Today (Wednesday, 12 December 2012), a delegation of the German Football Association (DFB) headed by President Wolfgang Niersbach visited the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial, the second such visit after paying respect to the victims of Nazism at the Beit Theresienstadt museum on Tuesday.
Participating in an international Under-18 youth football tournament hosted by the Israel Football Association, the German contingent also includes DFB Vice-Presidents Hermann Korfmacher and Dr. Rainer Koch, as well as DFB Director of Sports Robin Dutt. They were joined by the German Ambassador to Israel Andreas Michaelis, representatives of the Israel and Serbian FAs and, of course, the full German Under-18 squad.
Commemorative Service at Janusz Korczak Monument
Commemorative Service at Janusz Korczak Monument
During a commemorative service held at the memorial built in honour of Polish paediatrician and educator Janusz Korczak, who led an orphanage in the Warsaw ghetto and was murdered at Treblinka in 1942, IFA President Avi Luzon spoke to the teenage footballers and thanked Wolfgang Niersbach for the DFB's tradition of taking youth teams to Israel every year. He went on to stress the importance for young people to learn from history, and for football and society to stand together in mutual respect, underlining the close relations between the two football bodies and confirming that he and his association would continue to honour and support the visits by German teams in the future.
In response, Wolfgang Niersbach said: "For us, these visits are very special encounters. It is of great concern to us to have young people go to Israel and raise their awareness for history." Directly addressing the German players, he appealed on them to take the message taught at Yad Vashem home to their clubs and their personal environments. "Do raise your voices and be heard whenever you feel someone is victimised on account of their gender, religion, colour of skin, or sexual orientation."
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Today (Wednesday, 12 December 2012), a delegation of the German Football Association (DFB) headed by President Wolfgang Niersbach visited the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial, the second such visit after paying respect to the victims of Nazism at the Beit Theresienstadt museum on Tuesday.
Participating in an international Under-18 youth football tournament hosted by the Israel Football Association, the German contingent also includes DFB Vice-Presidents Hermann Korfmacher and Dr. Rainer Koch, as well as DFB Director of Sports Robin Dutt. They were joined by the German Ambassador to Israel Andreas Michaelis, representatives of the Israel and Serbian FAs and, of course, the full German Under-18 squad.
Commemorative Service at Janusz Korczak Monument
Commemorative Service at Janusz Korczak Monument
During a commemorative service held at the memorial built in honour of Polish paediatrician and educator Janusz Korczak, who led an orphanage in the Warsaw ghetto and was murdered at Treblinka in 1942, IFA President Avi Luzon spoke to the teenage footballers and thanked Wolfgang Niersbach for the DFB's tradition of taking youth teams to Israel every year. He went on to stress the importance for young people to learn from history, and for football and society to stand together in mutual respect, underlining the close relations between the two football bodies and confirming that he and his association would continue to honour and support the visits by German teams in the future.
In response, Wolfgang Niersbach said: "For us, these visits are very special encounters. It is of great concern to us to have young people go to Israel and raise their awareness for history." Directly addressing the German players, he appealed on them to take the message taught at Yad Vashem home to their clubs and their personal environments. "Do raise your voices and be heard whenever you feel someone is victimised on account of their gender, religion, colour of skin, or sexual orientation."
