papers” at home –– an unacceptable explanation to his Nazi inquisitor.
Shortly thereafter, he was deported to a labor camp in the Ukrainian town of Davidovka in 1943. During a line-up of prisoners, Petschauer was recognized by a military officer, Lt. Col. Kalman Cseh, who had been an equestrian competitor for Hungary in the 1928 Olympics. The two had once been friends, but Cseh exhorted camp guards to taunt his one time comrade.
Petschauer's death was brutal. Olympic champion wrestler Karoly Karpati was a fellow inmate, and witnessed Petschauer's death. He recalled: “The guards shouted: ‘You, Olympic fencing medal winner . . . let’s see how you can climb trees.’ It was midwinter and bitter cold, but they ordered him to undress, then climb a tree. The amused guards ordered him to crow like a rooster, and sprayed him with water. Frozen from the water, he died shortly after.”
Movie
Petschauer life and death were dramatised in the 1999 film Sunshine. Though the film was fiction, it incorporated real stories into the plot, and one of the three lead roles was largely based on Petschauer.
Hall of Fame
He was inducted into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 1985.