Remembering the cream of Jewish footballing talent killed in the Holocaust
While Bert Trautmann became a household name in England despite previous Nazi links, the names of the Jewish players murdered in the death camps remain largely forgotten
It is interesting what people choose to remember. A recent film celebrates Bert Trautmann, a member of the Hitler Youth who later became a goalkeeping legend in England. Trautmann apparently regretted his former antisemitism and did wonders for Anglo-German relations. How touching. I wonder how many people throughout Europe know the names of the Jewish international footballers who were gassed, worked to death, beaten to a pulp or shot into pits by the regime Trautmann fought for.
Poland’s first goal in international football came in Sweden in May 1922. It was the centre-half Józef Klotz who made history, converting a penalty. Whenever you see Robert Lewandowski score for Poland, remember he is the latest link in a chain that started with Klotz, star of Jewish clubs Jutrzenka Krakow and Maccabi Warsaw, and murdered in Warsaw in 1941.