Anna "Ans" Dresden-Polak (née Anna Polak) (24 November 1906 – 23 July 1943) was a Jewish Dutch gymnast.

She won the gold medal as a member of the Dutch gymnastics team at the 1928 Summer Olympics, in her native Amsterdam. She was one of five Jewish members of the team, which included Stella Blits-Agsteribbe (who was murdered in Auschwitz), Lea Kloot-Nordheim (who was murdered in Sobibor), and Judikje Themans-Simons (who was murdered in Sobibor). Their coach, Gerrit Kleerekoper, was murdered in Sobibor as well.

Anna Dresden-Polak

She was born in Amsterdam, and was murdered in Sobibor extermination camp. From Westerbork concentration camp, she had been deported to Sobibór, where she was murdered on 23 July 1943, together with her six-year-old daughter Eva. Her husband, Barend Dresden was murdered a few months later in 1944 in Auschwitz concentration camp.

Anna Dresden-Polak

She was inducted into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 1997.

Anna Dresden-Polak

See also

List of select Jewish gymnasts

References

Further reading

External links

Ans Polak at databaseOlympics.com

Anna Dresden-Polak commemoration, Yad Vashem website

1906 births

1943 deaths

Dutch female artistic gymnasts

Gymnasts at the 1928 Summer Olympics

Jewish gymnasts

Jewish Dutch sportspeople

Olympic gold medalists for the Netherlands

Olympic gymnasts for the Netherlands

Gymnasts from Amsterdam

Dutch people who died in Sobibor extermination camp

Dutch civilians killed in World War II

Dutch Jews who died in the Holocaust

International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame inductees

Medalists at the 1928 Summer Olympics

Olympic medalists in gymnastics

20th-century Dutch women