The year 2024 will be a busy year sports-wise. We’ll have the UEFA Euro 2024 starting on June 14, and just over a month later on July 26—the Paris Olympic Games will start.
That’s why I wanted to remember Jewish athletes murdered during the Holocaust. However, I have done several blogs on that already, and that’s why I opted to remember a sporting hero—from the second largest group of victims during the Holocaust. When we remember one—they all are remembered.
Johann Trollmann—known by his family as “Rukeli,” a term from the Romani language (meaning tree) was born on 27 December 1907 in Wilsche, a district of Gifhorn. He grew up with his eight siblings in humble circumstances in Hanover’s Altstadt, the old part of the city.
He began boxing training at the tender age of eight. He started in the gym at the town‘s school—in Schaufelder Strasse, located in the heart of Hanover’s Nordstadt district.
He went on to make a meteoric career as a boxer. On 9 June 1933, he competed for the German light-heavyweight title, and even though he defeated his opponent Adolf Witt by points, the fight was judged “no result.” The spectators at the match rebelled, and the Nazi officials were forced to acknowledge Trollmann as the victor. However, six days later, he was stripped of the title.
Despite the championship being revoked, Trollmann’s manager was able to Despite the championship being revoked, Trollmann’s manager arranged another big match in Berlin. Before this match, Trollman was pressured to fight in an “Aryan German way.“ During the game, he should stand foot-to-foot with his opponent in the middle of the ring, and therefore, abandoning his dynamic fighting style. He felt compelled to meet these demands. He entered the ring with his hair dyed and skin powdered white. This was his way of criticising Nazis’ racial ideology. Trollmann lost the match.
Over the years 1933–1935, he fought in several other matches. However, he lost them all, or rather was forced to ‘lose’ them. Losing had been demanded by Nazi sports officials. He would fight nine more professional bouts before his licence was finally revoked, in 1935.
The persecution of Sinti and Roma in Germany dramatically increased in the following years.
Sterilization often preceded their internment in concentration camps, and Trollmann also underwent this operation. In 1939, he was drafted into the Wehrmacht and fought on the eastern front. He was wounded in 1941 and returned to Germany as a result. The Gestapo arrested him in June 1942. Shortly after, they transported him to the Neuengamme Concentration Camp near Hamburg. They murdered him in the Wittenberge Satellite Camp on April 9, 1944.
Sources
https://www.ushmm.org/exhibition/olympics/?content=holocaust_athletes
https://www.stolpersteine-berlin.de/en/fidicinstr/1-2/johann-rukeli-trollmann
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History of Sorts 
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