Kálmán Cseh

Kálmán Cseh was a professional military officer. He served as an equestrian artillery and air-defence officer in the Army. As a rider and trainer he had a reputation across Europe. He was appointed lieutenant colonel in 1939 and retired in 1943. As a professional soldier, he was an excellent rider. In 1925 he became a Hungarian champion in show jumping. He competed in the 1928 Olympics in both show jumping and military. In the latter event he fell in cross country riding but continued to ride. He was taken to hospital with a concussion, but he was still involved in the next day’s show jumping part. One of his jumps was judged illegal and he was disqualified. Cseh was a farmer from 1949 onward, although he asked for a return to the army without success.

The generally excepted story is that during World War 2 Cseh was the commandant of the Dawidowa concentration camp where his fellow Olympian Attila Petschauer was a prisoner. Petschauer was singled out by Cseh for particularly sadistic treatment. In winter he had to fetch water for the kitchen barefoot or had to sleep naked on trees with water poured over him as well as being beaten with a wire whip so severely that his spine was exposed. More recent research from Hungarian military archives has cast a little doubt on the exact details of the story as records state that Peschauer died during an outbreak of typhus that spread through the camp - rather than being tortured to death. In 1944/45 he participated in the resistance movement. The Nazis locked him up and deported him to the West.