Very rare gold-tone International Olympic Committee (IOC) badge of office, 67 gm, 51 mm; the front is embossed with the Olympic rings and a laurel wreath and encircled with the text: “Comite International Olympique”; and the reverse bordered with a laurel wreath and the Olympic motto, with the central plaque engraved: “1972, M. Berthold BEITZ.” The badge includes its original golden braid necklace. In fine condition.
Dr. Berthold Beitz (1913-2013) of Germany was elected as an IOC Member in 1972 and served until mandatory retirement in 1988, after which he was an Honorary Member of the IOC. During his IOC tenure he served on several commissions, and was on the Executive Board as Vice-President from 1984-88. He was on the Board of Directors for the Organizing Committee of the 1972 Munchen Olympics, and served as President of the Administrative Council for the 1972 sailing events in Kiel.
During World War II, in 1942, as commercial director of Karpaten-Oel AG in Borysław, Poland, a town now part of Ukraine, Beitz hid Jews in his home and saved hundreds from deportation trains destined for the Belzec death camp by claiming them as workers. In 1990 he was named Righteous Among Nations, an award given by Jewish groups to non-Jews who had helped save lives during the Holocaust.
