Elka de Levie

Who was Elka de Levie?

Elka de Levie was an Amsterdam born Dutch gymnast who won the gold medal as member of the Dutch gymnastics team at the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam. She was the only Jewish team member to survive the Holocaust; her team mates Anna Dresden-Polak, Jud Simons and Helena Nordheim and coach Gerrit Kleerekoper were gassed in Sobibor, while Estella Agsteribbe was gassed in Auschwitz.

On October 31, 1929 she married Andries Abraham Boas, with whom she had two daughters, but the couple were divorced on April 20, 1943. She and both her daughters survived the Second World War by going into hiding. Elka de Levie died in anonymity in Amsterdam on December 29, 1979.