The fate of handball player Barbara Krefft-Wenzl is a ready script for a film. The young, talented handball player, regarded as one of the best on Polish courts, decided to stay in Germany. She seemed to have it all. But she decided to get off the team bus and never came back ...

August 1982, there was barely a week left before the Polish women's handball league. The national champions from AKS Chorzów were regarded as the favourites of the competition. After all, at the end of the last season they were five points ahead of AZS Wrocław and as many as eleven ahead of Ruch Chorzów. At the time, the "Green Clovers" had a strong and balanced line-up.

The team went to a tournament in the Netherlands. The club coach travelled through successive cities in the Federal Republic of Germany. This was because successful athletes were allowed to do so in communist Poland. They were given the appropriate permits for foreign escapades. This allowed them to see the differences between the two political worlds. And sport was, after all, a propaganda tool. Any victories over Western teams were often presented as political scalps. But defeats or, worse, escapes by grandstand heroes were not talked about much.

Sniper with a capital "S"
The Chorzowian women were travelling to Sittard. In western Germany, the handball players got off the bus, one story says they had time to go to the toilet. Ewa Adamska, Krystyna Korzeczek, Dorota Kozielska and Barbara Krefft did not return to it. They stayed. The loudest was about the last one. Because she was young, talented and extremely goal-shooting.

She was born on 14 June 1959 in Gdańsk. She had been passionate about sport since childhood, so as soon as the opportunity to study in a sports class arose, she took it. Her physical education teacher, Henryk Pudlis, noticed her predispositions and sent her to handball training. Barbara made her debut in AZS Gdańsk in 1973, at the age of just fourteen!

"I play handball because I like it. And am I that good! It is certainly a difficult sport. You need a high level of general fitness and stamina, and above all agility and jumping ability. Also, ball-playing skills. Training is strenuous. After all, it consists of many diametrically opposed exercises," she said in an interview.

Three years later, there was a buzz about her. In the Polish junior women's championships, the talented generation of Danzig players beat AZS Wrocław in the final after extra time. That tournament only proved that Barbara is a born sniper. She threw 27 goals, which significantly contributed to winning the title.

And she was quickly spotted by the national team coaches. First the youth national team, where she won, for example, fifth place at the World Youth Championships in Bucharest. In November 1977, after a very good performance in the Silesian Cup, which was her senior debut, came the appointment to the Group B World Championships. The Red and White won promotion to Group A. At the 1978 world championships in Czechoslovakia, the Poles started well, with wins against Canada and West Germany. But the next opponents were already out of reach.

This tournament was a pass to the Olympic Games. It was not possible to advance, because five teams qualified, and the Polish women were sixth... But specialists claimed that the team of the future was growing on the Vistula. And the best of the bunch seemed to be Barbara Krefft, scorer of 23 goals. Even after losing games, for example to Yugoslavia, the Gdańsk sniper was praised. "Dziennik Bałtycki" reported after the match:

"In the Polish team a very good meeting was played by a Danzig player - Barbara Krefft. However, she alone could not tip the scales of victory in favour of our team".

In five years of playing (1977-1982) Barbara played 108 matches with the eagle on her chest. She threw around 300 goals. The scale of her talent can be seen in the fact that she scored a hundred games in the national team very quickly. By the time Krefft came to the national team, Anna Kostowska, Zofia Łowczyńska and Gabriela Deda had also scored a "hundred", but they needed much more time to do so.

She was called "Klempeel in a skirt". The nickname was given after the uncommonly goal-scoring handball player, Józef, a legend of Polish handball. And in Barbara's case, there was no exaggeration! Because she really shot a lot. Her trademark was jump shots. On top of that, she had a lot of power, and the shots she sent towards her opponents' goals were like bullets. This is why she won the league's "Queen of the Rifle" titles. In fact, in the 1979/1980 season, while playing only half the games (due to disqualification following her transfer), she still topped the league's scoring charts. She herself admitted, however, that there were shortcomings she needed to work on. For example, defensive play.

Transfer of many chances
In 1980, she changed club colours. She chose AKS Chorzów. The transfer of a player of this calibre generated a lot of interest. And it was widely commented on. Because her Gdańsk team was having a difficult time. It had been relegated from the top league. One of her colleagues told the editor of the "Evening of the Coast":

"I don't resent Basia Krefft for deciding to leave the team. I resent her for deciding to do so - at what I believe was an extremely inopportune moment for the team".

Only that such a handball player simply did not deserve to play in the second division. And since she couldn't go abroad, she decided to take the chance that fate had brought. The "Koniczynki" from Chorzów had championship aspirations. In addition, the activists offered good living conditions. Barbara left for Upper Silesia.

And it was a shot in the arm! The AKS handball players, with her in the line-up, won the league twice (1981, 1982), beating their neighbours from across the border, Ruch, for the title. This was followed by a bronze medal in 1980 and the Polish Cup (1981). Barbara scored as if on cue, even recording an average of 8.39 goals per game. Coach Cybulski used to place her in several positions. For her, there was no difference.

"Because I take every match seriously and try to play according to the coach's previous arrangements. I also don't have favourite teammates, with whom I play well and with others badly. I can play in any combination. It also doesn't matter what position I throw in. The thing is to play accurately and at pace," she said.

When she boarded the coach leaving for the Netherlands in August 1982, she was a handball star. Editors devoted column after column to her. And suddenly, when she didn't return to the country, she seemed to have been plucked from the fan consciousness.

From zero to national team
Staying an athlete in any of the Western European countries during the People's Republic of Poland was not a peculiar phenomenon. Before and after Barbara Krefft, several decided to take such steps. Almost everyone started "from scratch".

The fate of the talented 23-year-old from Poland caught the interest of journalists from "Der Spigel". In a large article in 1985 entitled "The Fall of Morality", they described what her story was like in West Germany. So first she ended up in a transit camp, from where she moved, packing a few of her belongings into a plastic bag, to Hesse. Then she ended up at TV Lützellinden, a band from a small village. After six weeks, she was granted German citizenship as she showed that one of her ancestors was German. This allowed her to play on German floors. She then found employment at the employment office in Giessen. And a husband, also a handball player from the regional league, Karl-Heinz Wenzel.

In Poland, nothing was written about her. If anything, it was only that she was in the west illegally. She was erased from memory, like many who chose to flee. Later, she was joined by her colleagues, already with the permission of the home federation, although not without problems. "Der Spigel" in the same article described:

"Apparently in Lützellinden, which has 1,700 inhabitants, the attraction of the Poles is second to none: Barbara Garleja and Ilona Nawa are already two more Polish representatives on the vice-captains' team. Although they left the country legally, their handball association collected 10,000 marks for each player as a transfer fee, as well as jerseys, sports shoes and typewriters."

In Lützellinden, Barbara has become a leader in real life. She maintained her unprecedented effectiveness, leading the team to two national championships - in 1988 and 1989. She also played several times for the German national team. And she made her private life comfortable. She had two daughters, Linda and Julia. The first played handball at a high level. The second also followed in her mother's footsteps, playing for the German junior national teams, and with even greater success. Today Barbara lives in Huettenberg near Giessen. She enjoys life and her grandchildren. And she visits Poland, Gdansk and her friends from the pitch.