The Crosshairs of History – Endre Kabos: Fencing & Fighting For Acceptance (Part One)
His remarkable sporting career started in legendary fashion and his life ended in disaster. Endre Kabos experienced both the highest of highs and the lowest of lows, reflective of a period in Hungarian history fraught with conflict. Kabos was a Hungarian Olympic Champion fencer, he was also Jewish. This mattered a great deal during his rise to prominence during the interwar period. The prime of his fencing career coincided with the most virulent strain of anti-Semitism sweeping across Europe. Hungary was not immune, if anything the country had helped raise the infection rate by being one of the first Eastern European nations to pass discriminatory anti-Jewish laws in 1920.
The majority of Hungarian Jews ended up in the crosshairs of history and met a terrible fate during the Holocaust. Those who did not die in concentration or forced labor camps found themselves almost completely marginalized. Unless someone had luck, money or skill, in some cases they needed all three, their lives would be left on the cutting room floor. it was hard not to avoid a tragic fate. Kabos’ life offers a striking example of how fate and luck played a role in who lived and who died. Not even one of the greatest sportsmen in Hungary could avoid being blown away by the winds of an all consuming war.
The Art Of Dueling – Swords of Honor
Good fortune is one, but not the only way to explain Endre Kabos’ meteoric rise to the top of the fencing world, specifically in the sabre event, a competition that Hungarians dominated at the Olympic level for forty years. Kabos was one in a long line of Hungarian saber wielding masters that managed to take home every gold medal in the Olympics during a forty year period that stretched from 1924 to 1964. Kabos story is particularly fascinating because early in life he did not seem slated for a career in fencing. Fortune smiled on him more than once during his formative years. Kabos got a late start in the sport, more by luck than anything else. The late start is the stuff legends are made of.
As the story goes, the teenaged Kabos received a fencing outfit for his birthday from a close friend of his family. When some of his friends came across the apparel, they teased him mercilessly for being the owner of such a ridiculous costume. Kabos did not take the hazing lightly, it is said that he joined a fencing club the next day. This, coupled with preternatural ability, started his rise to fame as a fencer. A second stroke of luck soon followed due to what turned out to be an even more improbable occurrence. The story that follows has been confirmed by several historians of the sport. It involves Kabos’ father, a portly middle-aged man who got himself in a duel after an argument. Unfortunately for the elder Kabos, the man he had fallen out with was a master duelist who not only liked to disarm his opponents, but then follow it up by killing them. This did not bode well for the father.
He sought immediate assistance from master fencing coach, Italo Santelli, an Italian who had moved to Budapest many years before. Santelli had trained many Hungarian Olympic and World Champions in the saber class. He remained a legendary figure in the sport, with a reputation that preceded him. Santelli was more responsible than any single person for the superior skill level shown by an entire generation of Hungarian fencers with the saber at international competitions. His knowledge and ability to transfer that knowledge to his students was said to be unmatched. Unfortunately, for the elder Kabos his duel was to occur the day after he first engaged Santelli.
Sabering the Moment - Italo Santelli
Settling Scores – A Near Deadly Affair
The master teacher was honest with his newest student. He could hardly teach the father more than one or two moves in just a couple of hours. Nonetheless, Santelli offered some sage advice. He knew the master duelist and his fencing tactics well. Santelli believed there might be an opportunity at the beginning of the duel for the elder Kabos to strike while his opponent went to disarm him. Santelli thought it was a long shot, but worth a try. Santelli also cleverly surmised that the master duelist would be overconfident. How could he not be? His opponent was an overweight novice with a lack of experience in such deadly affairs. Little did Santelli know at the time of this first meeting, that he was cultivating a relationship with the Kabos family that provide him with one of his star pupils.
On the day of the duel, Santelli was shocked to see the father come striding in to see him. He had not only survived, but using Santelli’s tactical advice, managed to slice the hand of the master duelist entirely off. That had settled the issue once and for all time. He was enthralled with Santelli to the point that he asked the master to train his son, Endre, in wielding the saber. Santelli’s influence on the younger Kabos was profound. By the late 1920’s Endre Kabos was fulfilling his promise when he won his first major competition, the 1928 Slovakian Championships. In the years that would follow, he would become one of the greatest Hungarian fencers in history.
Fencing & Fighting For Honor & Acceptance - Endre Kabos
Gaining Acceptance – A Fight To The Finish
What would drive Endre Kabos to greatness? It would be a combination of Santelli’s coaching, natural talent and good luck. There was also another unquantifiable quality, one that should not be underestimated. A select group of Hungarian Jews, of which Endre Kabos was one, saw fencing as an opportunity to gain acceptance and prove themselves to the nation. Following Hungary’s loss in World War I, a red (communist) revolution and a nasty counter-revolution, Jews had been under attack in Hungary. Anti-semitism was no longer veiled. Whether because of or despite this, men such as Endre Kabos set out to prove themselves to their compatriots as well as sporting officials who treated them as second class citizens. This likely spurred Kabos on to greater sporting achievements, both at home and abroad in the years to come.