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Estella Blits, born Estella Agsteribbe, was an Olympic gold medalist and one of the brightest stars of the 1928 Amsterdam Games. As part of the Dutch women’s gymnastics team, she helped secure gold and became a symbol of discipline, strength, and national pride.
When Nazi Germany occupied the Netherlands, Jewish citizens were stripped of their rights, excluded from public life, and ultimately deported. Even as persecution tightened, Estella remained devoted to her family and community, carrying herself with the same resilience that had defined her athletic career.
In September 1943, she and her family were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau. She was 34 years old.
Four of the five Jewish women from the 1928 Dutch Olympic team were murdered in the Holocaust.
Estella Blits’ story is not only one of loss — but of courage, dignity, and quiet resistance in the face of hatred.

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You can watch the full documentary about Estella Blits on World History TV, in the film 'Olympic Gold Medalist in the Shadow of Nazi Auschwitz: Estella Blits’ 👉LINK in BIO 👈

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Transcript
00:00In late July 1943, Stella, her husband Samuel, and their children had been arrested in Amsterdam
00:06and incarcerated in Fucht. Some five weeks later, they were transferred to Westerbork.
00:12Built in 1939, Westerbork was first used as a refugee camp for Jews fleeing from Germany and
00:18Austria. During the Second World War, the camp was known as the Gateway to Hell. It was a transit
00:25camp to concentration camps like Auschwitz and Sobibor. In Westerbork, everything was arranged
00:31to give prisoners the impression that they would be sent to working camps in Eastern Europe.
00:35The information provided at the time was that life there would be heavy,
00:39hard, and monotonous, but it would be livable. In any case, children and families would be together.
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