View source for Jacques Ochs

{{short description|Belgian artist and fencer}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2020}}
{{MedalTop}}
{{MedalSport | Men's [[fencing at the Summer Olympics|fencing]] }}
{{MedalCountry | {{BEL}} }}
{{MedalGold  |[[1912 Summer Olympics|1912 Stockholm]] | [[Fencing at the 1912 Summer Olympics|Team epée]]}}
{{MedalBottom}}
'''Jacques Ochs''' (18 February 1883 – 3 April 1971), was a [[Jewish]] Belgian [[artist]] and Olympic fencer in the  [[épée]] style (in which he was champion) and competed in the saber, and [[Foil (fencing)|foil]] [[fencing]] categories.<ref name="Taylor2004">{{cite book |title=Jews and the Olympic Games: The Clash Between Sport and Politics – With a Complete Review of Jewish Olympic Medalists |author=Taylor, Paul |publisher=Sussex Academic Press |year=2004 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t0KzECrIQDQC&pg=PA238|isbn=978-1-903900-88-8|page=238}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.olympedia.org/athletes/21283 |title=Jacques Ochs |work=Olympedia |access-date=16 May 2021}}</ref>

==Biography==

Ochs was Jewish,<ref name="Taylor2004"/><ref>{{cite book|last=Wechsler|first=Bob|title=Day by Day in Jewish Sports History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dAq4TGQsWwwC&pg=PA192|year=2008|publisher=KTAV Publishing House, Inc.|isbn=978-0-88125-969-8|page=192}}</ref> and was born in [[Nice, France]]. His family moved to [[Liège]], [[Belgium]], in 1893.<ref name=autogenerated2>{{Cite web |url=http://www.breendonk.be/en/index.asp?ID=Artists |title=National Memorial Fort Breendonk |access-date=10 December 2021 |archive-date=22 October 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151022040356/http://www.breendonk.be/EN/index.asp?ID=Artists |url-status=dead }}</ref> He was the Belgian Champion fencer in 1912 and competed for Belgium in the [[1912 Stockholm Olympics]], winning a [[gold medal]] in the team épée event (his teammates included [[Gaston Salmon]]).<ref name="Taylor2004" /><ref name="databaseolympics">{{cite web|url=http://www.databaseolympics.com/players/playerpage.htm?ilkid=OCHSJAC01 |title=Olympics Statistics: Jacques Ochs |access-date=7 April 2010 |work=databaseolympics.com |url-status = dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120223125835/http://www.databaseolympics.com/players/playerpage.htm?ilkid=OCHSJAC01 |archive-date=23 February 2012 }}</ref> He also competed in three individual events at the same Olympics. In the individual foil and individual épée categories, he reached the 2nd round before being eliminated (he finished 39th in foil, and 29th in épée.) Ochs's final event was individual sabre, but he was eliminated in the 1st round.

Whilst pursuing a career as a professional fencer, he also worked at the newspapers "Newspaper of Liège", "Small Parisian", and "the Belgian Nation", drawing caricatures. His cartoons of personalities on the front page of the weekly ''Pourquoi Pas?'' between 1910 and 1971 made him very famous in Belgium.

During the Second World War, he was imprisoned on 17 December in the [[Fort Breendonk]] camp.<ref name="Taylor2004" /> .The Germans had a file against him containing, among other things, a caricature that appeared in an old ''Pourquoi Pas?'' newspaper and depicted a Hitler with bloody hands. He was detained in the Mechelen barracks and sentenced to death, but the German debacle saved his life.. The camp's prisoners suffered from starvation, grass eating, torture, hangings, and shootings. He survived imprisonment.<ref name="autogenerated1">[https://books.google.com/books?id=VWo4CgAAQBAJ&dq=Jacques+Ochs&pg=PA45 ''The Prisoners of Breendonk: Personal Histories from a World War II ...'' – James M. Deem]</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Concentration Camps List |url=http://www.tartanplace.com/tartanhistory/concentrationcamps.html |access-date=2022-06-09 |website=www.tartanplace.com}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=http://metmuseum.org/exhibitions/view?oid=354821 |title=Breendonck. Bagnards et Bourreaux |first=Jacques |last=Ochs |publisher=Albert Parmentier |location=Brussels |date=1947 |asin=B00179NLV8 |asin-tld=co.uk |access-date=28 September 2016}}</ref>

Ochs died in Liège in 1971, 88 years old.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.gfh.org.il/Eng/Index.asp?ArticleID=29&CategoryID=62&Page=1 |title=The GFH Mission |access-date=10 December 2021 |archive-date=30 July 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070730195519/http://gfh.org.il/Eng/Index.asp?ArticleID=29&CategoryID=62&Page=1 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

==See also==
* [[List of Jews in sports#Fencing|List of select Jewish fencers]]
*[[List of Jewish Olympic medalists]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Bibliography==
*{{cite journal |last1=Duweiz|first1=Yves|title=Victor Boin - Jacques Ochs: Deux hommes de leur temps|journal=Avions: Toute l'Aéronautique et son histoire |date=June 2000|issue=87 |pages=48–53 |trans-title=Victor Boin - Jacques Ochs: Two Men of Their Time|language=fr |issn=1243-8650}}

==External links==
{{Commons category}}
* [http://www.ulg.ac.be/wittert/fr/flori/opera/ochs/ochs_notice.html bio]
* [http://art.holocaust-education.net/explore.asp?langid=1&submenu=200&id=16 Holocaust through Art bio] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110930100938/http://art.holocaust-education.net/explore.asp?langid=1&submenu=200&id=16 |date=30 September 2011 }}
* [http://www.jewsinsports.org/Olympics.asp?sport=olympics&ID=199 Jews in Sports bio]
*{{sports links}}

{{Footer Olympic Champions Fencing Men Team Epée}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Ochs, Jacques}}
[[Category:Belgian male sabre fencers]]
[[Category:Belgian male épée fencers]]
[[Category:Belgian male foil fencers]]
[[Category:Jewish épée fencers]]
[[Category:Jewish Belgian sportspeople]]
[[Category:1971 deaths]]
[[Category:Académie Julian alumni]]
[[Category:Members of the Royal Academy of Belgium]]
[[Category:Olympic fencers for Belgium]]
[[Category:Fencers at the 1912 Summer Olympics]]
[[Category:Olympic gold medalists for Belgium]]
[[Category:Olympic medalists in fencing]]
[[Category:Belgian caricaturists]]
[[Category:Jewish caricaturists]]
[[Category:Belgian military personnel of World War I]]
[[Category:Breendonk prison camp survivors]]
[[Category:1883 births]]
[[Category:Medalists at the 1912 Summer Olympics]]
[[Category:Sportspeople from Nice]]
[[Category:Belgian Jews]]
[[Category:Belgian people of French descent]]
[[Category:20th-century Belgian painters]]
[[Category:Jewish foil fencers]]
[[Category:Jewish sabre fencers]]