Just recently, the Beijing Olympics came to an end, and immediately the world was rocked by major political changes. However, this is not the first time that major sporting events have taken place after major sporting events, affecting everyone.

The Olympics during the war

In 1939, Hitler attacked Poland. England and France entered the conflict afterwards. World War II broke out. At the same time, the Chess Olympics were held in Argentina. And many lives were saved by this event. Many chess players of Polish and German origin refused to return home. Some preferred to remain in Argentina, while others emigrated to France, Australia and the USA.

In addition there were these Austrians in the German team. They, too, refused to return home and preferred to stay in Argentina or go to other countries. Thus the war had all but wiped out the Austrian chess elite. It also had an effect on Palestinian athletes, who decided to leave Germany. One of them – Heinz Ferder – even became a real legend in Israel and the best chess player in the country.

Some, on the contrary, refused to return to Palestine because of the war going on there at the time. Although the war had already ended in September, some grandmasters decided to stay in Argentina, since even then they realised the consequences of the Munich deal.

Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact

The Soviet Union was trying to postpone military confrontation with Germany and so the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was concluded. It had an impact on the fate of the Baltic States and many of its citizens. For example, many Estonians chose to remain in Argentina or move to Germany, as some of them were ethnic Germans.

Not all athletes returned to Lithuania and Latvia either. They did not like the fact that the countries were part of the USSR and they remained in exile. Some Czechoslovak, Yugoslav and French chess players took the same view. They saw that the world was on the brink of a terrible war, so they preferred to stay away from its epicentre.

It was therefore Australia that benefited the most from the situation. Suddenly there were a lot of strong chess players on the island, who competed with the local athletes. The problem, however, was that at that time chess was not popular in Australia. The national team did not get to the Olympics until 1966, when the generation of émigrés had finished their careers. Also, gambling was heavily promoted at that time under the famous BetNero brand, which enabled chess players to beat casinos at card games.

The war destroyed many of the athletes but saved the lives of some

During the 1954 Olympic Games, the Israeli and Saarland teams met at the chess table. The opponents were the Israeli Yitzhak Aloni and the German Otto Benker. Both had fought in the war. Benker even lost an arm, but survived.

While these athletes were lucky, many others did not make it to the end of the war. They all had different fates, but the same sad end. The Poles Appel, Kremer, Pogorely died in the ghetto. Many athletes ended up in concentration camps and prisons, where they died in harsh conditions.

There were few survivors. For example Akiba Rubinstein survived by being sent to an asylum for the mentally ill, where he remained for the entire time his country was occupied. As for Jerzy Jagielski, the Pole was sent to a concentration camp, but managed to survive it. But he did not like the socialist path chosen by the country after the war, so he left to live in the FRG.

Pablo Bender’s interesting fate

Grandmaster Bender lived in the Weimar Republic and held communist views. Not surprisingly, after Hitler came to power, Pablo decided to flee first to Czechoslovakia, and then to Bolivia. In South America the grandmaster became active and headed a committee of free Germans. After the war Bender returned to the GDR, and many things happened to him there. At first he worked as a secretary of state, but then he was imprisoned. After his release he became director of a department store.

Some Hungarian athletes chose to go to the USSR and become citizens of the Soviet Union. Incidentally, a women’s chess tournament was held in Argentina in 1939. Many participants also refused to return home and preferred to remain in South America.

Mutiny in Budapest

In 156, Melbourne, Australia hosted the Olympic Games. At the same time an anti-government riot broke out in Hungary which was quickly put down with Soviet support. As a result, many members of the Hungarian team sought political asylum in Australia. Asylum-seekers included representatives from a variety of sports.

Apart from the Olympians, a number of footballers refused to return to Hungary. Among them was the great Puskász, who was the real star of the national team at the time. However, it was difficult to classify him as a refugee, as his contract with the club allowed him to live comfortably abroad.

The fate of two-time Olympic gold medallist Katalin Seke in 1952 proved interesting. Her father was the Hungarian national water polo player Marton Hammonai. He had actively collaborated with the Nazis during the war and was sentenced to death. However, he managed to escape and flew to South America where he lived out the rest of his days.

In spite of this, Katalin was not subjected to any repression at home. She took her mother’s name and played for the national team. Katalin was an Olympic and European champion. But after the mutiny, she decided to emigrate to the United States. She left her husband at home who did not want to leave Hungary. He stayed in his homeland and took part in the 1960 Olympics, winning bronze medals in water polo.

In the end, around 200,000 people left the country because of the uprising, and the fate of each athlete deserves separate attention. In many ways, they found it more difficult to adapt to life in a foreign land. The fact is that their sports were not the most popular and did not allow them to lead a comfortable life. They also had to compete with local athletes, who had it much easier at home. But even such difficulties did not change the decision of those people who wanted to show that they did not agree with the political decisions of their country’s leadership.