Yossef Gutfreund

Yossef Gutfreund was born in 1931 in Chișinău

Gutfreund was born in 1931 and grew up in Romania, where he took part in wrestling from a young age. After high school he studied veterinary medicine.

He immigrated to Israel with his family and settled in Jerusalem, where he worked in the electrical goods trade. He joined the Hapoel Jerusalem wrestling club and moved into refereeing. He judged at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics and at world championships in India and Bulgaria.

The organizers of the Munich Olympics invited him to serve as a referee, his third Olympics in that role. On 5 September 1972, when armed men tried to enter the Israeli quarters, he pressed his body against the door and shouted a warning. This allowed his roommate Tuvia Sokolsky to break a window and escape.

He was taken hostage and was killed on 6 September 1972 during a failed West German rescue attempt. He was buried at Har HaMenuchot in Jerusalem and left a wife and 2 daughters. In 2024 a street in Beit HaKerem, Jerusalem, was named after him.