Name Janos Garay | Role Fencer | |
Died March 5, 1945, Mauthausen Concentration Camp, Austria Olympic medals Fencing at the 1928 Summer Olympics – Men\'s team sabre Similar People Attila Petschauer, Odon Tersztyanszky, Sandor Posta, Oreste Puliti, Adam Papee | ||
János Garay (February 23, 1889, in Budapest, Hungary – March 5, 1945, in Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp, Oberösterreich, Austria) was a Hungarian fencer, and one of the best sabre fencers in the world in the 1920s.
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Hungarian Championship
Garay was the Hungarian national sabre champion in 1923.
European and World Championships
In 1925 and 1930, Garay captured the Individual European Sabre Championship gold medal. He won the team sabre gold medal at the 1930 European Championships.
Olympics
He won silver medal for team saber at the 1924 Paris Olympics.
He also won a gold medal in team saber at the 1928 Amsterdam Games.
Concentration Camp and Death
He was one of 437,000 Jews deported from Hungary after Germany occupied the country in 1944.
Garay was killed shortly thereafter, in 1945, in the Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria, shortly before the end of World War II.
Janos Garay was not Jewish in religion. His parents were Jewish. He always felt very strongly Hungarian. He fought in World War I as a Captain and was highly decorated. He was part of the team who went to negotiate in England during the War before Hungary joined the Germans. He had a high position in the Office of Foreign Trade. He was on the Gestapo list and therefore immediately taken from his office, as soon the Germans occupied Budapest. He was killed not because of his race or religious beliefs but for his action. After the war he was declared as a political prisoner killed by the Germans.
Hall of Fame
Garay, who was Jewish, was inducted in 1990 into The International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame, Wingate Institute, Netanya, Israel.