U.S. Plays Nazi-Era German National Anthem at Tennis Match
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
German tennis has responded with outrage after the United States Tennis Association (USTA) made the embarrassing error of playing the Nazi-era version of Germany’s national anthem during a Fed Cup tie in Hawaii.
The version played included the first stanza, beginning “Deutschland, Deutschland uber alles,” which was used as Nazi propaganda. It was dropped after World War Two.
“I thought it was the epitome of ignorance, and I’ve never felt more disrespected in my whole life, let alone in Fed Cup,” Germany’s Andrea Petkovic said, adding that she considered walking off court before the singles match against Alison Riske.
She later said her first comments had been somewhat emotional but that was because the incident happened before her game and she was left stunned.
“We were left shocked and did not know how to react,” Petkovic said. German team coach Barbara Ritter said the mistake was “an absolute scandal, a disrespectful incident and inexcusable.”
[Your text to link here…
It’s our birthday and we’re still celebrating!
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news.
This week we celebrate 129 years of the Forward. We’re proud of our origins as a Yiddish print publication serving Jewish immigrants. And we’re just as proud of what we’ve become today: A trusted source of Jewish news and opinion, available digitally to anyone in the world without paywalls or subscriptions.
We’ve helped five generations of American Jews make sense of the news and the world around them — and we aren’t slowing down any time soon.
As a nonprofit newsroom, reader donations make it possible for us to do this work. Support independent, agenda-free Jewish journalism and our board will match your gift in honor of our birthday!
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
