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Thread: The Death Match !

  1. #1

    Thumbs up The Death Match !

    As German tanks rolled deep into USSR, an astonishing battle was being waged between Soviet and Nazi teams on a football pitch in occupied Kiev. The home team knew that it could be fatal to win.

    That mid-afternoon of Sunday August 9th 1942 was hot in Kiev. Thousands of soccer fans, some in shabby civilian clothes but many of them in German military uniform, headed for the Zenit Stadium. The kick-off was 5 o'clock, a delayed start because of the summer heat. Soon, the temperature began to fall, and, in the packed stadium, an eager crowd waited for the two teams to appear. The Ukrainian home side ran out in their dark red shirts and white shorts, the team colours of USSR national soccer team. The visitors appeared in white shirts and black shorts, the strip of the German national side.

    The whistle blew. The game was under way and the match was fiercely contested. The home team won convincingly. The Ukrainian supporters went wild. The Germans glowered.

    The celebrations were brief. Over the next few weeks, most of the home players were arrested and taken to Gestapo headquarters in the city centre. There they were interrogated and tortured before being taken to a concentration camp on the outskirts of the city. Three were eventually shot dead. Within a matter of months, four of the victorious Ukrainian players had died at the hands of the Nazis. By the war's end in 1945, there were few known survivors of what became known as the Game of Death.

    It was Makar Goncharenko, the last known survivor of FC Start, felt able to tell the truth.
    Last edited by vijay; February 4th, 2008 at 01:32 AM.
    It's better to be alone than in a bad company.

  2. #2

    Thumbs up The FC Start

    When the Germans invaded the Soviet Union in 1941, the Russian armies crumpled in the face of the most ferocious invasion of modern times. One of the greatest military disasters occurred at Kiev, capital of the Ukraine, where 665 000 Soviet troops were forced to lay down their arms, the biggest mass surrender in history. Morale in the city plummeted. The population was starved and brutalised by invaders who were intent not just on conquest, but also to mete out humiliation to a people perceived as sub-human. As many as 180 000 citizens were executed by the SS, and thousands more were deported as slave labour. It was against this unlikely backdrop that football became the rallying point for national pride and resistance.

    Towards the end of 1941, three months after Kiev had surrendered to the German army, a football fan called Iosif Kordik thought he saw someone he recognised in the street, dressed in rags. It was the gaunt figure of Nikolai Trusevich, the goalkeeper of Dynamo Kiev, the most famous football team in the USSR - a man whom Kordik had often cheered from the terraces. Before the war, Dynamo Kiev, had been one of the finest sides in the world.

    He had been captured by the Germans, and only recently been released from a German POW camp, one of the 630,000 other prisoners captured by Germans when Kiev fell. Like so many other Ukrainians, Trusevich was living on the streets. He had the consolation of knowing that his Jewish wife and child had managed to get out of Kiev to the relative safety of Odessa. But he also knew that if he did not starve or freeze to death he would be picked up by the police and either shipped to Germany as slave labour or sent back to a camp.

    Kordik, however, as the manager of one of Kiev's largest bakeries was in the privileged position of being able to offer one of his sporting heroes food, shelter and job. All he asked in return was that Trusevich should form a football team.

    When Kordik mentioned the idea, Trusevich's immediate reaction was disbelief. Trusevich found the idea baffling, but Kordik was adamant and Slowly Kordik won him over. Trusevich soon started trying to track down his old team. The first person he found was the winger Makar Goncharenko, who was staying with his mother-in-law.

    Goncharenko remembers the invitation:

    Kolya came to me at Kreschatick Street where I was living illegally at my former mother-in-law's house. He came to me to have a chat about this idea and to find some of the other boys. We got in touch with Kuzmenko (striker) and Svyridovskiy and they contacted some of the others. - Makar Goncharenko

    Many of the prewar Dynamo stars were dead, some had broken out of the city's encirclement and were fighting elsewhere. Others had perished in the camps. There were those, such as Lazar Kogen, who had been executed by the Germans, and those who had simply disappeared without trace. But eventually enough were found to form the nucleus of a team. soon Kordik had some of the finest football players in the Soviet Union working at the bakery. They called themselves FC Start. (Football Club Start. Start means the same in English as Russian, was a common name for sports clubs in the USSR.)

    FC Start comprised eight players from Dynamo Kiev (Nikolai Trusevich, Mikhail Svyridovskiy, Mykola Korotkykh, Oleksiy Klimenko, Fedir Tyutchev, Pavel Komarov, Ivan Kuzmenko, Makar Goncharenko) and three players from Lokomotiv Kiev (Vladimir Balakin, Vasil Sukharev and Mikhail Melnyk).

    In the spring of 1942, the Germans decided to set up a football league. By then, most of the population of Kiev was starving. The Germans mistook the docility born of hunger and the fear of random death as an acceptance of the Reich. They wanted to convince the Ukrainians that life under Hitler could be more pleasant than under Stalin.

    The new season started on June 7 and it was inevitable that Kordik would enter a team. Many of the team members felt that playing in the league at all could be seen as collaborating. Trusevich, however, gathered the men together at the bakery and convinced them that if they took part they would give the people of Kiev something to cheer for.

    The deciding factor was a set of football jerseys, as red as the Soviet flag, which Trusevich had discovered abandoned in a warehouse. He spread them on the floor in front of the squad.

    "We may not have any weapons," he said, "but we can fight our victories on the football pitch. We will be playing in the colour of our flag. The fascists should know that our colour cannot be defeated."
    Last edited by vijay; February 4th, 2008 at 01:21 AM.
    It's better to be alone than in a bad company.

  3. #3

    Thumbs up The Championship !

    Start's opening match was the first of the season. On June 7th 1942, They were playing Rukh, a team formed of Ukrainian nationalists who sympathised with the German invaders. Rukh had been put together by Georgi Shvetsov, a former player for Dynamo's great local rivals, Lokomotiv.

    Shvetsov must have believed that Start would be no match for his team. The FC Start players, under-nourished, and tired from twenty-four hours shifts at the bakery, were clad in cut-down trousers instead of shorts, work boots or canvas shoes instead of proper football boots and they wore old, threadbare shirts. Goncharenko still had his football boots but the others were not so lucky. The team had cobbled together a combination of everyday shoes and boots, anything they could find. The Rukh players, being nationalists, had regular jobs, better fed, more rested and wore regular soccer kit.

    From the moment the referee blew his whistle, however, it became obvious that Start were by far the superior side. FC Start won by 7-2. Shvetsov was humiliated and he was furious. He immediately went to the German commandant and asked that FC Start be banned from training at their stadium.

    Despite the training ban, Trusevich's team went on to a winning streak that summer.

    On June 21, FC Start beat the Hungarian Garrison by 6-2. On July 5, a cheerfully carefree Romanian side was thrashed 11-0.. Both teams represented allies of the Germans. And with each win, the morale of the people of Kiev lifted.

    Increasing numbers of Kiev's people gathered just to talk about our team. The German authorities, who until now had tried to keep politics out of football, suddenly realised that a population they had thought cowed had found a rallying point. The entire theme of German conquest propaganda - that Ukraine had been "liberated" by the Germans from under the communist heel - was being undermined by a football team which evoked the glory days of Soviet sporting success.

    To try to stop Start supporters coming to their matches, the authorities imposed a hefty five-rouble admission fee, but the crowds simply sneaked into the stadium instead. The winning sequence began to have an effect on the morale of the oppressed people of Kiev who were soon willing to pay five roubles a game to see their favourites crush the opposition. This was a price well worth paying, especially if the opposing team came from the regiments of the occupying powers.

    Having beaten all their domestic rivals and a side from a Hungarian Garrison, there was little opposition left for Start, except the German occupiers.

    On July 12, Start defeated a German Army Team by 9-1.

    A stronger army team was selected for the next match on Friday 17th July 1942. They were invited to play a German military side, PGS and they set in motion a chain of events that would make them far more than simply a football team. Despite playing a better-prepared, and better-fed, PGS side they won (6-0) with an ease that belied the hardships and conditions that they had been forced to endure.

    On July 19, things went from bad to worse for the occupiers when FC Start destroyed a fancied Hungarian outfit, MSG Wal by 5-1. The Hungarians proposed a return match, held on July 26, but were defeated 3-2.

    It was too much. Instead of sweetening the population with their football league, the Germans had created a focus for Ukrainian resistance. They could not shoot the players or throw them into prison for fear of turning them into martyrs. The Germans decided that the only way to destroy the myth was for Start to play a German team and lose. The Ukranians must be seen to be comprehensively beaten by representatives of the master race.

    The chosen weapon was the Luftwaffe team Flakelf - the Flak Eleven - which, filled with the best players the Germans could find, had a reputation for invincibility. On Thursday 6th August. Once again the German propaganda machine swung into action in anticipation of an easy victory over the Kiev side, but, once again, the spirit and ability of Start triumphed and they won 5-1.

    It was a result the Germans had no intention of accepting. How could they explain the evident superiority of their opponents, who didn't even have enough to eat, if they truly were the master race?

    Unusually, but unsurprisingly, there were no reports of that particular game in the German-controlled Kiev newspapers the next day. Within twenty-four hours of the final whistle though, hundreds of official posters began to appear all over Kiev. A re-match had been arranged for August 9, 1942. Underneath the word Football, and in the same size type, was the word Revenge. No one could doubt that the Germans intended to win this game.
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    Last edited by vijay; February 4th, 2008 at 01:25 AM.
    It's better to be alone than in a bad company.

  4. #4

    Thumbs up The Death Match !

    A strange atmosphere filled the streets of Kiev as people made their way to the stadium. Although they wanted their team to win, they realised that the Germans would not take defeat lightly. Something more than football was at stake. Armed Nazi guards and their German Shepherd dogs patrolled the touchline. The German spectators and their Ukrainian sympathisers had the seats in the grandstand the Ukrainians had to sit on the grassy verge surrounding the pitch. As the numbers swelled, the crowd gained confidence and the stadium soon rang with traditional Ukrainian songs.

    As the Ukrainian players were getting ready in the FC Start dressing room, an SS officer entered unannounced. According to Goncharenko, he addressed the team in perfect Russian:

    "I am the referee of today's game. I know you are a very good team. Please follow the rules, do not break any of the rules, and before the game, greet your opponents in our fashion."

    Goncharenko knew immediately what this meant. They had a Nazi fanatic as referee. And FC Start were expected to give the Nazi salute before the start of the game and shout Heil Hitler! .

    After the SS man left, there was pandemonium in the dressing room. Some players wanted to pull out altogether. Others wanted to play hard and win hard. A Rukh player, who was a ring-in for FC Start, suggested it was best if they throw the match. Meanwhile a Rumanian delegation appeared with followers and fruit and wished FC Start good luck. Other visitors just brought their advice, which was mainly along the lines of deliberately losing the match. In all this hubbub, the team decided to just go out there and play football.

    The minutes before kick-off did little to reduce the tension. The Flakelf players clicked their heels to attention and, right arms extended, shouted Heil Hitler! The German spectators roared approval.

    The FC Start players stood with heads down. It was their turn. The crowd waited to see what the Start players would do. They slowly raised their arms. It looked as if they were going along with their instructions from the 'referee'. But instead of giving a Nazi salute, the FC Start players brought their arms back to their chests and, in unison, shouted a Soviet Sports slogan, 'FizcultHura!' (Physical Culture Hooray!). A great cheer went up from the Ukrainains.

    The chant was a public rejection of the Nazi regime. To make matters worse 'Hurrah!' was the battle cry of Red Army soldiers, a sound that the German soldiers present would have known only too well.

    Then the game began.

    Just as the FC Start players forecast, the Nazi referee ignored Flakelf fouls and the German team quickly targeted Trusevich, the goalkeeper who, after a sustained campaign of physical challenges, was kicked in the head by a Flakelf forward and left groggy. While Trusevich was recovering, Flakelf went one goal up.

    The referee continued to ignore FC Start appeals against their opponents' violence. The Flakelf team went on with their war of intimidation using all the tactics of a dirty team, going for the man not the ball, shirt-holding, and tackling from behind, as well as going over the ball. Despite this FC Start scored with a long shot from a free kick by Kuzmenko. Then Goncharenko, against the run of play, dribbled the ball around almost the entire Flakelf defence and tapped it into in the German net. 2-1! By half-time, FC Start were yet another goal up.

    In the jubilant FC Start dressing room, the team received two unwanted visitors. The collaborator Shvetsov turned up and told them that it would be in their best interests to protect themselves. He left. Then an SS officer came into their room. "You have played very well" he said, "and we are very impressed. But you cannot expect to win. I want you to take a moment to think of the consequences." The message couldn't have been clearer. If they did not throw the game away they would live to regret it. He turned and left.

    When the players emerged for the second half, the perimeter of the pitch was lined with soldiers facing the Ukrainian fans amid fears that this event could provoke crowd trouble. For all the players the importance of this game could not have been made clearer. Start, for their fans, symbolised a resistance that they could not display themselves and for a brief time the players embodied the spirit of Kiev and truly played not for themselves but for their community and society.

    The second half was almost an anti-climax. The Flakelf players seemed to be terrified of the Ukrainian fans and were far less physical. Each side scored twice. Towards the end of the match, with FC Start in an almost unbeatable position at 5-3, Klimenko, a defender, got the ball, beat the entire German rearguard and walked around the German goalkeeper. Then, instead of letting it cross the goal line, he turned around and kicked the ball back towards the centre circle.

    Vladimir Mayevsky, who was taken to the game by his father, recalled the final humiliation inflicted on the Germans by the defender Klimenko: "He ran to the goal line, but instead of putting the ball into the goal he stopped it on the line. Then he ran into the goal, turned, and kicked the ball back up the field."

    It was total humiliation for Flakelf. An FC Start defender choosing not to score against them. The SS referee blew the final whistle before the ninety minutes were up and the players left the field with the ecstatic cheers of the people of Kiev ringing in their ears.

    The atmosphere after the match was far from jubilant as the players recognised that what they had done would have repercussions, but for a while things appeared to have blown over.
    Last edited by vijay; February 4th, 2008 at 01:27 AM.
    It's better to be alone than in a bad company.

  5. #5

    Thumbs up The Consequences !

    For a week nothing happened. On Sunday following the Start won the team of the Rukh nationalist by 8-0. It would be his last game. After the game the Gestapo turned up at the bakery. The players were called, one at a time, bundled into a car and taken away to Gestapo headquarters.

    The Germans wanted them to admit to being spies or partisans - anything that would provide an excuse for executing them. The players were kept in solitary confinement and interrogated three times a day for three weeks. The sessions came at different times, so that the players would be disorientated. They were savagely and regularly beaten and kept on a starvation diet. The lights were left on in their cells and they were woken swiftly if they ever went to sleep.

    None of the players cracked - but one of them, Nikolai Korotkykh, had been denounced to the Germans as a Soviet Intelligence officer by his sister. He was taken away and, over 20 days, tortured to death.

    Not able to break the resistance of the players, the Gestapo sent the 10 survivors to a concentration camp in Siretz near Babi Yar, on the outskirts of Kiev. There the prisoners had to work to die of hunger, dehydration, disease or hypothermia. This in addition to having to cope with shot, shootings, enforcamentos, burned alive and attacks by dogs.

    At the camp, On February 24, 1943, three of the players were executed, Alexei Klimenko, the player who had heaped the final humiliation upon the Germans by refusing to score, Ivan Kuzmenko who led the Start line and the figurehead of the team Nikolai Trusevich. They were slaughtered one-by-one, standing in a line, with no great escape or cinematic license to save them. But Trusevich, who more than anyone had symbolised the team's resistance and courage had time for one final act of defiance. As the assassin struck the back of Trusevich's head with the butt of his rifle the keeper fell to the ground, but immediately sprang up and shouted 'Krasny sport ne umriot' or 'Red sport will never die'. He died as he had lived, not on his knees but on his feet, in his keeper's jersey.

    One, Pavel Komarov, was suspected of turning informant and he appears to have been allowed to escape the camp in 1943 as the Red Army returned to capture Kiev. He disappeared from view.

    Three of the other players, Goncharenko, Tyutchev and Svyridovskiy, who, fortunately, were in a work squad in the city, were shocked when the news filtered through. They guessed that, because of their profile as FC Start players, it might be their turn next. All three quickly made the decision to escape and they stayed hidden in the city until Kiev was liberated from German occupation in November 1943.

    Goncharenko (last known surviver) was not in the camp that morning. He had managed to inveigle himself into a position of trust and was allowed to work as a cobbler in town. A team-mate told him that the Germans were looking for him. He gave his police guards the slip and went into hiding, where he remained until Kiev was liberated on November 6, 1943.

    Finally, of the Lokomotiv players who joined the FC Start team for the Game of Death, nothing is known. They disappeared completely in the wartime chaos.

    Ultimately the courage and bravery of Start is a beacon of the power of football to move and transform people. It would be as much of an anathema to today's players as the maximum wage. The story of these men, possibly more than any other, reminds us of what football began as and what it means to people.

    Their sacrifice, recognised by a monument which newly-married Dynamo players visit on their wedding day, will stand as an enduring symbol of human suffering and extraordinary bravery.
    It's better to be alone than in a bad company.

  6. #6
    Hey Vijay, this was very interesting. I didn't have any clue whatsoever about it.

    Thanks for sharing.

    ~Sumit



  7. #7
    This is a great story! Thanks for posting.

    Would you also put the source link for it please?
    Do more, love more

  8. #8

    Smile

    Quote Originally Posted by sumeetmalik View Post
    This is a great story! Thanks for posting.

    Would you also put the source link for it please?
    Thanx Sumit and Sumeet

    First it was mentioned in Izvestiya in November 16, 1943, the newspaper reported the execution of famous sportsmen by the Germans, though it didn't mention the match itself.
    The Death Match came to public attention in 1958, after Petro Severov published the article The Last Duel in the Evening Kiev newspaper. The following year Severov, together with Naum Khalemsky, published a book with the same name, that told the story of FC Start and its struggle against the Nazi occupiers. Memoirs by Goncharenko followed.
    Later a book Dynamo: Defending the Honour of Kiev by famous Auther Andy Dougan made it worldwide popular.


    PS : I read about this Match long back.On this Sunday i did some search on Net about this and found hundreds of sites mentioning it. It took hours to select a few sites which seems credible source to me so far. I cross examind the data and incidents and put together the main events what seems ground reality.

    Here are the few links i referred for this article :

    Official web site of The Telegraph (UK)

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/ma...v02.xml&page=1

    Official Site of Australian Government, Depatment of Education, Science and training

    http://www.hyperhistory.org/index.ph...id=714&op=page

    FC Dynamo Kiev, At Wiki

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FC_Dynamo_Kyiv

    The Death Match, At Wiki

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Death_Match

    Web site about kiev

    http://www.kiev-life.com/kyiv/match-of-death

    One of the biggest Soccer Blog

    http://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?t=360624

    Review of Andy Dougan's book "Dynamo: Defending the Honour of Kiev" At Amazon.com

    http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dynamo-Defen...ustomerReviews

    Review of Andy Dougan's book "Dynamo: Defending the Honour of Kiev" At another site

    http://www.kerrins.co.uk/articles-re...amo-kiev-1942/



    You may find another hundred sites about this famous game
    Last edited by vijay; February 5th, 2008 at 03:00 PM.
    It's better to be alone than in a bad company.

  9. #9

    Thumbs up A Poem !

    A poem By Peter Goulding

    Dynamo Death Match

    In ’41, the German army launched a swift offensive,
    And thus Kiev, despite defiance, fell.
    Naturally the population was quite apprehensive,
    The future being impossible to tell.
    Many men were rounded up and herded into camps,
    And thousands never lived to tell the tale,
    And those that were released came back to haunt the streets like tramps,
    Destitute and underfed and frail.

    Baker Josef Kordik was an ardent football fan,
    Dynamo Kiev his chosen team.
    He owned a thriving bakery, which he with kindness ran,
    The staff all holding him in high esteem.
    A small-time Oskar Schindler, he had rescued many men
    From the terrifying spectre of starvation,
    And many of his workers had been football icons when
    Dynamo were heroes of the nation.

    The occupying Germans in the year of ’42,
    Decided to create a football league,
    Comprised of German soldiers and their allied units too –
    A distraction from the milit’ry fatigue.
    Now the players in the bakery were masters at their art,
    Despite the mental scars and malnutrition,
    They quickly formed a decent football team, named FC Start,
    And applied to join the German competition.

    Certain of the players had misgivings at the time,
    Bitter, scalded wounds refused to heal.
    Consorting with the enemy was known to be a crime –
    How would the Ukrainian people feel?
    But Trusevich, the goalie, a most legendary figure,
    Persuaded them at last to come on board.
    “People will support us!” he declared with solemn vigour,
    “A chance for national pride to be restored.”

    So FC Start began to play, and quickly took control,
    Winning every game by five or six.
    And the humbled population roundly cheered at every goal,
    And revelled at the bakers’ fancy tricks.
    The Germans had a problem, for their faces were as red
    As the jerseys the Ukrainians all sported.
    Of course, they could have solved it with some bullets to the head,
    But trouble ’rose when martyrdom was courted.

    The issue, they decided, must be settled on the field,
    And so they formed a German super squad.
    Drawn from the famed Luftwaffe, they would surely never yield
    Except maybe to Hitler and to God.
    Flakelf were the greatest team the world had ever known,
    FC Start could not hope to survive.
    The Germans scored a beauty, but the generals had to groan
    As the underfed Ukrainians knocked in five.

    A re-match was soon ordered, and was subsequently played,
    On the 9th of August, 1942.
    The worst traits of the Flakelf team were brutally displayed,
    As they kicked the gallant bakers black and blue.
    Surprisingly the German ref had something in his eye
    Whenever something happened underhand.
    The fans around the ground vent their abhorrence to the sky,
    And the Germans sent their dogs into the stand.

    Despite the constant mauling, when the half-time whistle blew,
    Heroic Start were three-one in the lead.
    And in the Kiev dressing room, the optimism grew
    That once again the bakers could succeed.
    And then they got a visit from a man from the SS,
    Who praised their proud performance with a grin,
    And then he added darkly that the team could surely guess
    The dire consequences should they win.

    The threat was very obvious. The team, though, paid no heed,
    And looked to maximise their scoring spree.
    They never were in danger of surrendering their lead,
    And beat the mighty Germans five to three.
    Aleksei Klimenko rubbed some salt into the rout,
    Rounding the poor keeper with elation,
    Stopped the ball upon the line, then turned and kicked it out,
    Compounding Flakelf’s gross humiliation.

    A week or so thereafter, and the bakery was raided,
    The football team was spirited away.
    The methods of their captors were with arrogance paraded,
    As the wounded Nazi eagle had its day.
    They tried to get confessions that the football stars were spies,
    In order that they could be executed.
    But not a single football star acceded to their lies,
    And all the allegations were refuted.

    Nikolai Korotkykh had been tortured till he died.
    The others were reluctantly transported
    To Siretz Concentration Camp, a very short train ride.
    No longer would Germanic pride be thwarted.
    And there they stayed for fourteen months, till liberation came,
    Though several did not manage to survive.
    Trusevich, the goalie in the Dynamo Death Game,
    Was one who didn’t see the day alive.

    In 1996, old Makar Goncharenko died,
    The last surviving member of the team.
    But the legend still burns brightly of that undernourished team
    That fanned a glowing, nationalistic dream.
    And Hillsborough, Heysel, Bradford, all have shown us in their turn,
    That Shankly’s famous edict was just trite.
    But, for the players of FC Start, there could be no return.
    On that occasion, Shankly got it right.
    It's better to be alone than in a bad company.

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