mcfcinprague said:
Dynamo by Andy Dougan is a stunning true story that I can highly recommend
The Nazi occupation of Kiev during World War II was a singularly brutal period in the history of the Ukraine. It is hard to imagine how the outcome of a football match could matter to a people who lived under constant threat of starvation, disease and death--but it did. In Dynamo--Defending the Honour of Kiev, journalist Andy Dougan tells the extraordinary story of how the players of Ukranian club side Dynamo Kiev--renamed FC Start--were saved from exportation to Nazi labour camps and became a beacon of hope for a city under the heel of the jackboot. Their finest hour was to be when a team of malnourished former Kiev stars took to the pitch against a Luftwaffe XI, and sought to deliver the propaganda coup of the war.
Dougan puts this extraordinary match in context, sketching the bloody history of the region, and reflecting on the roots of a fierce, nationalist spirit which was to express itself in the first half of the 20th century in the face of the totalitarian ideologies and genocidal instincts of both the Soviets and the Nazis. Dynamo became a popular focus of that spirit and its role as an embodiment of Ukrainian pride was never more significant than during the Nazi occupation, in face of astonishing brutality:
The Nazis had such institutionalised contempt for their prisoners that on some occasions they did not even consider them worth a bullet. Some sick prisoners who could not work were savagely beaten senseless and buried alive, in the knowledge that if they did regain consciousness they would not have the strength to free themselves from their shallow graves.
For anybody who doesn't want to get the book but wants to know the story - here is a link to it
<a class="postlink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Death_Match" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Death_Match</a>
And here is the text, it's long I'm sorry
The Death Match
The Death Match was a non-official association football match in 1942 between Soviet POWs — former professional footballers (mostly from Dynamo Kyiv) — and soldiers of the Nazi Germany Wehrmacht.[1] The Soviet footballers defeated the Germans, despite knowing that the consequence of defying them may be deadly. Many of the players were later arrested and sent to a labor camp.
Background
Football had become very popular in the Soviet Union, and particularly in Ukraine in the 1930s. Ukraine's strongest team of this time was Dynamo Kyiv, part of the Dynamo sports society that was funded by the trade unions, the police (including the Secret Police, the NKVD) and the Red Army. In Soviet Russia, football was a state-sponsored activity. In 1938, Dynamo Kyiv came fourth in the national league, scoring seventy-six goals, but then came a dip in their fortunes as they performed poorly in 1939 and 1940.
The 1941 season was never completed, as Germany invaded the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941. Several Dynamo Kyiv players joined the military and went off to fight. As the Germans approached Kiev, the others who had stayed behind helped out with civil defence in the city. The initial success of the Wehrmacht allowed it to capture Kiev, one of the Soviet Union's major cities, from the Red Army. Several of the Dynamo Kyiv players who had survived the onslaught found themselves in prisoner-of-war camps.
Many were prisoners in the Darnitsa Camp.[2] The Darnitsa Camp was a make shift camp for prisoners of war. In taking Kiev the Germans captured over 600,000 Soviet soldiers.[3] These soldiers were housed in appauling conditions, and without food. Many died from decease, starvation, and random executions.[4] The Germans "catagorized" and "processed" the captured soldiers. Many were executed, others sent as slave labor to Germany, yet others were sent to death camps. Those prisoners catagorized as most harmless were released into the general population of occupied Kiev.[5] Kolya Trusevich, Alexei Klimenko, Ivan Kuzmenko, Nikolai Makhinya, Pavel Komarov, Makar Goncharenko, Fyodor Tyutchev, Mikhail Sviridovsky and Mikhail Putsin found themselves homeless and starving in the city. [6]
Occupied Kiev
The estimated population of Kiev before the war was approximately 400,000. The estimated population after the war was approximately 80,000.[7] Constant starvation and death haunted the citizens of Kiev. People were reduced to eating domestic animals, grass, and tree bark. [8] Between September 29th and 30th of 1941 the Germans executed 33, 771 Jews in Kiev at the now infamous ravine of Babi Yar.[9] Thousands of Kievans were sent as slave labor to Germany.[10] The Germans maintained a policy of retribution for every act of sabotage and resistance. For example,a poster in Kiev on November 29, 1941 stated that as retribution for damage to communication equipment such as telephones and telegraph cables, 400 men had been shot in Kiev. [11] The Germans intended to do everything in their power to destroy Ukranian resistance. In fact, they intended to destroy the Ukranian people to make room for German colonization. [12]
FC Start
It was at Kiev's Bakery Number 3 that the players eventually gathered to work in occupied Kiev. It all started when Mykola Trusevych, Dynamo's goalkeeper returned to the city after being released from the Darnitsa camp. Trusevych was given a job as a sweeper in the bakery by Iosif Kordik, a Dynamo fan. Kordik was the bakery's new manager, who held his privileged position there because of his German origins. Kordik, a sports enthusiast, then hit on the idea of setting up a bakery football team and, in the spring of 1942, Trusevych began a search over Kiev, looking for former team mates. His first find was the tricky winger Makar Goncharenko. 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 and Svyridovskiy and they contacted some of the others. [13]
Over the next few weeks, FC Start (Football Club Start) was formed comprising eight players from Dynamo (Mykola Trusevych, Mikhail Svyridovskiy, Mykola Korotkykh, Oleksiy Klimenko, Fedir Tyutchev, Mikhail Putistin, Ivan Kuzmenko, Makar Goncharenko) and three players from Lokomotiv Kiev (Vladimir Balakin, Vasil Sukharev and Mikhail Melnyk).
The inaugural game of the season took place on June 7, 1942. That day, FC Start played its first game in the local league against Rukh, a team made up of other Ukranian players. The league itself was run by Georgi Shvetsov, a former footballer and sports instructor. Rukh was Shvetsov's team. Start won 7-2. [14]
The decision to play in the league did not come lightly to the Start players. There were those among the players that believed participating in Shvetsov’s league was tantamount to collaboration with the Nazis. The Nazis were supporting the league as a way to introduce “normalcy” into the beleaguered city. In this way, helping them pacify the city by winning over the populace. Other players believed that playing may help lift morale of the people in Kiev.[15]
The decision was made to play. And to emphasize the fact that the players were playing for the City, they wore red colored football jerseys, which Trusevich and Putsin found in an abandoned warehouse.[16] “We do not have weapons,” Trusevich told them, “but we can fight with our victories on the football pitch.... For a while the members of Dynamo and Zheldor (Locomotive) will be playing in one color, the color of our flag. The Fascists should know that this color cannot be defeated.”[17] Start was never defeated.
During 1942, FC Start played several matches with teams of soldiers of occupying garrisons, and won them all:
Date Opponent Score
June 21 Hungarian garrison 6-2
July 5 Romanian garrison 11-0
July 12 Military railroad workers team 9-1
July 17 PGS (Germany) 6-0
July 19 MSG.Wal (Hungary) 5-1
July 21 MSG.Wal (Hungary) 3-2
August 6 Flakelf (Germany) 5-1
The German administration grew aware that FC Start victories might inspire Ukrainian inhabitants and decrease the morale of Axis troops.
The match
The German Luftwaffe team, Flakelf, asked for a re-match. The game took place on August 9th, 1942 at Zenit stadium.[18] Unlike other games, this game was marred by a heavy presence of police and German troops who were guarding the event.[19] An SS officer was appointed as referee. Before the game the referee visited the team in their locker room. “I am the referee of today’s game,” he said, “I know you are a very good team. Please follow all the rules, do not break any of the rules, and before the game greet your opponents in our fashion.”[20] “Our fashion” being the Nazi salute.
Although, the Start players realized that a victory in this game may have grave consequences they decided to play the game, and play it well. Upon entering the pitch the team refused to give the Nazi salute to the German soldiers and high ranking officials gathered at the game.[21]
As anticipated by FC Start, the Nazi referee ignored Flakelf fouls. The German team quickly pressured the goalkeeper, Trusevych who, after a repeated physical challenges, was kicked in the head by a Flakelf forward and left groggy. While Trusevych was recovering, Flakelf went one goal up.
The referee continued to ignore FC Start appeals against their opponents' violence. The Flakelf team reputedly continued to attempt to intimidate FC Start, allegedly 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. FC Start's Goncharenko, against the run of play, is said to have dribbled the ball around almost the entire Flakelf defence finishing by placing the ball into in the German net to make the score 2-1. At half-time, FC Start were yet another goal up. The score was 3-1.
During half-time the team once again had visitors in their locker room. It was Shvetsov, who asked the players to throw the match.[22] He was followed by another SS Officer. He told the Start players that the Germans were very impressed with their skill but they should understand that they cannot expect to win, and in fact that they should consider the consequences should they win the game. [23]
During the second half, 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. The SS referee blew the final whistle before the ninety minutes were up.
Aftermath
A week later on 16 August, Start defeated Rukh again, this time 8-0. Soon after that, the FC Start players were arrested and tortured by the Gestapo, allegedly for being NKVD members (or members of the secret police). One of the arrested players Mykola Korotkykh died under torture. The rest were sent to the Syrets labour camp, where Ivan Kuzmenko, Oleksey Klimenko, and the goalkeeper Mykola Trusevich were executed in February 1943. The few survivors included Fedir Tyutchev, Mikhail Sviridovskiy and Makar Goncharenko who are responsible for the popularisation of this story in Soviet popular culture.
Popularisation
On 16 November 1943, Izvestiya was the first newspaper to report the execution of the sportsmen by the Germans, though the match itself was not mentioned.
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 Makar Goncharenko followed.
The story became widely popular in the Soviet Union, especially in Ukraine, and was romanticized. Two movies - Third Time (Mosfilm, 1964) and The Match of Death were filmed, based on this story. A sculpture composition was erected in Kiev in Zenit stadium, which was renamed to Start Stadium in 1981.
The story also inspired two non-Soviet films: 1961 Hungarian film drama Két félidő a pokolban and 1981 American film Escape to Victory.
The novel Match of Death by James Riordan retells the story.
