Holocaust survivor Abba Naor visits FC Bayern

For two hours, you could hear the much-quoted pin drop in the canteen on Säbener Straße. Smartphones were muted, everyone listened intently - and at the end, the 150 or so FC Bayern staff members rose to their feet to give a sustained, deeply respectful round of applause: On 8 May, to mark the 80th anniversary of VE Day, the German champions had invited Holocaust survivor Abba Naor to give an internal contemporary witness talk as part of their ‘Red against Racism’ initiative, and the 97-year-old reacted to the applause with these words: "I'm not an actor, believe me. I've been telling this, my story, for 30 years now - and it's always the same: I want young people to listen. Life is a unique gift. You shouldn't play around with it. Others also have a right to life. It can't be any other way. I hope that the people who listen to me will become better people."

President Herbert Hainer welcomed all those present, including some invited guests such as representatives of the Kurt Landauer Foundation and the Jewish Community of Munich and Upper Bavaria, and explained: "Commemoration is not neutral - whoever reminds us of 8 May is taking a stand against the re-writing of history and the trivialisation of right-wing violence. FC Bayern is not just the players in the spotlight; all the staff are FC Bayern. Thank you very much for being here today."

Following his talk, Abba Noar spent considerable time signing his book “I sang for the SS” then asked to be taken to the Kurt Landauer statue on the training ground for a photo before concluding: "I felt at home here and I think what FC Bayern is doing is unique. Inviting someone like me here, for example: What club does something like that? You don't find what you did today here at Säbener Straße in the USA, nor even in Israel. Keep doing what you're doing, my children: you are needed!”

He himself does not need to remember, he said - "because I have never forgotten: Not my murdered mother, not my murdered brothers, my whole family. Every day I think of them anew: no matter what I do, they are always with me. They live on. But I want those who listen to me to understand what happened. I will talk about it for as long I can speak. Because when we stop talking about it, others start forgetting."

Moving story

There are still around 200,000 Holocaust survivors worldwide, 11,500 of whom live in Germany. Abba Naor was sent to the Kaunas ghetto at the age of 13 and survived various concentration camps and the Dachau death march, where he was liberated by the Allies at the age of 17. The credo of the avowed FC Bayern and Thomas Müller fan: "I will talk about it for as long I can speak. So that no-one can say: I didn't know." He does not want to hate, but to help. In his speech, Hainer recalled former president Kurt Landauer, "who is still a role model for reconciliation across generations: he returned from exile to extend his hand to FC Bayern and Germans in general. 8 May is commemorated as a day of remembrance to mark the end of National Socialism - and we should all be careful that history does not repeat itself.

The event ended with the opportunity to talk to members of the ‘Coffee with a Jew’ project led by Daniel Gitbud. "After the talk by Abba Noar, we wanted to give people the opportunity to look positively to the future after the memories of the horrors of the Nazi regime by giving them the chance to talk about Judaism and the difficult issue of anti-Semitism in an informal way," explained Benny Folkmann, managing director of FC Bayern eV. and, alongside Andreas Werner, head of the ‘Red against Racism’ initiative. Gitbud encouraged those present to ask any questions they had on their minds, "because we want this project to get people talking and break down stereotypical clichés".

Since its foundation five years ago, the ‘Red against Racism’ initiative, whose guiding principle is ‘Encounters’, has not simply been about printing a slogan on a shirt or banner every now and then for a specific occasion, but rather about consistently raising awareness in terms of content and sustainability, and against this backdrop, the contemporary witness talk at Säbener Straße was another important milestone. 

Further information on ‘Red against Racism’: