The Jewish footballer Max Girgulski won the German Maccabi Championship in 1936 and 1937 in the colours of Bar Kochba Frankfurt. When the team attempted to make it a hat-trick of title wins, however, he was no longer a member of the team after fleeing to Argentina in 1938. The last possible means of escaping certain death. Like everyone of Jewish origin in Nazi Germany, he was a victim of exclusion, persecution and terror.
While at Eintracht Frankfurt, Girgulski was considered an exceptional talent before the National Socialists came to power. He won the regional championship with both the school team and the Under-17s. In 1933, however, he was forced to leave Eintracht. In Hitler's regime, tens of thousands of Jews like him were ostracised from their clubs. Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels said it openly in 1936: sms [O-Ton Joseph Goebbels: "The objection often raised against us in the past that there was no way of removing the Jews from artistic and cultural life because there were too many of them and we would not be able to fill the empty places has been brilliantly refuted."] Many of those affected, however, were not prepared to give up their sport. They joined clubs organised in the Jewish Maccabi and Schild associations, which in the early years of Nazi rule were allowed to run their own league system and national championships- strictly shielded from the rest of German sport.
As with his previous teams, Girgulski became a mainstay at Bar Kochba Frankfurt. Deprived of one of their best players, however, the team slipped to defeat in the final of the 1938 German Maccabi Championship. And though the Frankfurt native found a new home in Buenos Aires, he was unable to revive his fortunes on the pitch. On attempting to gain a foothold at the powerhouses Boca Juniors and River Plate, he again experienced rejection. For the supporters, he was a German Nazi not a refugee. Girgulski retired from football but remained in Argentina despite the hostility and started a family there. His daughter Susana eventually emigrated to Chile, taking with her childhood memories of playing football in the garden with her father, who often donned his Maccabi championship jersey, one of the few possessions he placed in his small suitcase when he escaped.
Girgulski never returned to Germany, but 81 years after his escape his blue jersey did when Susana Baron presented it to the German Football Museum. sms [O-Ton Susana Baron: "I've been thinking! Either it's in a drawer, or it's better off here where lots more people can see it."] And her message for the school students in the audience? "You are not to blame for what happened, but you are responsible for it never happening again."
Deutsches Fußballmuseum