Alojzy Ehrlich
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Alojzy "Alex" Ehrlich (1914 – 7 December 1992), also called "King of the Chiselers," was a Polish
table tennis Table tennis, also known as ping-pong and whiff-whaff, is a sport in which two or four players hit a lightweight ball, also known as the ping-pong ball, back and forth across a table using small solid rackets. It takes place on a hard table div ...
player, widely regarded as one of the best players in Polish history of this sport,
/ref> who three times won silver in the World Table Tennis Championships, World Championships. Ehrlich was ranked world No. 6 in 1938 by Hon. Ivor Montagu and world No. 9 in 1950. He was a very popular athlete in
interbellum Poland The Second Polish Republic, at the time officially known as the Republic of Poland, was a country in Central and Eastern Europe that existed between 1918 and 1939. The state was established on 6 November 1918, before the end of the First Worl ...
; in 1934 Ehrlich was placed on the 8th position in the prestigious list of 10 most popular sportsmen of Poland, made by readers of the national sports daily '' Przeglad Sportowy''.


Early years

Ehrlich was born in 1914 in the village of
Bukowsko Bukowsko (; yi, בוקאווסק, Bikofsk; uk, Буківсько, Bukivsʹko) is a village in Sanok County, Subcarpathian Voivodeship, Poland. It's in the Bukowsko Upland mountains, parish ''in loco'', located near the towns of Medzilaborce ...
in southern Poland (then part of the
Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria The Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria,, ; pl, Królestwo Galicji i Lodomerii, ; uk, Королівство Галичини та Володимирії, Korolivstvo Halychyny ta Volodymyrii; la, Rēgnum Galiciae et Lodomeriae also known as ...
, a component kingdom of
Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...
). Some time later (exact year is unknown), he settled in
Lwow Lviv ( uk, Львів) is the largest city in western Ukraine, and the seventh-largest in Ukraine, with a population of . It serves as the administrative centre of Lviv Oblast and Lviv Raion, and is one of the main cultural centres of Ukrain ...
and started playing table tennis, most probably in the mid-1920s, in the local Jewish sports club Hasmonea Lwow. Together with Hasmonea, he won first team championships of Poland (Lwow, 1933), and became the top player of the country. In 1934 Erlich and another player from Lwow,
Władysław Loewenhertz Władysław Loewenhertz was a male former Polish international table tennis player and Australian national and state table tennis champion . He won a bronze medal at the 1935 World Table Tennis Championships in the Swaythling Cup (men's team ev ...
represented Poland in an international match staged in Danzig where they defeated Germany 7:2. The same team, Erlich and Loewenherz with the addition of
Simon Pohoryles Simon Pohoryles is a male former Polish international table tennis player. He won a bronze medal at the 1935 World Table Tennis Championships in the Swaythling Cup (men's team event) with Alojzy Ehrlich and Władysław Loewenhertz for Poland. ...
, represented Poland in 1935 at the Swaithling Cup competition in London where they achieved second ranking in A Group. In the same year, Erlich reached the semifinals of the World Championships, and in 1935 he won bronze in the same competition. Three times - 1936, 1937 and 1939, Ehrlich was vice-champion of the world, and he is among only four players who played in three finals without winning (together with Hungarian
Laszlo Bellak Laszlo Bellak (February 12, 1911 – September 20, 2006) was a Hungarian and United States, American table tennis player. Table tennis career He represented Hungary 59 times in international competition. He won 21 medals at the World Championshi ...
Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...
Li Furong and
Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...
Ma Lin )(19 May 2007
Table tennis facts you need to know
/ref> In 1936 in
Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and List of cities in the Czech Republic, largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 milli ...
, he lost to Stanislav Kolar from
Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...
. In 1937 in
Baden Baden (; ) is a historical territory in South Germany, in earlier times on both sides of the Upper Rhine but since the Napoleonic Wars only East of the Rhine. History The margraves of Baden originated from the House of Zähringen. Baden i ...
, he lost to
Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
n player Richard Bergmann, and two years later in
Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the Capital city, capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, List of ...
, he lost to Bergmann again. In the early 1930s, Ehrlich, who spoke eight languages,Tim Boggan (2003
History of U.S. Table Tennis Vol II
/ref> moved to
France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...
, but remained loyal to Poland and represented his native land in subsequent tournaments.


Record-breaking exchange

During the 1936
World Table Tennis Championships The World Table Tennis Championships are table tennis competitions sanctioned by the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF). The World Championships have been held since 1926, biennially since 1957. Five individual events, which include m ...
, which took place in Prague, Ehrlich became famous after a record-breaking one-point exchange with
Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, and ...
n player Paneth Farkas. The exchange lasted two hours and 12 minutes; after 70 minutes the score was 0-0.(21 July 2002
They also serve
/ref> Both players suffered, but neither wanted to give up. Altogether, the ball crossed the net more than 12,000 times. After two hours, Farkas' arm began to freeze, and he lost the first point. The referee, Gábor Diner, had to be replaced during the match, because his neck was so sore.(21 April 2007
A quietly intriguing column from QI. This week: Table tennis
/ref>


World War II and late years

During
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
, Ehrlich was caught by the
Germans , native_name_lang = de , region1 = , pop1 = 72,650,269 , region2 = , pop2 = 534,000 , region3 = , pop3 = 157,000 3,322,405 , region4 = , pop4 = ...
and was sent to Auschwitz. He spent four years there and later at Dachau, and was saved from the gas chamber because the Nazis recognised him as a world champion. After the war, he settled in
Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...
, where for some time he lived in a tenement building, on the seventh floor. Ehrlich continued playing tennis, with several achievements. However, he did not represent Poland any more, because living in the West led to his being named '' persona non grata'' by the
Communist government A communist state, also known as a Marxist–Leninist state, is a one-party state that is administered and governed by a communist party guided by Marxism–Leninism. Marxism–Leninism was the state ideology of the Soviet Union, the Cominte ...
. Between 1952 and 1963, he was a member of the French national team, reaching the quarterfinals of the 1957 World Championships. Also, in the late 1940s and early 1950s, Ehrlich many times was international champion of such countries as
Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...
, France,
Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
and the
Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
. In the Irish Open he beat Johnny Leach in straight sets, shortly after Leach had won his first World Singles Title. For the previous 6 weeks, Erlich had been coaching Irish players, from beginners to the National Team, and must have been sorely out of top class practice. After coaching sessions, for practice, he would play his unofficial assistant Zerrick Woolfson of Dublin, giving him 12 points start. He told Woolfson that he gave the National Team members 10 points. His victory over Leach was highly gratifying to him, since he had not been able to get sponsorship from any country, and was therefore not allowed to partake in the World Championships. He was about 35 years old at this time, and considered long past his best. During this period he was also developing a sports business partnership with French Champion Amouretti. After finishing his career, Ehrlich became a coach, also developing a table tennis robot, which was presented by him in 1964 in
Malmö Malmö (, ; da, Malmø ) is the largest city in the Swedish county (län) of Scania (Skåne). It is the third-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg, and the sixth-largest city in the Nordic region, with a municipal pop ...
, Sweden.
Furthermore, Ehrlich was the one who introduced military fitness drills, based on backward hops down long staircases.Brian Cazeneuve
Spin Doctors
/ref> In the French Riviera, he opened a holiday center with table tennis training facilities. He died in a hospital in the Paris suburb of Saint Denis on 7 December 1992.


References


External links


Aloizy Ehrlich at Table Tennis Media
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ehrlich, Alojzy 1914 births 1992 deaths Polish male table tennis players 20th-century Polish Jews Jewish table tennis players Sportspeople from Lviv Auschwitz concentration camp survivors Dachau concentration camp survivors