NOVEMBER 2014
Artifact of the month for November 2014
Long distance skates
Long distance skates
Abel Fischer (1920 -2011)
Abel Fischer was born in Kristiansund as one of three sons to Mendel Martin Fischer (b.1895 in Lithuania) and Bertha Bermann (b.1897 in Lithuania). Abels grandfather, Abraham Fischer (b.1867 in Lithuania) had come to Norway in 1893 and worked several years as a travelling salesman before gaining his Commerce letter in Trondheim in the autumn of 1904.
When Abel Fischer moved to the northern town of Narvik at the age of 16 he developed a keen interest in ice-skating.
His father became the accountant for the skating club. The first North Norwegian championships in speed-skating in 1938 combined junior and senior skaters. Abel ranked highest of all the juniors, coming in seventh place overall.
Abel Fischer was the only one of his family who survived the Holocaust. His parents, brothers, aunts, uncles and cousins - a total of fifteen people were all deported and killed in Auschwitz.
Read more about Abel Fischer in our new exhibition "Integration and the joy of sports".
