Jacques Ochs

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Jacques Ochs (18 February 1883 – 3 April 1971), was a Jewish Belgian artist and Olympic fencer in the épée style (in which he was champion) and competed in the saber, and foil fencing categories.{{cite book |title=Jews and the Olympic Games: The Clash Between Sport and Politics – With a Complete Review of Jewish Olympic Medalists |author=Taylor, Paul |publisher=Sussex Academic Press |year=2004 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t0KzECrIQDQC&pg=PA238|isbn=978-1-903900-88-8|page=238}}{{cite web|url=https://www.olympedia.org/athletes/21283 |title=Jacques Ochs |work=Olympedia |access-date=16 May 2021}}

Biography

Ochs was Jewish,{{cite book|last=Wechsler|first=Bob|title=Day by Day in Jewish Sports History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dAq4TGQsWwwC&pg=PA192|year=2008|publisher=KTAV Publishing House, Inc.|isbn=978-0-88125-969-8|page=192}} and was born in Nice, France. His family moved to Liège, Belgium, in 1893.{{Cite web |url=http://www.breendonk.be/en/index.asp?ID=Artists |title=National Memorial Fort Breendonk |access-date=10 December 2021 |archive-date=22 October 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151022040356/http://www.breendonk.be/EN/index.asp?ID=Artists |url-status=dead }} He was the Belgian Champion fencer in 1912 and competed for Belgium in the 1912 Stockholm Olympics, winning a gold medal in the team épée event (his teammates included Gaston Salmon).{{cite web|url=http://www.databaseolympics.com/players/playerpage.htm?ilkid=OCHSJAC01 |title=Olympics Statistics: Jacques Ochs |access-date=7 April 2010 |work=databaseolympics.com |url-status = dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120223125835/http://www.databaseolympics.com/players/playerpage.htm?ilkid=OCHSJAC01 |archive-date=23 February 2012 }} He also competed in three individual events at the same Olympics. In the individual foil and individual épée categories, he reached the 2nd round before being eliminated (he finished 39th in foil, and 29th in épée.) Ochs's final event was individual sabre, but he was eliminated in the 1st round.

Whilst pursuing a career as a professional fencer, he also worked at the newspapers "Newspaper of Liège", "Small Parisian", and "the Belgian Nation", drawing caricatures. His cartoons of personalities on the front page of the weekly Pourquoi Pas? between 1910 and 1971 made him very famous in Belgium.

During the Second World War, he was imprisoned on 17 December in the Fort Breendonk camp. .The Germans had a file against him containing, among other things, a caricature that appeared in an old Pourquoi Pas? newspaper and depicted a Hitler with bloody hands. He was detained in the Mechelen barracks and sentenced to death, but the German debacle saved his life.. The camp's prisoners suffered from starvation, grass eating, torture, hangings, and shootings. He survived imprisonment.[https://books.google.com/books?id=VWo4CgAAQBAJ&dq=Jacques+Ochs&pg=PA45 The Prisoners of Breendonk: Personal Histories from a World War II ... – James M. Deem]{{Cite web |title=Concentration Camps List |url=http://www.tartanplace.com/tartanhistory/concentrationcamps.html |access-date=2022-06-09 |website=www.tartanplace.com}}{{cite book |url=http://metmuseum.org/exhibitions/view?oid=354821 |title=Breendonck. Bagnards et Bourreaux |first=Jacques |last=Ochs |publisher=Albert Parmentier |location=Brussels |date=1947 |asin=B00179NLV8 |asin-tld=co.uk |access-date=28 September 2016}}

Ochs died in Liège in 1971, 88 years old.{{Cite web |url=http://www.gfh.org.il/Eng/Index.asp?ArticleID=29&CategoryID=62&Page=1 |title=The GFH Mission |access-date=10 December 2021 |archive-date=30 July 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070730195519/http://gfh.org.il/Eng/Index.asp?ArticleID=29&CategoryID=62&Page=1 |url-status=dead }}

References

Bibliography

{{cite journal |last1=Duweiz|first1=Yves|title=Victor Boin - Jacques Ochs: Deux hommes de leur temps|journal=Avions: Toute l'Aéronautique et son histoire |date=June 2000|issue=87 |pages=48–53 |trans-title=Victor Boin - Jacques Ochs: Two Men of Their Time|language=fr |issn=1243-8650}}

External links

[http://www.ulg.ac.be/wittert/fr/flori/opera/ochs/ochs_notice.html bio]
[http://art.holocaust-education.net/explore.asp?langid=1&submenu=200&id=16 Holocaust through Art bio] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110930100938/http://art.holocaust-education.net/explore.asp?langid=1&submenu=200&id=16 |date=30 September 2011 }}
[http://www.jewsinsports.org/Olympics.asp?sport=olympics&ID=199 Jews in Sports bio]
{{sports links}}

Category:Belgian male sabre fencers

Category:Belgian male épée fencers

Category:Belgian male foil fencers

Category:Jewish épée fencers

Category:Jewish Belgian sportspeople

Category:1971 deaths

Category:Académie Julian alumni

Category:Members of the Royal Academy of Belgium

Category:Olympic fencers for Belgium

Category:Fencers at the 1912 Summer Olympics

Category:Olympic gold medalists for Belgium

Category:Olympic medalists in fencing