Light-heavyweight wrestler Erich Siebert won the freestyle bronze medal at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. In the final round he lost by decision (3-0) to Estonian August Neo leaving the gold medal to Swede Knut Fridell as Siebert and Neo had reached the five bad points. Two years earlier he was placed second at the Greco-Roman European Championships. In 1934 and 1943 he won the German Greco-Roman Championships and also at freestyle in 1936.
He was the great opponent of communist Werner Seelenbinder, and not only on the wrestling mat. As a trained policeman, he joined the SS early during the Nazi regime and hated Seelenbinder for his political thinking and also for his frequent losses to him as a wrestler. Siebert was deployed in the Jewish Ghetto of Litzmannstadt (nowadays Łódź in Poland) during World War II. He was later captured by the Russians at the end the war and died in a POW camp in 1947.
Germany