The International Holocaust and Remembrance Day will be marked across the world tomorrow (January 27th) – a date chosen to commemorate the anniversary of the Auscwitz-Birkenau liberation from the Nazis in 1945.
Ahead of that date, the Maccabi Tel Aviv foundation held a special activity of commemoration with the club’s playing and coaching staff.
Last week, the first team and youth team players and staff gathered at Bloomfield stadium for a virtual-reality tour of the Auschwitz- Birkenau camp , using a headset.
The joint venture with ‘Triumph of the spirit’ exposed all the participants to a powerful, rattling VR tour of what happened at the world’s most infamous concentration camp.
Maccabi’s CEO, Sharon Tammam, said: “I don’t think that anyone who took part whether that be players, staff members Israeli or foreign thought he would endure such an experience. This doesn’t just make history into a story but into an actual real experience which makes you feel and experience it. It is not the an easy thing by all means, but something that in my opinion everyone should experience”.
The players and staff also shared their feelings as Daniel Tenenbaum, said: “It is very emotional and makes you feel like you are there. This experience gave us some understanding of what it felt like being there at such a tough moment for the entire Jewish nation.” Dan Glazer added: “Most of the players never got a chance to experience that during our school years as we are athletes so this is just rattling and I am grateful to have had the chance to do it.”
Maccabi’s fitness coach, Juan Torijo, who recently rejoined Maccabi for a third tenure, said: “When you watch it all and have the opportunity to see everything to the finer details, you get to see where all those atrocities took place, which is very important as it brings you even close to the Jewish nation”.
Maccabi’s captain, Sheran Yeini, summed up: “It makes you think of how important that is to always be better human beings because we witnessed what might happen when humans get a chance to show their evil side.”
