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.