Wrestlers in a time of wrestling: Hakoah in the shadow of the swastika

Danish stars in international sport from 1933-45 have become the subject of a historical dramatization on DR in 2021. Research in recent years reveals a very intense collaboration between official sports Denmark and Nazi Germany. This put the elite athletes of the time in a long series of dilemmas from the Olympics in 1936 to the outbreak of war in 1939 and throughout the occupation of Denmark from 1940-1945. Should one follow one's medal dreams or make political choices that cut across one's own sports organisations? Dilemmas that are still very current.

By Laura Hoffman Jensen

In several places in 1900s Europe, Jews were excluded from normal associational life, which was the beginning of the founding of their own parallel Jewish sporting associations. The Danish Jewish sports association Hakoah in Copenhagen was founded in 1924. Hakoah means strength in Hebrew. There was a contemporary desire to break the stereotype of the little hunchbacked Jew. Instead, they wanted to create an image of a healthy and strong muscular Jew. Hakoah was formed on the Zionist model in the form of Austrian Hakoah Vienna from 1909, which arose in a period of increasing anti-Semitism.

Sports were not something that belonged to traditional Jewish culture. But in step with the immigration to Western Europe and the USA, the sport gained an important importance both for the preservation of a Jewish identity and an acceptance from the surrounding society. The young Eastern European Jews started Danish-Jewish sports.

Abraham Kurland was a Danish Jewish wrestler who boycotted the Berlin Olympics in 1936 because of the Nazi regime's anti-Semitism and policies. Kurland was a member of Hakoah in Copenhagen and belonged to the absolute world elite in wrestling in the 1930s.

Nina Skyhøj Olsen, candidate in sports and history at the University of Copenhagen, has written a thesis on "The history of Jewish sports: An analysis of Jewish sports in Denmark 1921-1959". She concludes that Hakoah became a positive element in the integration process in Denmark at the same time that the club contributed to preserving the cultural identity of Jews. Hakoah and the Danish "muscle Jews" thereby helped promote the acceptance of immigrants in Danish society on an equal footing with ethnic Danes. Courland's history sheds a special cultural-historical light on an integration into Danish Jewishness through the body.

In the wake of Abraham Kurland's story, it is worth mentioning that he was not the only successful wrestler in the Danish Jewish sports environment. In Denmark, two wrestling families in particular were conspicuous. Courland and Leiserowitz. Both families consisted of three brothers, three wrestlers, who together represent a story of sport and integration through the body.

The brothers Herman, Kolle (called Kåle) and Jacob Leiserowitz, whose surname was later changed to Leisin, lived in a house in Prinsensgade in inner Copenhagen, like many other Eastern European Jews at the beginning of the 1900th century. The Leisin brothers' parents had fled from Latvia to Denmark in 1908-1909 due to widespread anti-Semitism in Eastern Europe. During the period, 3000 Eastern European Jews immigrated to Copenhagen, and the Jewish congregation in Copenhagen almost doubled. Most were poor workers and came to live in Copenhagen's inner city around Adelgade and Borgergade, which was then a poor neighborhood for the socially disadvantaged.

In 1926, you could go to football, handball, gymnastics, swimming and wrestling in Hakoah - but the club became especially known for its wrestlers. Herman, Kåle and Jacob Leisin were active wrestlers in the association and trained in the club at the same time as the previously mentioned big favorite Abraham and his brothers Michael and Simon Kurland.

In October 1943, the Danish Jews had to flee to Sweden, and the Danish Jewish sporting life was dissolved for a time. The local sports association in Höganäs had heard rumors that Hakoah's famous wrestlers were among the last arriving refugees. Both the brothers Kurland and Leisin became members and continued the sport in the Swedish club. Simon Kurland describes in his book "Kurland, A Jewish Sportsman in War and Postwar Time", that the Swedes showed great help to all Hakoah's wrestlers, and to his great surprise, the Swedes welcomed them with open arms. In Sweden, both families participated in rallies and large events.

After the end of the Second World War and the return of the Jews to Denmark, Hakoah was revived in October 1945. A dispute between the wrestling families arose, and the three Kurland brothers were club-wise dispersed. It was due to incidents between Herman Leisin and the Kurland brothers of such a nature that Kurland would under no circumstances share a club with Leisin. Kurland and Leisin became the old big sports profiles in Hakoah's wrestling department and now put an end to their active sports careers. Although Hakoah's results dwindled, the club's relationship with the Jewish sports festival in Israel, the Maccabiads, strengthened.

Kurland and Leisin's life as muscular Jews is a tale of sport and integration through the body. In both Denmark and Sweden, the sport helped promote acceptance of immigrants. Hakoah still exists today and now aims to spread the interest among Jewish youth to practice sports together with others with Jewish connections, as well as participate in Jewish cultural and humanitarian work.

This post was made in connection with the new TV series 'Caught in Hitler's game – Danish sports star's dilemma'. The series is based on Professor Hans Bonde's research in the books "Fodbold med fjenden" and "Oprøret i Parken" and focuses on four elite sportsmen from the period: athletics athlete Svend Aage Thomsen, swimmers Inge Sørensen and Ragnhild Hveger and wrestler Abraham Kurland. The series can be seen on both DR2 and DRTV.