Une belle gifle

In 1943, at the summit of his sports career, Alfred Nakache a Jewish Olympian swimmer challenged the Nazi's mythological theories on racial superiority. Betrayed by his closest friend who joined the Nazis, the French swimmer was deported to Auschwitz with his family. His wife and two-year old daughter were murdered upon their arrival. For Nakache, the nightmare did not end there. The Nazis practiced their superiority through their grotesque mockeries as they continuously tortured him beyond the extent of one's imagination. After living through the atrocities of the holocaust, he returned home in May of 1945. Emotionally decapitated and physically destroyed, he struggled to resolve his past, and with rage he resumed his training. In less than a year in 1946, he reclaimed his world record and passion, but he could never reclaim the lives of his wife and child. Alfred Nakache's life dramatically ended as he drowned in 1983 in the South of France, while performing his daily swim.