In Hitler’s Olympics Stadium, A Soccer Team Kneels To Protest Racism
Image by Hertha Berlin
By Ari Feldman October 16, 2017
In the stadium where Adolph Hitler watched the 1936 Berlin Olympics, Berlin’s football club kneeled last week in solidarity with American pro football players protesting the national anthem.
The symbolic protest, carried out before a game, is believed to be the first such protest by an entire sports team outside the U.S., the Comeback reported.
All 18 players on Bertha’s team — with players from ten different countries — kneeled, as did the coaching staff.
“Berlin is colorful,” the announcer said as the team took a knee. “Hertha BSC stands for diversity and against violence. For this reason, we are joining forces with the protest of our fellow American athletes to take a stand against discrimination. For a tolerant Berlin, both now and forevermore.”
Like most European soccer leagues, Hertha’s league, the Bundesliga, does not require that a country’s national anthem be played before a match.
Contact Ari Feldman at feldman@forward.com or on Twitter @aefeldman.
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
