The Death Party was a football match in which a group of Ukrainian prisoners of war participated, organized as a professional team called FC Start, and Wehrmacht soldiers.
The Ukrainian players defeated the Germans, despite knowing the consequences that this would bring. Many of the Ukrainian players were arrested and taken to concentration camps, where several of them later died.
Soccer became very popular in the Soviet Union, especially in Ukraine in the 1930s. The best Ukrainian team at that time was Dynamo Kiev, which was part of the Dynamo sports society, which had been founded as a result of a union between the police and the Red Army. In the Soviet Union, of which Ukraine was a part, soccer was state sponsored.
In 1938 Dynamo Kyiv achieved fourth place in the national league, scoring 76 goals. But then the team was losing, obtaining lousy places in 1939 and 1940.
The 1941 season was never completed, as Germany invaded the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941. Several of Dynamo Kiev's players were recruited and took the lead. When the Germans approached Kiev, the other players who remained in the city were aided by the city's civil defense. The initial success of the Wehrmacht allowed the fall of Kiev, one of the largest cities in the Soviet Union. Several of the Kiev Dynamo players who survived the attack became prisoners of war in the concentration camps.
The match
The Luftwaffe team Flakelf called for the rematch, which was set for August 9, at Zenit Stadium. A Waffen-SS officer was appointed referee. FC Start was aware that the arbitration was biased against them. Many anonymous sources warned FC Start of possible punishment if they did not lose to the Germans. Despite that, the team decided to play as usual. They also refused to give the Nazi salute to their opponents before the match.
As expected by the players, the referee ignored Flakelf's team fouls. The German team moved quickly towards FC Start's goal, thanks to a sustained campaign of physical exercises. Trusevych was kicked in the head by a Flakelf striker, leaving him stunned. While Trusevych recovered, the German team scored a goal.
The referee continued to ignore FC Start's claims for the violence of his opponents. The Flakelf team used all the tactics and techniques of a dirty team: going to the body instead of the ball, pulling the shirt, tripping behind the player, in order to get it in bad shape. Despite all this, FC Start scored a free kick goal for Kuzmenko. Then Goncharenko, against the course of the game, dodged the ball among the defenders of the Flakelf team and put the ball in the German team's net. At half time, FC Start won 3-1.
The second half was almost an anti-climax. Each of the teams scored 2 goals. At the end of the match, FC Start was in a favorable position of 5-3. Klimenko, a defender, took the ball, passed the German team's defense and dodged the Flakelf goalkeeper. So instead of throwing the ball into the goal, he turned around and threw it to the crowd. The SS referee blew the final whistle before the end of ninety minutes of play
FC Start players
Georgy Timofeyev
Mykola Trusevych
Ivan Kuzmenko
Pavel Komarov
Alexei Klimenko
Nikolai Korotkykh
Vasily Sukharev
Fyodor Tyutchev
Makar Goncharenko
Mikhail Mielniczuk
A week later, on August 16, FC Start beat Rukh again, this time 8-0. Shortly afterwards a number of FC Start players were arrested and tortured by the Gestapo, allegedly for being members of the NKVD (Dinamo as a club had been funded by the police). One of the arrested players, Nikolai Korotkykh, died under torture. The rest were sent to the Syrets concentration camps, where Ivan Kuzmenko, Oleksey Klimenko, Mihael Keehl and goalkeeper Mykola Trusevich were later killed in February 1943. Survivors included Fedir Tyutchev, Mikhail Sviridov Sky and Makar Goncharenko, who they are responsible for the popularization of this Soviet history in popular culture.
The "Party of Death" caught the public's attention in 1958, after Petro Severov published his article "The Last Duel" in the newspaper "Evening Kiev". The story became very popular in the Soviet Union, especially in Ukraine, and it was told in a romantic way.
Two films - Third Time (Mosfilm, 1964) and The Party of Death were filmed, based on this story. A sculptural monument was erected at the Zenit Stadium in Kiev, which was renamed the Start Stadium in 1981.
Comentarios
Publicar un comentario