Victims of WWII: Lost but Not Forgotten
Olympic Gold Medalist in the Shadow of Nazi Auschwitz: Estella Blits
14m
Estella Blits, born Estella Agsteribbe, was an Olympic gold medalist and one of the brightest stars of the 1928 Amsterdam Games. As part of the Dutch women’s gymnastics team, she helped secure gold and became a symbol of discipline, strength, and national pride.
When Nazi Germany occupied the Netherlands, Jewish citizens were stripped of their rights, excluded from public life, and ultimately deported. Even as persecution tightened, Estella remained devoted to her family and community, carrying herself with the same resilience that had defined her athletic career.
In September 1943, she and her family were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau. She was 34 years old.
Four of the five Jewish women from the 1928 Dutch Olympic team were murdered in the Holocaust.
Estella Blits’ story is not only one of loss — but of courage, dignity, and quiet resistance in the face of hatred.
Up Next in Season 1
-
Priest Who Risked His Life to Help Pr...
After Nazi Germany annexed Austria in March 1938, repression spread rapidly—and those who spoke out risked everything.
Otto Neururer, an Austrian Catholic priest, was among the few who openly rejected Nazi racial ideology and defended the dignity of all people. His stance led to his arrest and d...
-
Soviet Revenge in Germany: The Mass R...
As the Red Army pushed into the Third Reich in 1945, millions of German civilians faced a wave of terror, revenge, and violence. Fueled by years of suffering under the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union, many Soviet soldiers carried out widespread looting, killings, and the mass rape of German wom...
