A number of leading national football teams have chosen to visit Auschwitz concentration camp on the eve of this month’s European championship in Poland and the Ukraine.
After a highly-publicised visit by the German national team last week to the site of the Nazi German death camp, players from Italy and the Netherlands both visited the camp on their arrival in Poland on Wednesday.
Italian players, dressed in their team tracksuits, visited the barracks where Jewish prisoners stayed awaited transfer to the gas chambers of the nearby Birkenau extermination camp, as well as visiting the chamber and crematorium itself.
After placing a commemorative wreath at the site with the logo of their national team, they signed the visitor’s book with the message: “Such an atrocity should never happen again. What happened here doesn’t just concern one people. It concerns all of humanity. Their pain in our pain”.
All 23 Italian players participated in the tour, as well as team coach Cesare Prandelli and staff, and the group was accompanied by three Italian Holocaust survivors – Samuel Modiano, 81, Hanna Weiss, 84, and Piero Terracina.
Italy defender Giorgio Chiellini reflected on the visit: “The image that stuck in my eyes was when they showed us their tattoos, the numbers on their arms. And the way they told us about being taken away from their families right there on those tracks. I think their stories touched all of our hearts.”
As the Italian team concluded their visit, the Dutch team arrived, dressed in dark clothing. The mood of their visit was sombre and players were visibly moved by the setting.
“I just wanted to go because it is a part of your education and I wanted to see it with my own eyes,” coach Bert van Marwijk said.
Dutch captain Mark ven Bommel could only manage: “You can say a lot of things, but for me it was really impressive”.
The English team was also planning to visit the camp soon after their arrival at their Euro 2012 training camp in Krakow on Wednesday. The visit, which followed an address by two Holocaust survivors last month, was being planned by the English Football Association (FA) in conjunction with the Holocaust Education Trust (HET), who will then produce a DVD of the visit featuring players’ thoughts on “why combating prejudice today matters to them”.
FA chairman David Bernstein hoped the players’ Auschwitz tour would help teach “future generations about the horrors of the Holocaust, using the ability of football to interest and engage young people”.
“There are so many lessons to be learnt and understood, and believe football can lay its part in encouraging society to speak out against intolerance in all its forms,” he continued.
The choice of Ukraine to host the championships has been a controversial one, as Ukrainian football matches and fans have long been associated with nationalist factions and racist incidents. The families of two of England’s black players, Theo Walcott and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, have also announced they won’t travel to matches because of fears of racist abuse.
Speaking following the educational talk to the English team by British national Holocaust survivors Zigi Shipper and Ben Helgott, England captain Steven Gerrard said: “It was very moving and inspirational for us. To come and share their experience with us shows great bravery and character.”