Barend "Ben" Bril (16 July 1912 – 11 September 2003) was a Dutch boxer who competed in the 1928 Amsterdam Summer Olympics in Flyweight boxing, and became an accomplished European boxing referee and judge in the 1960s. Early life and career Bril was born in Valkenburgstraat, a poor section of Amsterdam to Jewish parents Abraham Bril and Klaartie Moffie on 16 July 1912. He was one of six children of a struggling family supported primarily by their father's work as a fisherman. Bril competed in the 1928 Summer Olympics at age 15 in his home town, finishing fifth in the flyweight class, just out of medal contention. In his Olympic competition, after a first round bye, he defeated Myles McDonagh of Ireland, before losing to Buddy Lebanon of South Africa. Four years later he was barred from the 1932 Summer Olympics because the Dutch Olympic Committee was led by a member of the Dutch Nazi party. He later boycotted the 1936 Games in Berlin. In his boxing career before the war, beginning in 1928, he won the Dutch Amateur National Championship a total of eight times. As a high point in his amateur career, he won a gold medal at the 1935 Maccabiah Games, held in Tel Aviv, Israel. Internment at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp During the German occupation of the Netherlands after 1940, Bril, his wife Celia and son were forced to go into hiding above what was once his family's bakery, but in 1942 were arrested by Nazi sympathiser, Jan Olij a neighbor, whose father, Sam Olij, had boxed together with Bril in the 1928 Olympics. Around 1942, he was first sent to the Vught Transit Camp, a concentration camp in Southern Holland with deplorable conditions, located Southeast of his home in Amsterdam. Once deported to Northern Germany and interned at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, Bril was able to get a job, and then a promotion to the position of Blockälteste, which put him in charge of his barrack. Looking to survive, he was selected to box in the camp, where he let known German boxers defeat him. Four of his brothers and a sister died in the camps. All but one of the siblings were married with children. Ben, his wife, and his younger brother Herrie survived the war. Herrie Bril died in Rotterdam on 6 August 1966. Work as a referee From 1963-74, Bril found fame working