Herschmann was
Jewish, and was born in
Vienna, Austria. He was affiliated with the 1.W.A.S.C. in Vienna, and the
Wiener AC in Vienna. On 30 March, he and the other swimmers were taken by boat into the Bay of
Piraeus to compete in the open sea. AinsworthSports.com ranked Herschmann as tied for the second-best swimmer of the 1890s, behind Alfréd Hajós. In 1904, he wrote
Wiener Sport, which was published by H. Seemann.
Olympic fencing career In the
1906 Summer Olympics, Herschmann competed in Athens in individual
sabre, but did not medal. In so doing, he became one of only a few
athletes to win Olympic medals in more than one sport. Other Jewish fencers who participated in the 1912 Olympics included Hungarian gold medal-winning sabre fencers Dr.
Jenő Fuchs, Dr.
Dezső Földes,
Lajos Werkner, and Dr.
Oszkár Gerde, and Austrian silver medal-winning sabre fencer
Albert Bogen. Herschmann was one of Europe's top authorities in sports. In November 1913, he traveled to various cities in the United States, including Boston, New York, Cleveland, Philadelphia, and Chicago, to study US sports organizations and recruit trainers to work with Austrian athletes training for the Olympics. That month, when he was visiting the U.S. as the Austrian athletic envoy, the
Boston Athletic Association gave him a banquet, and in December 1913 the Board of Governors of the
New York Athletic Club held a banquet honoring him. He lauded the United States system for the quality of physical and mental training provided. He noted in contrast to the European system, high-quality training was provided to all athletes, not only those who lacked natural talent. On 14 January 1942, Herschmann was deported from Vienna to the
General Government region of German-occupied Poland, where he died shortly after. Some sources report that he died in
Izbica transit camp, while others suggest that he was gassed in
Sobibor extermination camp. == Honors ==