Germany’s Jewish community criticized their football players’ recent visit to the former n**i Death camp.
Dieter Graumann, the president of the Central Council for Jews in Germany,was critical of the number of players who visited the Auschwitz camp. The delegation included team manager Oliver Bierhoff, head Coach Joachim Low, DFB president
Wolfgang Niersbach, and three members of the national squad; Philipp Lahm, Miroslav Klose and Lukas Podolski.
Graumann voiced his disappointment at the number of players who visited the historic site. He believed that the whole team should have visited the site as a show of solidarity with the Jews in Germany and in the World
"If the whole national team had come, one could have reached hundreds of thousands of young people -- more than a thousand memorial speeches” the president of national committee for Jews was quoted as saying in an interview.
While the German team manager insisted that the DFB did not intend to make the visit seem like a PR exercise, instead they wanted it to be a lesson of tolerance for everyone in the multicultural Germany so that they can live in
harmony.
“It is our duty to pay very close attention and above all to keep conveying to young players in our clubs that there must be no room for anti-Semitism, racism and intolerance”.
The president, who was also present at the scene, wanted the visit to act as a reminder for everyone, a reminder of their ancestors’ wrongdoings and atrocities and a dark spot on their Country, which cannot be wiped away.
"We wanted to give a sign that a dark chapter of German history must never be forgotten and must never be repeated." Niersbach was quoted as saying in a press conference.
The criticism was in the wake of England teams’ announcement of their visit to Auschwitz. As compared to the DFB eleven the Three Lions’ base is 70 kilometers from the camp whereas the Germans are situated about 570 kilometers
from it. So the German FA was not willing to exhaust the whole team from excessive travel given their poor results in the warm ups.
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