Endre Kabos

Endre Kabos (November 5, 1906 - November 4, 1944), born in Nagyvárad, Hungary, was a Hungarian sabre fencer.

Fencing career

Kabos began fencing after receiving a fencing outfit as a birthday present. Although he hid the outfit in his wardrobe, a friend found it and teased him. The following day, he enrolled in a fencing club just to spite his friend. He went on to become one of the world's greatest fencers in the 1930s.

lovakian Championship

Kabos gained national prominence in 1928 when he won the Individual Sabre gold medal at the Slovakian Championships.

European Championships

In 1930, he took the Individual silver medal at the European Championships.

Kabos won European individual gold medals in individual sabre in 1933 and 1934; and team gold medals in 1931, 1933, 1934, and 1935. Among his teammates were Attila Petschauer and Sándor Gombos. (In 1937, the European Championships were renamed the ‘World Championships.’)

Kabos was more economically challenged than most of his top level Hungarian fencing compatriots. Following the Hungarian team’s triumph at the 1934 Europeans, Kabos retired from competition to open a grocery store. Through the good graces of a patron, however, he was able to resume his fencing career and lead Hungary to its 1935 Euro Team title (and a pair of 1936 Olympic gold medals).

Olympics

He won four Olympic medals for Hungary.

At the 1932 Los Angeles Games, he won a gold medal in the team competition. Hungary defeated the United States (13-3), Italy (9-2), and Poland (9-1) in the finals. Kabos also won the bronze medal in the individual sabre competition.

Kabos returned to the Olympics at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, and dominated the competition. He won gold medals in both the team and individual events. He won 24 of 25 matches in the individual competition. As a team, Hungary went undefeated.

Anti-Semitism

In the 1930s, anti-Semitic views pervaded fencing in Hungary. Fencing officials openly disdained Jews, even champion fencers such as Kabos. [ [http://72.14.209.104/search?q=cache:Lks1j5IBDVYJ:www.szekelyfold.org/ahea/index.php%3Fhalid%3D11%26menuid%3D402+endre+Kabos+saber+gold&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=18&gl=us Cache:Lks1j5IBDVYJ:www.szekelyfold.org/ahea/index.php?halid=11&menuid=402 endre Kabos saber gold - Google Search ] at 72.14.209.104]

Forced labour camp and death

Kabos was sent to a forced labour camp during World War II, where he was serving for at least five months.

In June 1944, Kabos was at Felsohangony, (near Ozd, Hungary) where he was in the privileged position of teaching fencing to Hungarian Army officers. From there he was transferred to Budapest, (probably due to the influence of a friendly Army officer) where he might have been staying with his relations until October 15, when the extreme Nazi Arrow-Cross took over power.

Early November he was working in Budapest where he looked after a few horses and a horsecart, a privileged position in 1944 allowing a forced labourer to move freely in Budapest. While driving his horses across the Margaret Bridge on November 4, a fault in the wiring caused a premature explosion of the dynamite prepared by the German Army to demolish all the bridges across the Danube. Kabos together with hundreds of bridge users crashed into the Danube and was presumed to have been drowned.

No news of his demise was reported at the time and the explosion was reported as gas pipes sabotaged by Communist Jews.

There are various other accounts of Kabos’ fate following Germany’s World War II occupation of Hungary, but each ends with the same outcome in the Danube.

Hall of Fame

Kabos, who was Jewish, was inducted into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 1986. [ [http://www.jewishsports.net/BioPages/EndreKabos.htm Endre Kabos ] at www.jewishsports.net]

Notes

External links

* [http://72.14.209.104/search?q=cache:iKJXY3u54ooJ:www.databaseolympics.com/players/playerpage.htm%3Filkid%3DKABOSEND01+Endre+Kabos+1906&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=5 Olympic record]
* [http://www.jewishsports.net/biopages/EndreKabos.htm Jewish Sports bio]
* [http://www.jewsinsports.org/Olympics.asp?sport=olympics&ID=44 Jews in Sports bio]
*cite book
title=Jewish Sports Legends
author=Joseph Siegman
year=2000
publisher=Brassey's
isbn=1574882848
url=http://books.google.com/books?id=lvszXWxqAR4C&pg=RA1-PA75&lpg=RA1-PA75&dq=%22jewish+sports+legends%22+allan+jay&source=web&ots=37b0Eu9H41&sig=VtctN-ReJZybhmupnjSBdU3MstE#PRA1-PA76,M1
* [http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/online/olympics/zcd070.htm Photo in Holocaust Museum]
* [http://www.bibl.u-szeged.hu/ha/sport/olimpiak/kabos_bio.html Hungarian bio]