Hèléne Mayer was a world-class athlete and winner of Olympic, national and international medals in fencing, who struggled against Nazi racial oppression and continued to compete successfully despite intolerance . Mayer was born Helene Mayer on December 20, 1910, in Offenbach, Germany; died on October 15, 1953, in Heidelberg, Germany; daughter of Ludwig Mayer (1876–1931, a prominent Jewish physician) and Ida (Becker) Mayer (1883–1958, a Lutheran); attended public schools in Offenbach; studied international law at the University of Frankfurt, the Sorbonne, and obtained a degree in that field from Scripps College in Claremont, California; married Erwin Falkner von Sonnenburg, in 1952. Won German foil championship at age 14 (1925); won the gold medal in the Amsterdam Olympics at age 17 (1928); won World championships (1929 and 1931); expelled from the Offenbach Fencing Club for being half Jewish, excluding her from the competition (1933); won a silver medal at the Berlin Olympics (1936); won U.S. indoor championships (1934, 1935, 1937, 1938, 1939, 1941, 1942, 1946). Born on December 20, 1910, in Offenbach, Germany, Helene Mayer was the product of a mixed marriage, a common occurrence in Germany's upper-middle-class: her father Ludwig Mayer was a prominent Jewish physician, whereas her mother Ida Becker Mayer was Lutheran. Mayer enjoyed a conventional middle-class childhood in Offenbach. She was athletic and took ballet lessons, but by age nine she showed great interest in fencing and began taking lessons at the town's excellent fencing club. Her teacher was the famous "Cavaliere" Arturo Gazzera, under whose tutelage she made great progress. In 1925, at age 14, she won the German foil championship.