Twist, Tumble, Triumph: The Story of Champion Gymnast Agnes Keleti by Rabbis Deborah Bodin Cohen and Kerry Olitzky with illustrations by Martina Peluso; Minneapolis, Minnesota: Kar-Ben Publishing; (c) 2025; ISBN 9798765-619773; 32 pages; $18.99. Publication date: February 4, 2025.
SAN DIEGO –Ágnes Keleti had been the reigning Hungarian National Champion in gymnastics before the Hungarian government aligned itself with Nazi Germany. Hungary followed Germany’s lead in restricting Jewish life, but only after Germany invaded Hungary because it feared it might surrender to the Allies did the Nazis deport Jews to the death camps.
This book, written in simple language for children between the ages of 5 and 9, tells of Ágnes being banned from the national gymnasium because she was Jewish. In response, she secretly practiced early in the morning at an unlit, unheated high school gym with her friend Istvan Sarkany. Then when the German Nazis took over Hungary, she purchased false identity papers from a Christian woman named Piroska and fled Budapest for the countryside. She found work as a domestic in a farming village, where she kept her real identity secret from her employers, who were pro-Nazis.
Soviet troops drove the Nazis out of Hungary and Ágnes reclaimed her identity. Meanwhile, her mother and sister Vera were safe in Budapest, but her father had been arrested and later murdered at Auschwitz. Her friend Istvan survived a labor camp, resuming their friendship after the war.
An ankle injury crushed her dream of competing in the 1948 Olympics, but she was healed and ready for the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki, Finland. At 31 years old, she won a gold medal in floor exercise, going on to win a total of five gold medals and five lesser medals in the 1952 and 1956 Olympic Games, the latter of which were held in Sydney, Australia. When the Soviet Union invaded Hungary in 1956, Keleti remained in Australia, then moved to Israel where she coached gymnasts, and eventually returned to Hungary after the Soviet Union dissolved.
Besides teaching a little bit of history, the book emphasizes persistence, even in the face of adversity. The colorful, well-drawn illustrations by Martina Peluso indicate a great familiarity with exercise and gymnastics.
*
Donald H. Harrison is publisher and editor of San Diego Jewish World.