West Ham United is supporting Holocaust Memorial Day 2019.
Holocaust Memorial Day is held in the United Kingdom on 27 January every year to commemorate the day in 1945 that the Auschwitz concentration camp in modern-day Poland was liberated by Soviet soldiers, and subsequent genocides around the world including Cambodia, Rwanda and Darfur.
In the five years it had been open, an estimated 1.1 million people were killed at the Auschwitz concentration camp, around 90 per cent of whom were Jewish, with the remainder comprising a mix of nationalities including Romany people, Soviets and Polish.
The theme for Holocaust Memorial Day 2019 is Torn from home, which encourages audiences to reflect on how the enforced loss of a place of safety, comfort and security to call ‘home’ is part of the trauma faced by anyone experiencing persecution and genocide.
The date is also marked across the world by International Holocaust Remembrance Day, commemorating the genocide that resulted in the deaths of more than six million Jews, Romani, physically and mentally disabled and homosexual men at the hands of the Nazi regime and its collaborators.
Joint-Chairman David Gold, who is Jewish, has supported the Hammers since he was born and grew up in Green Street in Upton Park, just a few yards from the Club’s former Boleyn Ground stadium, in the late 1930s.
West Ham took Israel captain Mordechai Spiegler on trial in 1970, following the striker’s outstanding displays at the 1970 FIFA World Cup finals in Mexico, and he appeared in three pre-season matches.
The reigning Israeli Player of the Year, who had scored a prolific rate for Maccabi Netanya, later played for Paris Saint-Germain in France and alongside Pele for the New York Cosmos in the North American Soccer League, and also appeared for a European XI against the Hammers in Geoff Hurst’s Testimonial game in November 1971.
The Irons also welcomed the Israeli national team to east London for Paul Heffer’s Testimonial match in March 1973, winning 3-2, before Ron Greenwood’s squad made the return journey to Jaffa the following month, drawing 2-2.
More recently, Israel internationals Eyal Berkovic, Yossi Benayoun, Yaniv Katan and Tal Ben Haim have worn the Claret and Blue, as did Jewish United States international Jonathan Spector.
For more information about Holocaust Memorial Day 2019, click here.