Before Kowalski could answer, Sokov said first: "Is it related to football?"
"That's right, Mr. General!" Kowalski nodded and said with a sad and angry face: "It's a death game related to football."
"Tell me," Sokov looked at the other person and said, "I want to hear how the damn Germans use football to kill people."
"Before the war broke out, football was the most popular sport among Poles. The stadiums were always full, and people would even climb trees to watch football. Because some people would scold the referees, and even dozens of police officers were needed to maintain order in the stands, but
Even so, conflicts sometimes break out between fans.
In the 1934 World Cup, although Poland failed to qualify, the German team came to Poland to hold a warm-up match. Tens of thousands of German fans came to Warsaw to watch the game between the two countries.
At that time, football was a means of communication of cultural friendship between the two countries. But with the outbreak of the war and the German occupation of Poland, football in Poland was banned."
Hearing this, Sokov asked in surprise: "What, football is banned in Poland, is it true?"
"Of course it's true." Kowalski said with certainty: "Although the Germans banned Poles from playing football, the Poles who love football continue to play football at the risk of being executed.
On May 20, 1940, players from all over Poland spontaneously blocked the first Polish Football League, which was officially launched in a park in southern Warsaw. There were a total of 8 teams participating, and the competition adopted a single round-robin format. If two teams
If the teams are tied within 90 minutes, a 30-minute overtime will be played. If the game is still tied after 120 minutes, a rematch will be held instead of a penalty kick to determine the winner.
The playing environment at that time was very bad. There was no grass field at all, and the playing field was full of dirt and rubble.
In order to hide from the eyes and ears of the German secret police, the players put clothes on the wooden door frame they made to make it look more like a clothes rack than a door frame. There is no net, and a spontaneous referee will judge whether the goal is scored.
People don't dare to draw lines on the so-called court. The center line, penalty area and sidelines can only be estimated by the players themselves. Sometimes the players take the ball out of the baseline and no one cares.
At the beginning of this secret league, there were only a dozen spectators, but as more and more people got the news, they came from all over Poland to watch the game and cheer for the unyielding Polish spirit. Finally, the secret police got
After hearing the news, they sent troops to stop the league. Many players were arrested and then sent to concentration camps in various places or directly shot. That was when I was caught and sent to Majdanek concentration camp."
Sidorin couldn't help but interjected and asked: "After you were sent to the concentration camp, did you still have a chance to play football?"
"Yes, Mr. General." Kowalski nodded and said: "After I entered the concentration camp, I did have many opportunities to play football, but this was the beginning of my nightmare.
Hermann Flowerstedt, the commander of the concentration camp at that time, was a senior football enthusiast. When he learned that dozens of us were arrested by the secret police and sent to the concentration camp because of playing football, he organized
A team of 30 people took us everywhere to compete."
"A team of 30 people." Sidorin said with some surprise: "There are really a lot of people."
After Sokov waited for Sidorin to finish speaking, he then asked: "Kowalski, I wonder where Hermann Flowerstedt took you to and what kind of team you played against?"
Hearing Sokov's question, Kowalski smiled bitterly and continued: "The teams we compete with are all teams composed of the German Wehrmacht or SS from all over Poland.
The rules of the game at that time were: If we beat the opponent, then everyone on the team would be shot. If we lost the game without losing a single goal, two participating players would be shot randomly."
"This German commander is simply a devil." Sidorin was so angry that he slapped his hands on the table and cursed: "If you win, shoot the whole team; if you lose, you have to shoot the players randomly. If you lose a game,
Six goals, in addition to shooting all the players on the field, a substitute player must be brought in to make up the number."
Kowalski agreed with Sidorin's statement: "Yes, Mr. General, this is exactly the case. Due to the heavy psychological burden, the first game our team participated in was eliminated by the German Party.
The Guards team played 7-0, but all 11 players on the field were shot, and three substitutes were also shot."
"How were the substitute players who were shot selected?" Sokov asked.
"Draw lots." Kowalski said with a wry smile: "Herman Florstetter held a handful of bamboo sticks in his hand and asked us to step forward to draw lots one by one. The substitute player with the shortest three sticks would be killed by them.
Shot."
"Kowalski," Ponejelin couldn't help but ask after hearing this: "Has the team in your concentration camp ever won a game since its formation until now?"
Kowalski thought for a moment, then nodded and said: "Won. Won twice!"
"Win twice?!" Ponejelin said with some surprise: "Didn't you say that if you win the game, the entire team, including the substitutes, will be shot? Since you have won twice, how do you survive?
Came down?"
"Mr. General," Kowalski replied: "Maybe because too many people were shot, the number of players in the team was getting smaller and smaller, and there were not enough players to participate in new games. So Hermann Flor
Staite appointed me as the coach, selecting strong men from the concentration camp prisoners, training them, and developing them as reserve players.
Because I stayed in the concentration camp to train new players, I did not participate in the match between the team in Warsaw and Germany's Eintracht Frankfurt. At first, the players were a little reluctant to let go, but they lost two players in a row.
After the ball was played, the players on the field thought that at least four people would be shot at the end of the game anyway, and maybe that unlucky guy would be them, so they let go of their hands and launched an attack with all their strength.
After a fierce battle for 90 minutes, the team went ahead with a score of 3:2, defeating the invincible Frankfurt football team in one fell swoop. Hermann Flowerstedt felt that a group of inferior Poles had defeated the noble Germans.
, was an irrelevant matter to everyone, so they ordered all the players who went to Warsaw to participate in the war to be shot.
After all the players were shot, the first thing Hermann Flowerstedt did when he returned to the concentration camp was to speed up my training and prepare to compete against the new team again in half a month."
When Sokov heard this, he secretly thought: The Soviet Union failed in the 1952 World Cup, and most of the players on the participating team were sent to Siberia to dig potatoes. It was not until Stalin died that he was pardoned by Khrushchev and returned to Russia.
Returned to Moscow and continued their football careers.
Compared with these Polish players, they are undoubtedly lucky. Although they suffered some hardships, they at least saved their lives and can even return to the green field to engage in the career they love.
"It takes half a month to train a group of people who don't understand football into players and participate in the game." Sidorin said with emotion: "This is not an easy task."
"Yes, it is indeed not easy to form a team within half a month." Kowalski agreed with Sidorin's statement: "Just when I was worried, another
A group of players were sent to concentration camps."
"Another group of players were sent to the concentration camp?" Sokov asked curiously: "Where did they come from? Could it be that after you were arrested and sent to the concentration camp, a new team emerged?
Yet?"
"You are right, Mr. General." Kowalski nodded and said: "After players participating in the first football league were arrested or shot in large numbers, on May 20, 1941, eight more teams secretly
The second football league was organized.
With the help of some patriots, the players came to the open space next to the Warsaw train station to play football. Although the gravel on the ground made it almost impossible for the players to step down, the sound of the roaring trains could cover up the noise of the game.
The grove also allows players to retreat in time after hearing the alarm.
They can play 4 games a day. Once it is known that German soldiers will be transported to the train station, the organizing committee will temporarily change the playing venue. During the game, the sentry responsible for keeping wind is more important than the referee and coach. As soon as they sound the alarm,
, the players would disperse and run away, and the fans would help them cover. The final league championship was won by the Bisk team of Liski, a former member of the UEFA Executive Committee and an official of the Polish Football Association.
In 1943, under the tip of spies, the Germans discovered the headquarters of Biske Club, arrested most of the players and key members of the club, and sent them to concentration camps. The players I saw were players from Biske Club.
I later heard that after the surviving players escaped the limelight, they formed a new Marymount Club team in the same place."
When Kowalski mentioned Marymount Club, Sokov had some impressions. With the end of the war, Marymount Club became the first professional club in Poland after the war. The Polish Football Association awarded medals to the surviving players.
, the medal pattern is the mermaid statue that symbolizes the tenacious spirit of the Polish people. After the war, most of the players of this team entered the Polish Football Association and became heroes in the revival of Polish football.
"I once heard of such a thing in a prisoner of war camp." Ponedelin said: "After Germany occupied Kiev, it decided to hold a 'friendly match' with a local football team. In order to boost morale, Germany
People are demanding that Ukrainian teams lose on purpose or they will execute these players.
Facing his hometown elders on the field, the captain of the Ukrainian team said to his teammates: 'There are some things that are worth our lives.' As a result, they defeated the German team 5:3 in the end. The angry Germans executed all the participating players one after another.
Ukrainian players, including many members of the Ukrainian Dynamo Kyiv team."
Sokov had some impressions of what Ponedelin was talking about. In order to commemorate these players, a tall statue was erected outside the home stadium of Dynamo Kiev. In the 1960s and 1970s, this subject was popularized by many former players.
The Soviet writer wrote a book and it was widely disseminated. "The Great Escape" starring the famous American movie star Stallone, the football king Pele and many European football stars was based on this "hero game".
"By the way, you said you won one game." Ponejelin asked: "The Germans who lost will definitely become angry and kill you all, so why do you still survive?"
"Speaking of this, we are lucky." Kowalski said: "Before the game started, officials from the International Red Cross happened to come to inspect. In order to whitewash peace and beautify the concentration camp, the Germans made us win the game.
After that, no action was taken, and we were lucky enough to save a life.
But after the Red Cross officials left, the Germans still used various reasons to torture and kill the players who participated in that game. So far, among the 40 players who participated in that game, only me and one other person were left.
players.”
"Where is that player?" Sokov asked. "Where is he now?"
"died."
"Dead?!" Sokov asked with shock on his face: "When did you die?"
"today!"
After listening to Kowalski's words, Sokov couldn't help but feel a trace of anger on his face. He didn't expect that the Germans actually massacred the prisoners in the concentration camp before escaping.
"Mr. General," Kowalski noticed something was wrong with Sokov's expression and quickly explained: "That player was not killed by the Germans. At least he was still alive and well when the Germans escaped."
When the Germans escaped, another player was still alive and well. Sokov realized that the matter was not simple and might have something to do with his men, so he asked tentatively: "So, when my troops entered the concentration camp,
Is he still alive and well?"
"Yes," Kowalski nodded, "He speaks Russian well. When he saw your troops entering the concentration camp, he took the initiative to say hello."
"Then how did he die?" Sidorin couldn't help but ask: "Was he killed by our people?"
"no."
"Neither the Germans killed him, nor our people." Sidorin said impatiently: "Did he die from being stuffed to death?"
Unexpectedly, as soon as he finished speaking, Kowalski nodded repeatedly and said, "Yes, Mr. General, he was really stretched to death."
"What's going on? How could you be strangled to death?"
"That's it, Mr. General." Kowalski explained to the three of them: "At that time, one of your soldiers gave him a piece of black bread." He gestured with his hand, "It was about the size of a brick."
Sokov looked at the size of his gesture. Where it was the size of a brick, it was obviously as big as a stone. Prisoners in concentration camps were in a state of semi-starvation for a long time. It would be strange to eat such a large piece of bread at once and not be exhausted to death.
.
Kowalski continued: "When I saw that he was full, an officer next to him kindly handed him a bottle of water and asked him to drink some water to see if he could recover."
"How can a person drink water after eating to fullness?" Ponjelin shook his head and said, "The stomach is already full, and when you drink water, the bread will swell and occupy a larger area.
Weird."
Sokov chatted with Andrei and Kowalski for a while. Seeing that it was getting late, he called the officer who sent them here and ordered him: "Take them to find an empty house nearby to live in."
Next, let them take a good bath and eat something. Remember, don’t overeat.”
