Chelsea soccer club unveils mural with Jewish soccer players murdered at Auschwitz

The artwork is part of the club’s Say No to Antisemitism campaign and marks the international day to commemorate the Holocaust.

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(JTA) — The Chelsea soccer club in Britain marked International Holocaust Remembrance Day with a commemorative mural of Jewish players and prisoners of war who were sent to a Nazi camp.

The mural was unveiled Wednesday on a wall outside of the West Stand at Stamford Bridge and is part of Chelsea’s Say No to Antisemitism campaign being funded by the club’s Russian-Israeli owner, Roman Abramovich.

“By sharing the images of these three individual football players on our stadium, we hope to inspire future generations to always fight against anti-Semitism, discrimination and racism, wherever they find it,” Chelsea chairman Bruce Buck was quoted as saying about the event in a statement on the club’s website.

The mural features three portraits.

Julius Hirsch, a German Jewish international footballer, was murdered sometime after 1943 at the Auschwitz Nazi camp in occupied Poland. Also depicted is Árpád Weisz, a Hungarian Jewish football player who was murdered there in 1944.

The third portrait is of Ron Jones, known as the “Goalkeeper of Auschwitz,” who was a British prisoner of war at Auschwitz. He survived the camp.

International Holocaust Remembrance Day is Jan. 27, a  date designated in 2005 by the United Nations. On that day, Red Army troops liberated Auschwitz. This year is the liberation’s 75th anniversary.

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