But she refused to compete in the Berlin Olympics in protest, proclaiming,“ I refuse to enter a contest in a land which so shamefully persecutes my people.” Suspended from competition by Austrian authorities, she emigrated to Palestine and represented the Holy Land from then on.

Deutsch was elected to the Pillar as a representative of the many athletes worldwide who had the opportunity to compete in the 1936 Olympiad, but refused to do so in protest over German policies toward Jews and other minorities. Some of those world-class sportspersons who boycotted the 1936 Games are Deutsch’s swimming teammates Ruth Langer and Lucy Goldner, French Bobsled champions Phillippe de Rothschild and Jean Rheims, American women’s swimming coach Charlotte Epstein, U.S. defending 1932 Olympic women’s Discus champion Lillian Copeland, Canadian amateur Welterweight boxing champion Sammy Luftspring, and French fencing champion Albert Wolff.