A few prisoners were held every weekday afternoon.
On a weekly afternoon in Buchenwald, a few prisoners surrounded by electric fences find solace in playing football.
The 2024 European Championship, which kicked off in Germany on June 14, had the opportunity to lift the dark veil of the country’s history with the nationwide “Football and Memories” program, including the Buchenwald Memorial. Camping and sports.
“For the SS (Adolf Hitler), the matches helped to maintain the appearance of normality and to hide the criminal nature of the camp,” said the director of the Buchenwald exhibition.
He added, “For (the players) and spectators, this sport provides an opportunity to escape, even for a short period of time, from the daily routine of camp and its injuries.”
The Buchenwald Monument is 30 minutes away from the England national team training headquarters at the European Championships.
The first football match organized by the SS took place at Buchenwald Square on Easter Sunday 1939.
Football is a regular fixture on Sundays, with up to 12 teams fielding teams who are not starving or weak in hand strength.
Ron Jones, a British soldier, told the BBC about his time in the Auschwitz concentration camp: “Scoring goals, making saves or arguing offsides is the only way you can keep yourself out of the mood.”
