Euro 2012 Soccer Tourney Used to Recall Shoah
Israeli students have launched a social media campaign which uses the Euro 2012 soccer games to commemorate the Holocaust.
Over one million people will visit Ukraine and Poland this month to watch the Euro 2012 soccer games. The Israeli students wondered how many of them will remember the some six million Jews murdered in those two countries some 70 years ago.The campaign, titled Euro1945, consists of a website, smartphone applications and Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts.
“We’re basically riding Euro 2012,” the campaign’s designer, Omri Ariav, said. A law student at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya, Israel, he designed the campaign along with seven students.
The graphics of Euro1945 echo the official advertising campaign of Euro2012. The welcome page of Euro1945 displays a map where each EUFA 2012 hosting city and stadium is marked with a Jewish tombstone. A click on the icon produces a summary about the Jewish community that existed there before the Holocaust. The Instagram account is updated daily with photos from before and during the Holocaust.
The text offers historical soccer-related anecdotes such as the Kiev Death Match, held in August 1942 at Zenit Stadium. A team of German soldiers lost the game 3:5 to local players. The Germans sent the victorious team to a concentration camp.
The text on Poznan notes that the first Jewish labor camp in the area was set up at the Poznan Municipal Stadium. “We decided this world event must also help commemorate the victims. Maybe it’s Israeli chutzpah but I don’t think we’re raining on anyone’s parade,” Ariav said.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30
