Roman Kantor

Roman Kantor (March 20, 1912 - 1943), born in Łódź, Poland, was an Polish Olympic epee fencer.

Kantor, who was one of Poland’s leading fencers, competed in the team and individual épée events at the 1936 Berlin Olympics.

Early life

Kantor was the son of Elchanan and Barbara (nee Bekier) Kantor. After finishing local primary school, he left for Paris in 1924 to continue his education. He played tennis, and was captain of the school soccer team.

Fencing career

He also started to train in fencing. Shortly after, he received 3rd place in fencing at the academic championship of Paris, and 6th place at the Open Championship of France in 1929.

He then trained in England from 1931-32 under the supervision of fencer Lefevre’a, and in Germany under the supervision of Italian coach Gatzera. In 1934 he returned to Łódź and joined the fencing section of the Army Sport Club, twice winning the team title of City Champion. In 1935 he won the title of Warsaw, and contributed to the Polish victory over Germany.

After receiving 2nd place at the Open Championship of Lvov, he was nominated a member of the Olympic delegation for the XI Olympic Games in Berlin in 1936. There, he won 7 bouts in the quarterfinals, but did not get to the finals. He did, however, contributed to receiving an 8th spot finish by the Polish team.

In December 1936 he moved to Łódzki Klub Sportowy. He was twice champion of the city, both in individual and team fencing (1938 and 1939).

He won the Nordic countries championship in 1938, and received a 2nd place in 1939 in the last Championship of Poland before the outbreak of World War II.

On May 14, 1939, he took the Olympic oath with other Łódź Olympians before the planned 1940 12th Summer Olympic Games.

When the Germans took over Poland, however, he escaped to Lvov, where in 1940, in Kharkiv, he won the Championship of the Soviet Union.

Concentration Camp & Death

When Lvov was taken over by the Germans, to escape the Nazis because he was Jewish he obtained a passport and citizenship of a South American country, and waited for a German authorities' permit to leave for a neutral country. In this time, he lived in a building at Sapieha Street. It turned out that the Germans were misleading the inhabitants of the building, and they were all later arrested and transported ion 1942 to the Majdanek concentration camp and killing center. There, Kantor was forced to do work for Ostindustrie, and was mentioned in the 1943 register of prisoners.

He died there in 1943. The Jewish Polish swimmer Ilja Szrajbman, who had also participated in the Berlin Olympics, was also killed by the Nazis that year. [cite book
title=The Olympics at the Millennium
author=Kay Schaffer, Sidonie Smith
year=2000
publisher=Rutgers University Press
isbn=0813528208
url=http://books.google.com/books?id=nMzYdZpk8qMC&pg=PA61&lpg=PA61&dq=%22roman+kantor%22+fencer&source=web&ots=Se2gfnFbFR&sig=N9eLuZz9C2DBs7yfXhPmGkxhapY]

Kantor was one of approximately 3 million Polish Jews murdered during the Holocaust.

Notes

External links

*cite book
title=The Olympics at the Millennium
author=Kay Schaffer, Sidonie Smith
year=2000
publisher=Rutgers University Press
isbn=0813528208
url=http://books.google.com/books?id=nMzYdZpk8qMC&pg=PA61&lpg=PA61&dq=%22roman+kantor%22+fencer&source=web&ots=Se2gfnFbFR&sig=N9eLuZz9C2DBs7yfXhPmGkxhapY
* [http://72.14.209.104/search?q=cache:MUzX5NbegywJ:www.ujc.org/content_display.html%3FArticleID%3D122636+%22roman+kantor%22+fencer&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=1 "The Olympics and the Holocaust," 2004]
* [http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/online/olympics/zcd078.htm Holocaust Museum bio]
* [http://72.14.209.104/search?q=cache:84_9tnk0wNYJ:www.lodzjews.com/us/k.htm+%22roman+kantor%22+fencer&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=5 Dictionary of Lodz Jews]
* [http://72.14.209.104/search?q=cache:X-V26yJpjGcJ:www2.tltc.ttu.edu/Harper/3338Sports/Study/PPNotesSP/nazi.htm+%22roman+kantor%22+fencer&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=6 "The Nazi Olympics"]