Football

Julius Hirsch (bottom row, second from right) in his Karlsruher FV football uniform, 1910
Julius Hirsch (bottom row, second from right) in his Karlsruher FV football uniform, 1910.
Julius Hirsch was a football player in the Karlsruhe football club, and a member of the German national football team prior to World War I. In 1943, Hirsch was deported to Auschwitz. He did not survive the Holocaust.
Read more about Julius Hirsch >>>
Mazeikiai, Lithuania, a football team
Mazeikiai, Lithuania, a football team.
Yad Vashem Photo Archives 8673/1
Mazeikiai, Lithuania, Prewar, a football group
Mazeikiai, Lithuania, Prewar, a football group.
Yad Vashem Photo Archives 187do6
Grodno, Poland, a football team
Grodno, Poland, a football team.
Yad Vashem Photo Archives 1366/56
Kowno, Lithuania, 1936, The "Maccabi" football team
Kowno, Lithuania, 1936, The "Maccabi" football team.
Yad Vashem Photo Archives 184AO6
Buhusi, Romania, "Maccabi" footballers, 1930
Buhusi, Romania, "Maccabi" footballers, 1930.
This photograph is taken from the testimony of Yitzchak Margolis.
Yitzchak Margolis was born in Buhusi, Romania in 1926. His father was born in Eretz Israel and worked in Buhusi as a Hebrew teacher. Yitzchak Margolis was conscripted to a work group in Romania and sent to Transnistria. He survived the Holocaust and immigrated to Israel in 1968.
Yad Vashem Photo Archives 1869/648
Czechoslovakia, 1930, a girls’ football team and their coach
Czechoslovakia, 1930, a girls’ football team and their coach.
Yad Vashem Photo Archives 4551/37
Nowy Sacz, Poland, a Jewish football team, Prewar
Nowy Sacz, Poland, a Jewish football team, Prewar.
Standing, far right: Menahem Nusbaum, a referee. Menachem Nusbaum was born in Nowy Sacz, Poland, in 1906. Nusbaum moved to Lodz before the war. Following the outbreak of WWII in September 1939 he escaped to the Soviet Union and was sent to work in the coal mine in Ordzhonikidze. He joined Anders Army and following displays of antisemitism he escaped and joined the Jewish Brigade.
Nusbaum survived the Holocaust. This information is based upon the testimony that he submitted to Yad Vashem.
Yad Vashem Photo Archives 1869/75
Kaunas, Lithuania, a football match between "Hakoach" Vienna and the local "Maccabi" team, 01/08/1925
Kaunas, Lithuania, a football match between "Hakoach" Vienna and the local "Maccabi" team, 01/08/1925.
Yad Vashem Photo Archives 3238/126
Janow Poleski, Poland, The Hapoel Football Team
Janow Poleski, Poland, The Hapoel Football Team.
Standing: Yakov Berski, Levin, Peretz, Odrozinski, Frozanski.
Below: Mordechai Bazadski, Reuven Charsel, Yakov Reznik.
Front: Avraham Schwartz, Shmuel Gorodtzki, Chaim Karolinski.
Yad Vashem Photo Archives 3954/29
Vilna, Poland, "Maccabi" group from Vilna and Kispesti group from Budapest, 10/07/1937
Vilna, Poland, "Maccabi" group from Vilna and Kispesti group from Budapest, 10/07/1937.
Klooga, the largest labor camp in Estonia, was established in Summer 1943. Most of the prisoners there were brought from the Vilna Ghetto in August-September 1943. On 19/09/1944, days before the Red Army liberated the camp, the Germans and their Estonian collaborators murdered over 2,000 Jews in the forests near the camp. They tried to conceal the murder but did not completely burn most of the bodies.
This photograph is taken from the photographs found in the pockets of murdered Jews in the Klooga camp after the liberation. Most of the photographs were taken in Vilna before the war.
Courtesy Central Historic Museum in Estonia
Yad Vashem Photo Archives 4068/109
Kovno, Lithuania, Prewar, a Jewish youth football team.
Kovno, Lithuania, Prewar, a Jewish youth football team.
Courtesy Bundesarchiv
Yad Vashem Photo Archives 4520/471
Berlin, Germany, 1937, a football match at the "Bar-Kochba" international sports games with the participation of "Hakoach Vienna"
Berlin, Germany, 1937, a football match at the "Bar-Kochba" international sports games with the participation of "Hakoach Vienna".
Courtesy Juedischen Museum Im Stadtmuseum, Berlin
Yad Vashem Photo Archives 5409/2244
Pandelys, Lithuania, August 1931, a soccer team
Pandelys, Lithuania, August 1931, a soccer team.
Yad Vashem Photo Archives 5476/30
Pinsk, Poland, 2/10/1929, a Jewish football team
Pinsk, Poland, 2/10/1929, a Jewish football team.
First on the left, with a tie, is Khaim Kaplan. He may have been the team coach.
Prior to and during WWII Khaim Kaplan lived in Pinsk, Poland. His name appears on a list of people who were murdered in Pinsk in 1941-1942.
Yad Vashem Photo Archives 5573/8
Staszow, Poland, Prewar, a football team consisting of Jewish children
Staszow, Poland, Prewar, a football team consisting of Jewish children.
Yad Vashem Photo Archives 5724/6
Antwerp, Belgium, 1939, a Bnei Akiva soccer team
Antwerp, Belgium, 1939, a Bnei Akiva soccer team.
Benjamin Brachfeld, standing on right, managed the team. He was born in Jurkow, Poland in 1901 to David and Haya née Schamroth. He was a diamond broker, active in the Mizrachi movement, and married to Ernestine née Muller. Prior to and during WWII he lived in Antwerp, Belgium. Benjamin was murdered in 1943 in Bismarckhuette, Poland. This information is based on a Page of Testimony submitted by his son, a Holocaust survivor.
Courtesy Sylvain Brachfeld
Yad Vashem Photo Archives 5738/22
Hungary, Prewar, a football team, after winning a competition
Hungary, Prewar, a football team, after winning a competition.
Yad Vashem Photo Archives 6037/5
Monastir (Bitola) Macedonia, a football team in the city, 14/08/1928
Monastir (Bitola) Macedonia, a football team in the city, 14/08/1928.
The inscription on the back of the photograph reads: "A game against a Balkan team. The result was 2:2"
Leon Albocher and Tova Albocher née Navon (parents of the man who submitted the photograph) arrived in Eretz Israel from Monastir, Macedonia, in 1930 and got married there.
Tova’s brother Mois and his wife Sol also emigrated to Eretz Israel and in 1939 they wed in Petach Tikvah. They returned to Monastir a short while before the war. Mois, Sol and their one-year-old daughter were among those deported to Treblinka.
Read more about the Jewish community of Monastir »
Yad Vashem Photo Archives 6214/21
Monastir, Macedonia, Yugoslavia, Prewar, a football team in the city
Monastir, Macedonia, Yugoslavia, Prewar, a football team in the city.
Leon Albocher and Tova Albocher née Navon (parents of the man who submitted the photograph) arrived in Eretz Israel from Monastir, Macedonia, in 1930 and got married there.
Tova’s brother Mois and his wife Sol also emigrated to Eretz Israel and in 1939 they wed in Petach Tikvah. They returned to Monastir a short while before the war. Mois, Sol and their one-year-old daughter were among those deported to Treblinka.
Read more about the Jewish community of Monastir »
Yad Vashem Photo Archives 6214/8
Romania, 1/5/1924, Girls in a football team
Romania, 1/5/1924, Girls in a football team.
On the back of the photograph is written: "To my students as a token of appreciation and eternal remembrance from your faithful coach, Avram Steckelman".
Yad Vashem Photo Archives 6254/2
Kaba, Hungary, Prewar, Members of a football team
Kaba, Hungary, Prewar, Members of a football team.
Yad Vashem Photo Archives 636/19
Staszow, Poland, a group photo of the Soccer team members, 19/10/1926
Staszow, Poland, a group photo of the Soccer team members, 19/10/1926.
Yad Vashem Photo Archives 7737/49
France, a Jewish soccer team in which the submitter Vitali Lemor was a member, 1937
France, a Jewish soccer team in which the submitter Vitali Lemor was a member, 1937.
This soccer team supported the student David Frankfurter (after whom the Frankfurter affair was named), who killed the Nazi agent Wilhelm Gustholf in Switzerland in 1936. The team even demonstrated, supporting him.
Some of the players seen in the photo:
Holding the trophy: Michel (Menahem) Saul.
To his left: a Jewish Hungarian, whose name is unknown; Algazi Marcel; a Hungarian woman called Charlotte; Gorge Yaffet.
Sitting under the trophy holder: Volkovitch.
Michel Saul was born in Saloniki, Greece to Vidal and Mazaltov née Guerchon. He was single. Prior to WWII he lived in Saloniki, Greece. During the war he was in Paris, France. He was murdered in Auschwitz Birkenau at the age of 25. This information is based on a Page of Testimony submitted by his sister, Rosa Florent.
Yad Vashem Photo Archives 7833/1
Yugoslavia, Rabbi Dr. Zvi-Herman Helfgot's soccer team. Helfgott appears in the second row, first from the left
Yugoslavia, Rabbi Dr. Zvi-Herman Helfgott’s soccer team. Helfgott appears in the second row, first from the left.
Zvi-Hermann Helfgott was born in September, 1913, in Yugoslavia. He was the rabbi of the Veliki Beckerek community in Yugoslavia. In 1941, while serving in the Yugoslavian army, Helfgott was captured by the Germans and detained in POW camps. After the liberation he was appointed Chief Rabbi of the British occupied zone in Germany and helped the survivors in the DP camps.
Read more about Rabbi Dr. Zvi Herman Helfgott in the exhibition "To Witness and Proclaim" »
Yad Vashem Photo Archives 8546/191
Mazeikiai, Lithuania, The local "Maccabi" football team, 4/9/1927
Mazeikiai, Lithuania, The local "Maccabi" football team, 4/9/1927.
The photograph, on the back of a postcard, was sent to Africa by Moritz Katzav to his brother and sister-in-law.
Yad Vashem Photo Archives 8673/2