C6 Excluded

In 1933, the German boxer Johann Wilhelm Trollmann - known as Rukeli to his family and friends - won the German light heavyweight boxing championship against the reigning champion Adolf Witt. Because Trollmann was from a Sinti family, the judges at fi rst refused to recognise his victory and declared the result void. They then changed their minds in the face of public protest, but Trollmann was stripped of his title ten days later on the grounds of “unmanly” behaviour. He was arrested and deported to a concentration camp, where he is reported to have been made to box against an endless number of SS men. In 1944 he was murdered in Wittenberge, a sub-camp of the Neuengamme concentration camp.