Nelly Neppach
Toronto Daily Star, February 22 1926
Nelly Neppach (1898-1933) won eight out of nine German tennis tournaments in 1925, becoming co-ranked #1 in the country. She was invited to play in tournaments in the French Riviera in 1926, as shown in the photo above, but Germans weren't officially allowed to play in international tournaments because of World War I, and she was briefly banned from playing tennis in Germany when she returned after one event.
(Potential trigger warnings ahead.) Ms. Neppach, who was Jewish, resigned or was forced out of her German tennis club when the Nazis took power in 1933. Shortly afterwards, made despondent by persecution and isolation from her sport, she took her own life. Her husband, Robert Neppach, a set designer, shot himself and his second wife in 1939, shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War.
Created October 14, 2025.