Lenke Ziszovits-Popper (1909–1944)
Lenke Ziszovits was born in 1909 and she came to Oradea as a young girl and from the age of 14 attended the Jewish Commercial School. She had already shown her talent for tennis in Petrosani (being trained by Miss E Schlosser, who herself became the National Ladies Champion of Romania in 1928). She joined the tennis section of the Oradea Athletics Club and showed great promise as a player.
Lenke (to the left) aged 16
On leaving school in Oradea she returned to Petrosani, followed by a brief period of training and competing in tournaments in Switzerland. Aged 17, she returned to Oradea under the tutelage of coach Andor Mathe.
Oradea was one of the most successful tennis centres in Romania and had extensive facilities for playing tennis, including, it was said, the first indoor tennis courts built in Romania.
Guided by her coach she made an impact on the national scene winning silver medals in the women’s singles, women’s doubles and the mixed doubles.
Lenke with Béla von Kehrling, a star of Hungarian sports and the editor of the magazine Tennisz es Golf
Her big breakthrough came in 1930 when she became the National Ladies Champion of Romania.
She also won four Romanian national titles in women’s doubles and many tournaments around Europe, including helping Romania to win the Balkan Tennis Championships. King Carol II gave her a special sporting merit award.
She continued with her remarkable tennis success winning the National Ladies Championship again in 1932. Shortly afterwards, she married Erno Popper (a fine tennis player and coach) and she won the Championship again in 1933, this time under her married name.
They travelled extensively playing tennis across Europe and with Lenke winning cups and medals in many international events. Lenke also wrote for the Tennisz es Golf magazine.
In 1936 she won the Ladies Singles Championship at the Jewish Bar Kochba Club in Berlin, the same year that Hitler’s Summer Olympics was also held in that city.
In 1938 she again won the National Championship, but life as a Jew was becoming more difficult. The Romanian government imposed new laws which made it difficult for Jews to play a prominent part in many activities. But worse was to follow when the Second Vienna Award ceded Northern Transylvania to Hungary and from September 1940 increasingly oppressive laws were imposed upon Jews by the Hungarian administration.
Jewish sporting structures were outlawed and participation in international events was banned. Her tennis career was over.
Her husband was placed on forced labour by the Hungarian authorities. By this time in 1943 Lenke was pregnant with their child and her daughter Zsuzsi was born later that year.
Of course, everything became far worse when in March 1944 the Germans entered Hungary and the extreme measures imposed by Adolf Eichmann for the extermination of the Jews of Hungary came to pass.
In May 1944, Lenke and her young child were forced to move to the largest of the two ghettos that were established in Oradea (her husband Erno escaped this fate through being away on forced labour). After a few short weeks she and her daughter were forced inside a cattle truck which left from Rhedey Park on their deportation to Auschwitz.
It is almost certain that Lenke would have played tennis in Rhedey Park (now called Balcescu Park) as it had been a centre for tennis playing right back to the beginning of the century.
She and her daughter were murdered in Auschwitz.
Her husband returned from forced labour, still as a prisoner, and was part of a group made to clear out the empty ghetto. He found there the carry-cot left behind of his daughter and a tennis bracelet of his wife.
Asociatia Tikvah introduced the children of Oradea to the story of Lenke when in 2013 Emilia Teszler created the The Lenke Ziszovits Popper tennis competition for children. This event was played in Oradea for four years, until the lack of funding made it impossible to continue.
We think it would be appropriate for the Romanian Tennis Federation to introduce an equivalent national competition in her memory.
Similarly, we would like to see Lenke Ziszovits Popper recognised in the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.
Our grateful thanks are given to the Popper family for providing us with photos and to Stefan Maroti of the University of Oradea for his research into the tennis career of Lenke and his article Ziszovits Lenke-Popper - o jucătoare emblematică a tenisului românesc din perioada interbelică/ Palestrica Mileniului III,Vol.12,No.3 Iulie – Septembrie 2011.
Endre Kabos (1906–1944)
Endre Kabos was born in Oradea in 1906, learned how to fence in his High School and won his first championship at the age of 22 in Slovakia.
His first Olympic medal was gained in 1932 in Los Angeles when he won a bronze medal in Individual Sabre and a gold in Team Sabre. In 1936 he represented Hungary in the Berlin Olympic Games and won the gold in the Team Sabre.
Restrictions on Jews participating in sports began as World War II approached and he was prevented from pursuing his fencing career. He was sent to a forced labour camp following Germany’s occupation of Hungary, but it is said he escaped to join the Hungarian resistance.
He was killed in 1944 in an explosion on the Margit Bridge in Budapest as the German army were preparing to withdraw in front of the advancing Red Army.
Ignac Markovits
Primarily as an initiiative of Dr Ignac Markovits the Maccabi Oradea Sports Association was born in June 1921. Dr Markovits was ably supported by Bárdos Imre Váradi, dr. Odon Gábor Kohn and Rabbi Goldstein Mor.
The initial Board of the Association consisted of: President Löblé László, Executive Chairman, Andor Sonnenfeld, Vice-President Lóránd János, Secretary Polgár András, the chief of football department Morgenstern Zsigmond, notary Zoltán Lukács, cashiers dr. Imre Horváth József Manhardt, dr. Balogh, doctors dr. Vertes and dr. Goldman and storekeeper Gond Sándor.
The new organisation received the support of the Zionist cultural committee of the National Federation of Jews from Transylvania and Bana. In particular, the football team had considerable success and won the regional championship.