"Get involved, don't look away!" is the message the German Football League (Deutsche Fußball-Liga, DFL) brings to fans flocking to the stadiums this weekend for matchday 19 of the German Bundesliga. First observed in 1996, the Day of Remembrance of Victims of Nazism marks 27 January 1945, when the Auschwitz concentration camp was liberated by advancing Soviet forces. Germany publicly commemorates the victims of Nazi dictatorship, paying respect to all those who suffered persecution, torture, and death at the hands of an inhuman regime and its helpers. It also sends a clear message that they will not be forgotten.
Between 1933 and 1945, millions of people were harassed and ostracized, driven to emigration or sent to forced labour and death camps on grounds of their creed, their political beliefs, ethnic origin, mental or physical disability, or because they were simply deemed "unworthy to live" by the Nazis.
Their number included numerous athletes who had won Olympic medals and world championships for Germany. Many of them were national team players, such as the Jewish footballer and Germany international Julius Hirsch who was murdered in Auschwitz, and in whose memory the German Football Association (Deutscher Fußball-Bund, DFB) has, since 2005, awarded the Julius Hirsch Prize to organizations or individuals opposing racism, anti-Semitism, violence or xenophobia, and promoting the inviolability of human dignity, international understanding, and human diversity.
Football helped finding back to everyday life
While Hirsch fell victim to Nazi terror, others survived but had to learn how to live as free citizens, a coming back to life frequently helped by football as playing in and for a team returned a sense of normality to German communities.
Ernst Grube from Munich was still a child when he was liberated from the concentration camp. Today he says: "To me, playing football in a club meant I was accepted as an equal team member – a new, almost exhilarating feeling because as a Jewish boy - who after all was also a German boy – I had not known what 'friendship' was."
Football has no room for Nazism
Just how necessary it is not to let this part of history be forgotten, was painfully brought home to German society by the recent discovery that a Neonazi group was behind the killing of at least ten people of Turkish and Greek origin.
We're all called upon to prove that on or around a football pitch, there is no room for Nazism, no room for racism, discrimination, and violence. Confronted by racist chanting or discrimination of opposing players or fans, it is our duty to speak out, not look (or listen) the other way.
Every week in Germany and beyond, football brings together people of different religions, cultures, and ethnic backgrounds. The EURO 2012 tournament in Poland and Ukraine will once again show that, when there's a ball in play, boundaries fall and opponents become friends.
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"Get involved, don't look away!" is the message the German Football League (Deutsche Fußball-Liga, DFL) brings to fans flocking to the stadiums this weekend for matchday 19 of the German Bundesliga. First observed in 1996, the Day of Remembrance of Victims of Nazism marks 27 January 1945, when the Auschwitz concentration camp was liberated by advancing Soviet forces. Germany publicly commemorates the victims of Nazi dictatorship, paying respect to all those who suffered persecution, torture, and death at the hands of an inhuman regime and its helpers. It also sends a clear message that they will not be forgotten.
Between 1933 and 1945, millions of people were harassed and ostracized, driven to emigration or sent to forced labour and death camps on grounds of their creed, their political beliefs, ethnic origin, mental or physical disability, or because they were simply deemed "unworthy to live" by the Nazis.
Their number included numerous athletes who had won Olympic medals and world championships for Germany. Many of them were national team players, such as the Jewish footballer and Germany international Julius Hirsch who was murdered in Auschwitz, and in whose memory the German Football Association (Deutscher Fußball-Bund, DFB) has, since 2005, awarded the Julius Hirsch Prize to organizations or individuals opposing racism, anti-Semitism, violence or xenophobia, and promoting the inviolability of human dignity, international understanding, and human diversity.
[bild2]
Football helped finding back to everyday life
While Hirsch fell victim to Nazi terror, others survived but had to learn how to live as free citizens, a coming back to life frequently helped by football as playing in and for a team returned a sense of normality to German communities.
Ernst Grube from Munich was still a child when he was liberated from the concentration camp. Today he says: "To me, playing football in a club meant I was accepted as an equal team member – a new, almost exhilarating feeling because as a Jewish boy - who after all was also a German boy – I had not known what 'friendship' was."
Football has no room for Nazism
Just how necessary it is not to let this part of history be forgotten, was painfully brought home to German society by the recent discovery that a Neonazi group was behind the killing of at least ten people of Turkish and Greek origin.
We're all called upon to prove that on or around a football pitch, there is no room for Nazism, no room for racism, discrimination, and violence. Confronted by racist chanting or discrimination of opposing players or fans, it is our duty to speak out, not look (or listen) the other way.
Every week in Germany and beyond, football brings together people of different religions, cultures, and ethnic backgrounds. The EURO 2012 tournament in Poland and Ukraine will once again show that, when there's a ball in play, boundaries fall and opponents become friends.
