Hungary Soccer Coach Slain By Nazi Collaborators Is Honored By Club
(JTA) — A soccer club in Budapest honored in one of its matches a local Holocaust victim murdered by Hungarian collaborators.
The Ferencváros Torna Club dedicated a match Thursday to István Tóth. The match was against Israel’s Maccabi Tel Aviv at the Groupama Stadium in Budapest. The game was a tie with each team scoring one goal.
The tribute was a joint initiative of the soccer club, the World Jewish Congress and the Federation of Jewish Communities in Hungary, Mazsihisz.
Tóth was an early Ferencvárosi player and later the club’s head coach before joining the Hungarian anti-fascist resistance, following Nazi Germany’s invasion of Hungary. Tóth helped several hundred Hungarians, including many Jews, escape Nazi detention and death before his arrest and execution in February 1945.
Children attending the game received T shirts bearing Toth’s portrait and signature.
Separately, the World Jewish Congress launched this week the first stage of its joint initiative with Chelsea Football Club in Britain aimed at combating the growing phenomenon of anti-Semitism in sports.
“It is enormously encouraging to see the Hungarian government make use of this central stage of Europa League Football to honor Istvan Toth, who risked his life for the sake of humanity and mutual respect,” said World Jewish Congress CEO Robert Singer.
The match in Budapest was a UEFA Europa League qualifier.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.
If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO