Judith Haspel

Judith Haspel was born in 1918 in Vienna

Judith Deutsch was born in Vienna in 1918 to a Zionist family. Her father, Theodor Deutsch, helped found the Hakoah Vienna sports club. Her mother, Rachel, held a doctorate in art history, and her younger sister Hanni also swam.

As a Jewish child she was barred from many Austrian sports clubs, so she swam for Hakoah Vienna. She won many titles and set Austrian freestyle records at middle and long distances. In 1935 she set 12 Austrian records and was named female athlete of the year.

In 1936 she was chosen for the Austrian team for the Berlin Olympics. She refused to go, together with swimmers Ruth Langer and Lucie Goldner, in protest of Hitler's policies. Austrian swimming officials banned her, stripped her titles and erased her records.

In 1938, after the Anschluss, she moved with her family to the Land of Israel and settled in Haifa. She won the women's national swimming title and set a 100 meter freestyle record in 1938. She married Bernard Haspel, a doctor she had met at Hakoah.

In 1995 Austrian sports officials apologized to her and restored her records. She told her story in a 2004 documentary about the Hakoah women swimmers. She died in Herzliya in 2004, and a street there and a bridge in Vienna bear her name.