German footballer
Julius Hirsch
(7 April 1892 ? declared dead 8 May 1945) was a Jewish
German
Olympian
international
footballer who was murdered at
Auschwitz concentration camp
during
the Holocaust
.
[2]
[3]
He helped the
Karlsruher FV
win the
1910 German football championship
, and also played for the
Germany national football team
, including at the
1912 Summer Olympics
.
[4]
He then joined
SpVgg Furth
, with whom he won the
1914 German football championship
.
Biography
[
edit
]
Hirsch was born in
Achern
, Germany (and later lived in
Karlsruhe
),
[5]
was
Jewish
,
[6]
and was the seventh child of a Jewish merchant. He joined
Karlsruher FV
at the age of ten.
Together with
Fritz Forderer
and
Gottfried Fuchs
, Hirsch formed an attacking trio.
[6]
Nicknamed "Juller", he was a dynamic
midfielder
/
striker
best known for his attacking style, his hard shot, and powerful left foot.
[6]
[7]
[8]
He helped
Karlsruher FV
win the
1910 German football championship
.
[6]
After joining
SpVgg Furth
in 1913, he won the
1914 German football championship
with them the following year.
[6]
[9]
Hirsch was the first Jewish player to represent the
Germany national football team
, which he joined at 18 years of age in 1911.
[6]
[10]
He played in a number of matches for Germany, including at the
1912 Olympic Games
in
Stockholm
, Sweden.
[10]
Hirsch scored four goals for Germany against the Netherlands in 1912, becoming the first German to score four goals in a single match.
[6]
[9]
Hirsch enlisted in and served for four years in the
German Army
in
World War I
, and was decorated with the
Iron Cross
.
[10]
[11]
His brother Leopold was killed in action in June 1918, also fighting for the German Army.
[12]
[13]
He returned to
KFV
after World War I, and retired in 1925.
[10]
However, he remained with the club as a youth coach.
[12]
Death
[
edit
]
Reading in a newspaper on 10 April 1933 that all
Southern German
clubs would ban Jewish members, Hirsch left
KFV
by his own choice after over 30 years as a member. In a letter to his club he requested that it should not be forgotten that, even though Jews were now the whipping boys of the nation, many of them had given their life blood for the German nation and were true patriots, as shown by their deeds and words.
[12]
Hirsch's children Esther and Heinold, deemed second-grade "
Mischlinge
", were forced to leave their school in 1938.
[14]
[5]
In 1941 they were required to wear the
yellow star
.
[5]
In 1942 he divorced his non-Jewish wife in an effort to save her and their children from the
Nazis
.
[5]
Hirsch, now 50 years old, was deported from
Karlsruhe
, Germany, to
Auschwitz concentration camp
on 1 March 1943.
[6]
[15]
He had not believed that the government would harm him, as he had fought for Germany in World War I and played for Germany's national football team.
[6]
His exact date of death is unknown. In 1950, a German court declared him dead with the date of death set on 8 May 1945, past his 53rd birthday and after the camp's liberation by the
Red Army
in January that year.
[16]
[17]
[18]
His arrival was not registered in surviving camp records and it has been assumed from this he may have been gassed immediately after arrival in camp.
[19]
In February 1945 his children were deported to
Theresienstadt
, from which they were liberated by the Red Army in May 1945.
[5]
Legacy
[
edit
]
Since 2005 the
German Football Federation
awards the "
Julius-Hirsch-Preis
" for outstanding examples of integration and tolerance within German football.
[20]
[21]
[6]
In January 2020, Chelsea FC unveiled a mural by
Solomon Souza
on an outside wall of the West Stand at
Stamford Bridge stadium
. The mural is part of Chelsea's 'Say No to Antisemitism' campaign funded by club owner
Roman Abramovich
. Included on the mural are depictions of footballers Hirsch and
Arpad Weisz
, who were killed at
Auschwitz concentration camp
, and Ron Jones, a British
prisoner of war
known as the 'Goalkeeper of Auschwitz'.
[22]
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
"Julius Hirsch"
.
Lizenzmannschaft der SPVGG Greuther Furth
. Retrieved
27 July
2023
.
- ^
Bell, Jack (20 September 2005).
"German Federation Admits to Nazi Past"
.
The New York Times
. Retrieved
8 October
2007
.
- ^
Schaffer, Kay; Smith, Sidonie (2000).
The Olympics at the Millennium: Power, Politics, and the Games
.
Rutgers University Press
. pp. 60?62.
ISBN
978-0-8135-2820-5
.
- ^
"Julius Hirsch"
.
Olympedia
. Retrieved
26 May
2021
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
Schollmeyer, Swantje (2007).
Julius "Juller" Hirsch 1892 Aachen-1943 Auschwitz: deutscher Fussballnationalspieler
. Hentrich & Hentrich.
ISBN
9783938485330
– via Google Books.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
i
j
Kevin E. Simpson (2016).
Soccer Under the Swastika; Stories of Survival and Resistance During the Holocaust
- ^
Skrentny, Werner (2012).
"Gotti" and "Juller": Gottfried Fuchs/Godfrey E. Fochs and Julius Hirsch; international soccer players, friends and Jews; [special print in occasion of the 2nd Fuchs Family Reunion Canada 2012]
. Verlag Die Werkstatt – via Google Books.
- ^
Grunwald-Spier, Agnes (2016).
Who Betrayed the Jews?: The Realities of Nazi Persecution in the Holocaust
. The History Press.
ISBN
9780750958011
– via Google Books.
- ^
a
b
David Bolchover (6 May 2019).
"Remembering the cream of Jewish footballing talent killed in the Holocaust"
.
The Guardian
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
"The War Generation ? Julius Hirsch"
.
Inside Futbol
. 14 April 2011.
- ^
Nationalspieler und Opfer des Nationalsozialismus
(in German)
Der Westen
, Published: 7 April 2008. Retrieved 13 July 2009
- ^
a
b
c
Deutscher Meister, Nationalspieler, Olympionike
Archived
1 July 2012 at the
Wayback Machine
(in German)
DFB
website. Retrieved 25 June 2012
- ^
Michael Coren (13 January 2020).
"The German soccer hero who escaped the Nazis for Canada"
.
Macleans
.
- ^
"German Football Museum"
.
Liga Terezin
. 17 October 2015.
- ^
"Jews and Sport Before the Holocaust ? A Visual Retrospective: Julius Hirsch"
.
Yad Vashem
. Retrieved
2 March
2014
.
- ^
"Hirsch, Julius"
. Jews in Sports
. Retrieved
27 March
2009
.
- ^
"Olympians Who Were Killed or Missing in Action or Died as a Result of War"
.
Sports Reference
. Archived from
the original
on 17 April 2020
. Retrieved
24 July
2018
.
- ^
Bandyopadhyay, Kausik (2013).
Why Minorities Play Or Don't Play Soccer; A Global Exploration
.
ISBN
9781317989523
.
- ^
Julius Hirsch, national player murdered. Biography of a Jewish Footballer
(2012), p.352, publisher Verlag Die Werkstatt (Gottingen), ISBN 978-3-89533.
- ^
Ein Zeichen gegen Diskriminierung
Archived
1 July 2012 at the
Wayback Machine
(in German)
DFB
website. Retrieved 25 June 2012
- ^
Mendel, Jack (20 March 2020).
"Living with the ghost of my grandfather, a German Jewish football icon"
.
Times of Israel
.
- ^
"Chelsea unveils mural with Jewish soccer players murdered at Auschwitz"
.
The Jerusalem Post
.
External links
[
edit
]
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