This provides the opportunity to remember the survivors and their families with humility and respect. This event is aimed at ensuring Auschwitz never happens again and that remains an obligation on everybody born since then. And the football family remembers every year, on the occasion of the ‘Remembrance Day in German Football’, that people from their communities were persecuted and murdered by the Nazis. In addition to many different groups who did not conform to their world view or stood in the way of their political plans, it was primarily people of Jewish heritage who were tortured and murdered in the concentration camps.
This year, the football family particularly remembers the people who were stigmatised and brutally persecuted as ‘deviants and homosexuals’ due to their sexuality and sexual identity. Over 10,000 were transported to the concentration camps by the Nazis. They were often victims of perverse medical experiments by the camp doctors who were intent on destroying their victims’ sexual capacity. Their lot included being subjected to mocking contempt and tormented by other camp inmates in excessive acts of violence. They were harassed to the point of suicide, which represented a means of maintaining their dignity and putting an end to their immeasurable suffering.
It is self-evident that sexuality and sexual identity should be inalienable human rights. This also involves deepening and intensifying the dialogue on the issue in football and also forms part of ‘learning from Auschwitz’. This lesson has to be learned again and again. That is the message from the survivors of concentration camps on the ‘Seventeenth Remembrance Day in German Football’ on matchdays 18 and 19.
Bayer 04 Women have their second straight home game as they close out Matchday 5 in the Google Pixel Bundesliga against Carl Zeiss Jena on Monday. Kick-off at the Ulrich-Haberland-Stadion is at 6pm CEST, with head coach Roberto Pätzold expecting a defensive-minded opponent while his team look to continue their good form.
Show moreThe German double winners’ special-edition jersey to mark the club’s 120th anniversary is reminiscent of the first kit worn by players back in the 1907/08 season. The jersey, which the Werkself will wear for the Bundesliga home game against Holstein Kiel on Saturday, 5 October and which has been met with enthusiasm by the players, has numerous special features relating to the club's history, including an NFC chip that leads to exclusive content when scanned with a smartphone.
Show moreBundesliga debutants Holstein Kiel come to the BayArena on Saturday, 5 October (kick-off: 3.30pm CEST) looking to improve on their defensive record up against the Werkself after a tough start to the season. No team has conceded more goals so far than the promoted side. Learn more about our next opponents here…
Show moreVanessa Haim became Bayer 04 Women's sixth summer signing shortly before the start of the training camp in Poland. Around two months after her arrival in Leverkusen, the 27-year-old tells bayer04.de about her move under the Cross and her former job as a teacher.
Show moreThe second international break of the 2024/25 season is round the corner. After the Bundesliga clash against Holstein Kiel this Saturday, 5 October (kick-off 15:30 CEST), several Bayer 04 players will be playing in the next set of UEFA Nations League fixtures, among others. An overview.
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