Picture by IOCHe caused a sensation when, at the age of 19, he became the first non-Scandinavian jumper to win the coveted Holmenkollen Festival title in Norway. During that triumph he showcased his distinctive jumping style, developed in conjunction with his East German team-mates and which involved him leaning forward with his arms stretched out in front of him. He followed up two years later by winning the Four Hills the prestigious competition founded in 1953 and held in front of large crowds in Garmisch-Partenkirchen Bischofshofen (GER) Oberstdorf and Innsbruck (AUT) and which remains as popular as ever today One of the best technicians of his generation Recknagel was 22 when he travelled to Squaw Valley as part of the United Team of Germany carrying the flag for his delegation at the Opening Ceremony Held before a large crowd on the final day of the Games on Squaw Valley’s K-80 hill – a cutting-edge facility opened the year before at a pre-Olympic test event – the ski jumping competition was described in the Official Report as one of the most exciting events of the 1960 Winter Olympics had seen little or no jumping competition prior to the Games,” noted the Official Report “Seeing the best performers in the world in their first look at the sport was truly a thrill for an extremely appreciative and responsive crowd.” Wearing the No44 bib and adopting his distinctive technique Recknagel soared out to 93.5m in the first round – far and away the longest jump of the competition – and he gained perfect style marks for his landing with the 19-year-old Finn Niilo Halonen lying second behind him and Nikolai Kamenskiy of the USSR and Antsen Samuletsen of the USA tied for third The competition leader then pulled out the longest jump of the second round once again gaining maximum style marks to rack up an overall points total of 227.2 and win gold by some distance from Halonen and Austria’s Otto Leodolter who leapt from sixth to third with jump of 83.5m Recknagel’s victory was the first by a non-Norwegian or Finnish jumper at the Winter Games Squaw Valley 1960 was also the last Games to feature just the one ski jumping competition as the programme for Innsbruck 1964 heralded the inclusion of both normal and large hill events Recknagel’s Olympic triumph saw him become the first non-Scandinavian athlete to win the Holmenkollen Medal which is awarded annually to the best Nordic sportsperson The East German won the Four Hills title again the following year and went on to take the 1962 large hill world title in Zakopane (POL) where he also won bronze on the normal hill He later became a member of the East German National Olympic Committee and He also went on to become a respected international ski jumping judge he published the autobiography Eine Frage der Haltung (“A Question of Posture”) This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks The action you just performed triggered the security solution There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page The German Ski Federation has named the cross-country skiers for their national cross-country ski teams for the season 2024/2025 According to a post on social media from the German Ski Federation the 19 cross-country skiers selected will be part of the German national team (Ia Team) for the upcoming season 10 cross-country skiers are women and 9 are men “Turning the page to a new season and ‘road to Trondheim!’ These cross-country teams are preparing together in the summer for the new World Cup season Motivated and full of energy we start our training together!” says the German Ski Federation post All the other German cross-country ski teams were also named, and you can find the teams and names on the linked .pdf Are you interested in other national teams around the World for season 2024/2025 Are you interested in traditional cross-country skiing? Click here to read more about it Based on information from the Babyn Yar Hol From the testimony of Nazi soldier Viktor Trill: “It is possible that on this day I shot between around 150 and 250 Jews The whole shooting went off without incident The Jews were resigned to their fate like lambs I then saw a gigantic ditch [ravine] that looked like a dried out river bed In it were lying several layers of corpses The execution began first by a few members of our Kommando going down into the ravine At the same time about 20 Jews were brought along from a connecting path The Jews had to lay down on the corpses and were then shot in the back of the neck More Jews were continually brought to be shot." BYHMC research is a signal for today:,"If you are taking any part in genocide or mass crime today against humanity you will be held accountable".- Between 29-30 September the Nazis murdered 33,771 Jewish Ukrainians in the Babyn Yar Ravine on the outskirts of Kyiv - Perpetrators have never been convicted – despite extensive testimonies gathered after the War now revealed by the Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center - Having already uncovered new information about the victims and the Massacre the Babyn Yar Memorial Center has begun compiling evidence and testimonies shedding light on the perpetrators of the crimes being released to mark the 80th anniversary of Babyn Yar - The first 159 names of Nazi Soldiers who murdered Jews in Babyn Yar released by BYHMC While the commanding officers of the Nazi units who carried out the massacre was a matter of historical record the new information uncovered by the BYHMC details the biographies and testimonies of commanders and rank and file soldiers who murdered Jewish men evidence and testimonies being submitted as late as the 1960s by some of the Nazi soldiers who carried out the murders only a few of those involved ever faced justice for their heinous crimes more than 33,771 Jewish victims were shot at the Babyn Yar ravine by the Nazis during just two days mentally ill and others were shot thereafter at Babyn Yar throughout the Nazi occupation of Kyiv The estimated number of victims murdered at Babyn Yar is around 100,000 An academic task group of the Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center set up to identify the personnel that participated in the shooting of Jews at Babyn Yar policemen and SS-personnel were complicit in the Babyn Yar Massacre To mark the 80th anniversary of the Massacre the Center has released the findings of their research into the first 159 Nazis who participated in killings from across Germany and other countries under Nazi control The vast majority of them returned to live a normal life after the War They testified at trial and were found not guilty except for very few commanders - not the soldiers who carried out the horrific massacre Head of the BYHMC Academic Council stressed that of the initial 159 names revealed others extracted the Jews from their homes others took their belongings and their luggage Others loaded the weapons while others were serving sandwiches Desbois explained the German murder protocol: a shooting shift lasted from morning until five in the evening in which thousands upon thousands were shot and from there the soldiers were taken to parties where they were served alcohol and women He noted that one of the killers described in a testimony revealed in the study how the unit was taken after the Massacre to a spa town to "recover" before returning to the front Desbois added that BYHMC research is a signal for today:,"If you are taking any part in genocide or mass crime today against humanity “Few of these men were bothered by justice after WWII,” explained Andrej Umansky Adolf Janssen and Christian Schulte were sentenced to jail time for Babyn Yar Engelbert Kreuzner was the only policeman sentenced for his participation policeman or Wehrmacht soldier was ever sentenced for his role in Babyn Yar although many admitted in post-War depositions their involvement All these men lived a calm and normal life after the War.” Here are samples of the evidence BYHMC uncovered today He studied at a folk and administrative school and worked as a municipal employee He joined the NSDAP and the SS from in 1933 and served in the SS "Adolf Hitler" later joined SS cadet school and after graduation in 1938 he was assigned to the 3rd SS standard "Thuringia" of the SS "Dead Head" formation for the position of commander he headed the 3rd Company of the 1st Battalion of the 14th SS Infantry Regiment Separate platoons of the company were distributed among the teams that took part in "Jewish actions" The first such action carried out by the company was the execution of 402 Jews in Zhytomyr on August 7 the company participated in the extermination of Kyiv's Jews forming one of the firing squads from its composition Former SS Obersturmführer August Hefner of the SD 4a Sonderkommando At a court hearing in Darmstadt on November 7 he described the participation of SS troops in the executions: "The SS troops had a section of approximately 30 meters in length Grafhorst told me that the Jews should lie down close to each other About 4-6 Jews lay down next to each other they lay down until the entire bottom was filled Others had to lie on top of the already dead Jews the SS troops carried out the executions with two firing squads The whole action was called "a shot in the back of the head" action as one defines under the "shot in the back of the head" I watched all this for some time and staggered up the plateau What else could I do if Grafhorst was there Twelve to fifteen people came from the SS troops There was the same shift in the middle of the day Grafhorst was gone in the middle of the day I heard that he went to Berlin that day to try to recall his company" during interrogation recalled that at the end of September 1941 "a whole company of young SS soldiers" arrived: "I believe that at this time there was a mass execution of the Jews in Kyiv That these SS soldiers were assigned to shoot the Jews I know from the fact that at night they raved and shouted something like "Nakolino or Nagolino!" ["On your knees!"] What this expression meant I have not witnessed the delirium of these people; comrades told me about it This SS company was here for a maximum of 8 days and then departed from Kyiv Viktor Trill (picture attached) was born on November 22 He was an electrician and later became a commercial truck driver his hometown was occupied by the Wehrmacht Soon afterwards he was invited for an interview with the Gestapo and started working for them he was assigned to Sonderkommando 4a commanded by Paul Blobel which was a subunit of Einsatzgruppe C that operated in Ukraine After arriving in Kyiv he was instructed to participate on the second day of Babyn Yar and was ordered to shoot dozens of Jews in the bottom of the ravine He was given a rest for a time before continuing Viktor Trill was among those tried for participation in the Babyn Yar mass shooting and other atrocities at Darmstadt in 1967-1968 but he was acquitted as in his case no “base motive” could be proven for his participation in the killings at that time I was part of the main Kommando I had to take part in the big shooting of Jews us members of the Kommando were loaded into a truck and driven to an area outside Kyiv I then saw a gigantic ditch [or ravine] that looked like a dried out river bed Other Security Police members sat next to the ravine and were engaged in filling the machine pistol magazines with munition More Jews were continually brought to be shot The shooters came out of the ravine and then another group of Security Police men I myself then had to work as a shooter for about 10 minutes and in this time I personally shot about 30-50 Jews I recall that men and women of various ages were shot It is possible that mothers were among them carrying their children in their arms I think that the shooting on this day went on until about 3:00 PM then we were driven back to our quarters and received lunch During the shooting on this day I had to act as a shooter five or six times It is possible that on this day I shot between around 150 and 250 Jews The Jews were resigned to their fate like lambs." He was captured by the Germans at the start of July 1941 and after about two weeks a member of the German Security Service (SD) came to interrogate him but soon he received the same uniform as the SD-men At Babyn Yar his tasks involved instructing the Jewish victims (in Russian) to take off their outer clothes and proceed to the pits he could hear shots but could not see the place of the mass shooting (see statement extract below) “I know that in Kyiv a very large shooting operation took place in which many thousands of Jews (women and children) were shot All of the Jews were herded to an area outside the city where they had to hand over their luggage and valuables at a specific point and in my view also their outer clothing at the same time I stood at this place and saw how the luggage and clothing was piled up in heaps I had to tell them to take off their outer clothing and then go on to the ravine I could hear shooting but could not see into the ravine.” Leuchtmann was assigned to cordon duty along the route leading to the shooting site He was instructed to prevent any Jews from turning back or escaping Initially he thought the Jews were being resettled On questioning during his statement on October 13 I walked in the direction of the shooting site I came within about 80 meters of it and stood on the edge of the ravine The dead were lying in rows next to each other I think I recall that they were still clothed…” About the Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center The Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Centre is a non-governmental charity whose purpose is to preserve and cultivate the memory of the Holocaust and the Babyn Yar tragedy in Ukraine by turning the Babyn Yar area into a place of remembrance under the auspices of the President of Ukraine signed a memorandum of understanding and cooperation with BYHMC The Memorial Center is currently being built in order to immortalize the stories of the 2.5 million Jews of Eastern Europe murdered and buried in mass graves near their homes during the Holocaust The Center’s mission is to honour the memory of the victims of the tragedy and to contribute to the humanization of society through preserving and studying the history of the Holocaust several memorials have been erected at the site of the Holocaust-era massacre as part of the establishment of an innovative and expansive museum complex across the whole of the Babyn Yar area The Center is being guided by public figures and leaders from around the world the chairman of the board of the Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center 159 names verified by the BYHMC Academic Unit: Josefin Eder (Müllrose) hat beim Weltcup in Baku (2.-11 Mai) ihre starke Leistung aus dem ersten Sportpistolen-Wettkampf bestätigt und erneut Bronze gewonnen Damit verwies Eder Team-Kollegin und Weltmeisterin Doreen Vennekamp auf Platz vier Ebenfalls zum zweiten Mal im Finale steht Schnellfeuerpistolenschütze Florian Peter (Obertshausen) Da beim Weltcup in Granada nur die Druckluft-Disziplinen geschossen wurde werden in Baku die Kleinkaliber-Disziplinen doppelt ausgetragen: Gut für Eder die gleich zweimal zuschlug und ihrem erstmaligen Gewinn einer Einzel-Weltcupmedaille gleich eine zweite folgen ließ Am Ende hatte sie 31 Treffer und musste sich nur dem koreanischen Duo Yang und Kim geschlagen geben Letztere stellte mit 42 Treffern einen neuen Weltrekord auf Vennekamp begann perfekt mit zehn Treffern in zwei Serien Nach einem guten Start habe ich dann leider das Niveau nicht halten können wieder in doppelter deutscher Besetzung im Finale zu stehen und freue mich dass Josi ihre Leistung bestätigen konnte.“ Im Bereich Schnellfeuerpistole erwies sich Florian Peter einmal mehr als „Bank“: Der 24-Jährige schoss sich mit 588 Ringen als Dritter in das Finale einem Koreaner und einem Tschechen zu tun bekommt Fast wäre auch Christian Reitz ein Gegner gewesen doch der Regensburger verpasste mit 585 Ringen das Finale um exakt einen Ring Lange Zeit lag Oliver Geis (583) auf Finalkurs doch ein völlig verpatzter letzter 4-Sekunden-Durchgang mit zwei Neunern und drei Achtern versaute ihm das zweite Finale in Serie Im Mixed-Wettbewerb der Skeeter spielten die zwei deutschen Duos bei der Vergabe um die Medaillen keine Rolle: Valentina Umhöfer & Tilo Schreier landeten mit 135 Treffern auf Platz 17 Eva-Tamara Reichert & Sven Korte kamen mit dem gleichen Ergebnis drei Plätze dahinter ins Ziel Pistole: Philipp Grimm (Freiberg am Neckar)