Today the Maccabi senior squad commemorated Holocaust remebrance Day. The Youth Division held an educational programme on the subject of the Holocaust
This morning, as sirens were heard throughout Israel, Maccabi Tel Aviv Football Club observed two minutes of silence in commemoration of Holocaust Remembrance Day, in memory of the six million Jews who lost their lives at the hands of Nazi Germany before and during the Second World War. For the senior squad this occurred during a morning practice, as the players interrupted their training to stand in place and lower their heads out of respect for the victims.
As a part of their general educational programme, the professional staff of the Maccabi Tel Aviv Youth Division organised a special session on the subject of the Holocaust at their Kiryat Shalom facilities, during which a model was erected of the Lodz Ghetto, the second largest ghetto established for Jews in Poland during the war. All the players of the various Youth Division teams passed through the model and read information sheets prepared by the staff about the Lodz ghetto. The young players were reminded once again of the significance of Maccabi Tel Aviv's yellow-coloured kit, changed during the war from blue at the suggestion of then Maccabi player Yossef Merimovich in solidarity with European Jewry, who were forced by the Nazis to wear a yellow star on their clothing.
In addition, Maccabi's Under-15s, along with their head coach Erez Balfer, will take time out after their training session this evening to watch the Holocaust documentary film "Numbered", a reference to the numbers tattooed on the arms of residents of the Nazi concentration camps, followed by discussions on the significance of this most tragic episode in modern history.
