Tragedy struck Argentine athlete

Associated Press ^ | August 3, 2004 | Chris Sheridan

[Azzurri]

Walter Herrmann, center, has one of the more tragic stories in sports. The Argentine player lost his fiance, mother and sister in a car accident last year.

By Chris Sheridan THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

BELGRADE, Serbia-Montenegro -- Nobody going to the Athens Olympics has a sad story quite like Walter Herrmann's.

It's a horror story -- all of it true -- filled with death, grieving, resiliency and more death.

Not many people outside of Argentina and Spain have heard of Walter Herrmann, a 25-year-old, 6-foot-9 reserve forward for the South American country. He's one of only two changes to the team that won the silver medal at the 2002 World Basketball Championships -- in large part because of his ability to overcome tragedy.

On a sunny afternoon in July 2003, Herrmann lost the three most important women in his life: his fiancee, his mother and his younger sister. Exactly one year later, on a day Herrmann played one of his greatest games, his father died.

"I couldn't imagine the pain," said Argentine teammate Pepe Sanchez, a former NBA guard. "It's very tragic, and I admire him for standing up and keeping on going in life, because I don't know what I would do if that was me."

Herrmann's initial loss happened when the three women, along with a friend of his mother's and her daughter, were driving down a two-lane country road. They collided head-on with another car occupied by an older couple, and all seven people died.

"I suppose that someone fell asleep. I can't explain it at all. Nobody can," Herrmann said.

He was in the Argentine city of La Plata that day, training with the national team, and the memory of his disbelief, shock and anger remains vivid.

"I knew they were going to visit my girlfriend's family," he recalled, speaking through a translator. "That day I took a siesta and woke up at 6 in the afternoon and called my girlfriend's house. That's when I got the news about my girlfriend only. I didn't know about the others. I was choked up, and I broke everything in the hotel room."

As Herrmann drove to an airfield to take a private plane to Buenos Aires, he began making phone calls and discovered the news was far worse. Not only had the car crash claimed the life of his fiancee -- champion swimmer Maria Yanina Garrone -- it also had killed his mother, Maria Christina Heinrich, and his younger sister, Barbara.

"I got to Buenos Aires and met my other sister, and about 2 a.m., I took my car and drove 200 kilometers to the village where my girlfriend's family lived. I stayed two hours to mourn with the bodies," he said. "Everything happened so quickly, it was a crazy day and I couldn't comprehend what had happened."

At the insistence of his older sister, Herrmann returned to Spain to resume his basketball career.

"The novelty of the story made the country sad for me, and wherever we went in Argentina the press was following me. So we went to Spain, and the first three months I was very angry and had a very bad time, but after that I stuck my head up," he said. "It was complicated. You never get used to the idea that you've lost your family and your girlfriend."

Following his 2003-04 season in Spain, Herrmann returned to Argentina and tried out for the Olympic team.

"He earned his spot on this team," teammate Manu Ginobili said. "He earned a lot of respect from us."

On July 18, the one-year anniversary of his tremendous loss, he had 38 points and 11 rebounds to lead Argentina to the South American championship.

But when Herrmann returned to his hotel that night, he received word that his father had died of a heart attack.

When Herrmann was put on the Olympic team by coach Ruben Magnano, he surprised his countrymen by accepting the invitation and traveling to Europe for an exhibition tour just more than a week after his father's death.

"Now I am of the mind to look in front of me," Herrmann said, "and not behind."

[Azzurri]

Unbelievable series of tragic events for this young Argentine athlete. His team, Argentina, beat the USA men's basketball team today and will play for the gold tomorrow.

[Guillermo]

With a name like that, do you think he comes from German stock?

[Azzurri]

With a name like that, do you think he comes from German stock?

Sounds like that's possible.

Sorry to everyone about the run-on link, I must've had a broken html code in my post and accidently submitted before fixing.

[Charles Henrickson]

[L`enn]

The guy amazed me today. He looks like HHH, plays like Bill Walton. Always amazes me that our big white guys in the US are usually stiffs and every good international team has 2 guys like this who are fluid, quick and can shoot from anywhere on the floor.

[Charles Henrickson]

[Charles Henrickson]

[nerdgirl]

There are a lot of German descendants living in Argentina - where a large percentage of the people come from European ancestors, much moreso than any other country down there with the exception perhaps of Uruguay. I am not sure about the numbers of Germans, I know Buenos Aires alone is supposed to be around 40% Italian, but there are quite a few other groups who immigrated there as well.

[Hop A Long Cassidy]

I did a quick Google search and found that the immigration records show about 3 % German speaking people (German, Swiss, Austrian).

Here's a link to a historical site:

http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/1990/1/90.01.06.x.html

The government doesn't keep detailed records by ethnic categories as they feel its racist. So you have to make a guess from immigration records, or count the names in the phone book.

Hoppy

[tdadams]

It probably won't be popular to say this, but after WWII Argentina was where many former Nazi war criminals fled to, with the full cooperation and assistance of Argentina's then-president Juan Peron.

How many is anyone's guess, but estimates range up to 60,000. The two most notorious found in Argentina were Adolf Eichmann and Josef Mengele.

For further reading on this, I recommend a thoroughly documented book called The Real Odessa by Uki Goni.

[nerdgirl]

thanks for the details. Even more unpopular would be the suggestion (which I was told by some people while living down there) that the Nazi influence could actually be seen in Argentina's dirty war. I'm not sure about that, but it does sound plausible.

[Ptarmigan]

Bump
Yes, Argentina was a Nazis asylum after World War II. Argentina is a sad story. It used to a be thriving nation. Once had the seventh largest economy in the world. Today, it is in a sorry state because of Juan Peron's legacy. Argentina has a really bloated bureaucracy and corruption is rampant. It is also tolerated, liked many other Latin American nations. Back to subject, thousands of Nazis went there, many of them were French, Croatian, Belgium, Ukrainian, and Italian Nazis collaborators. The Nazis went there as early as 1943, according to Secretary of State Cordell Hull. Juan Peron was Secretary of Labor in 1943. He had sympathy for the Nazis and Fascists. When Peron became president in 1946, he helped thousands of Nazis escape with his wife Evita Peron. Adolf Eichmann, Josef Mengele, Klaus Barbie, Ante Pavelic, and Dinko Sakic to just name a few. Also, ODESSA operated in Buenos Aires. They went to Europe in a guise to promote Argentina. In reality, it was to deposit money Nazis gave to them, in Swiss Bank. Also, they picked up more Nazis war criminals to help escape. The Nazis were given Argentine passports and other papers in Spain. The Nazis escaped by using airplane or ship. Some did escape by submarine and landed in Buenos Aires or Patagonia. The Nazis fled to Argentina mostly went to Buenos Aires, Tucuman, Bariloche, or the Tri-Border region. Later, when Peron was overthrown in 1955, some Nazis left Argentina to go to Paraguay, Uruguay, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Peru, Ecuador, and Venezuela. Some even went to the Middle East, like Egypt. As of today, I would suspect some of them are alive and likely are funding terrorist groups. I have heard of Muslim terrorists operating in the Tri-Border area of South America, which is a popular Nazis hiding place. Nazis gold and assets is likely in Argentina even today and some of it might be funding terrorists today. As for the Dirty War, they actually had French veterans from the Battle of Algiers help them on how to torture and kill people. I would not be surprised by the Nazis influence though. Some Waffen-SS did serve in the French Foreign Legion and went to Indochina. Some Nazis in South America were involved in drug carteling, like Klaus Barbie.