Intocht Nederlandse Olympische ploeg 1928

Simon Paulus Olij (5 October 1900,

Landsmeer Landsmeer () is a municipality and a town in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. Population centres The municipality of Landsmeer consists of the three villages: Den Ilp, Landsmeer, Purmerland. Topography ''Dutch topographic ma ...

– 4 August 1975,

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

) was a Dutch

heavyweight Heavyweight is a weight class in combat sports and professional wrestling. Boxing Professional Boxers who weigh over are considered heavyweights by 3 of the 4 major professional boxing organizations: the International Boxing Federation, the Wo ...

boxer Boxer most commonly refers to: * Boxer (boxing), a competitor in the sport of boxing *Boxer (dog), a breed of dog Boxer or boxers may also refer to: Animal kingdom * Boxer crab * Boxer shrimp, a small group of decapod crustaceans * Boxer snipe ee ...

who attended the

1928 Summer Olympics The 1928 Summer Olympics ( nl, Olympische Zomerspelen 1928), officially known as the Games of the IX Olympiad ( nl, Spelen van de IXe Olympiade) and commonly known as Amsterdam 1928, was an international multi-sport event that was celebrated from ...

. During World War II, he was a Nazi collaborator. Olij was later sentenced to death but was reprieved and served a seven-year prison sentence.

Boxing

There he was eliminated in the quarterfinals of the men's heavyweight division by eventual gold medalist Arturo Rodríguez from

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

. His result was: (in Dutch) * Round of 16: defeated Joe Goyder (Great Britain) by decision * Quarterfinal: lost to Arturo Rodriguez (Argentina) on points

Nazi Collaborator

Olij, and his son Jan, became members of the

National Socialist Movement in the Netherlands The National Socialist Movement in the Netherlands ( nl, Nationaal-Socialistische Beweging in Nederland, ; NSB) was a Dutch fascist and later Nazi political party that called itself a " movement". As a parliamentary party participating in legisl ...

(NSB) during the

Second World War 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 opposin ...

. Olij and his son betrayed and arrested numerous Jewish people who were deported as part of

The Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...

. One of them was fellow Jewish Dutch boxing Olympian

Ben Bril Barend "Ben" Bril (16 July 1912 – 11 September 2003) was a Dutch boxer who competed in the 1928 Amsterdam Summer Olympics in Flyweight boxing, and became an accomplished European boxing referee and judge in the 1960s. Early life and career Br ...

and his family. After the war he was sentenced to death for his role in The Holocaust. However, his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment which itself was repealed. After a psychiatric assessment Olij had his sentence commuted to nine years imprisonment. He was released in June 1954. His son, Jan, while awaiting trial escaped from an internment camp in 1947 and fled to Argentina where he died in 1996.

Later life

Olij died in 1975 in Amsterdam.

References

1900 births 1975 deaths Boxers at the 1928 Summer Olympics Heavyweight boxers Olympic boxers of the Netherlands People from Landsmeer Dutch male boxers Sportspeople from North Holland {{Netherlands-boxing-bio-stub Dutch collaborators with Nazi Germany