Józef Klotz

Polish footballer
Józef Klotz
Personal information
Date of birth 2 January 1900
Place of birth Kraków, Galicia, Austria-Hungary
Date of death 1941 (aged 40–41)
Place of death Warsaw Ghetto, General Government
Height 1.85 m (6 ft 1 in)[1]
Position(s) centre-half
Youth career
1910–1912 Jutrzenka Cracow
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1912–1925 Jutrzenka Cracow
1925–1929 Maccabi Warsaw
International career
1922 Poland 2 (1)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Józef Klotz (2 January 1900 – 1941) was a Jewish Polish footballer who played centre-half.[2][3] He scored the first-ever goal for the Poland national football team. He was killed by the Nazis in the Warsaw Ghetto in 1941.

Biography

Klotz was born in Kraków, southern Poland, and was Jewish.[2][4] His father was a shoemaker.[5]

He scored the first-ever goal for the Poland national football team. He scored it against Sweden in Stockholm in May 1922, in the team's third international match.[4][6][2][7][8]

Klotz played for two clubs. He played first for Jutrzenka Kraków, which he joined as a youth team player and played for from 1912 to 1925, and then for Maccabi Warszawa from 1925 to 1929 (both teams were Jewish minority teams).[9][5][10] He retired as a player in 1930.[5]

He was imprisoned in the Warsaw Ghetto in 1940. He was murdered there by the Germans in 1941.[4][11][8][2][5]

In 2019, Klotz was honored by the Polish Football Association.[4][12]

Statistics

Club career

International

Poland Poland 0:3 Hungary Hungary

Sweden Sweden 1:2 Poland Poland

See also

  • Polish soccer (football) in interwar period
  • List of select Jewish football (association; soccer) players

References

  1. ^ "Jozef Klotz - Stats - titles won". www.footballdatabase.eu.
  2. ^ a b c d Bolchover, David (May 6, 2019). "Remembering the cream of Jewish footballing talent killed in the Holocaust". The Guardian.
  3. ^ Grunwald-Spier, Agnes (2016). Who Betrayed the Jews?: The Realities of Nazi Persecution in the Holocaust. The History Press. ISBN 9780750958011 – via Google Books.
  4. ^ a b c d "Poland honors national soccer player murdered in Holocaust" Israel HaYom, June 11, 2019.
  5. ^ a b c d Nick Westerby (June 10, 2019). "The man who scored Poland's first ever goal remembered ahead of tonight's game against Israel". The First News.
  6. ^ Radosław Kossakowski, Przemysław Nosal, Wojciech Woźniak (2020). Politics, Ideology and Football Fandom; The Transformation of Modern Poland
  7. ^ Henryk Vogler (1994). Wyznanie mojżeszowe: wspomnienia z utraconego czasu. pg 16: Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy. p. 123. ISBN 83-06-02355-2.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
  8. ^ a b Eldad Beck (August 8, 2010). "Anti-Semitism feared ahead of Euro 2012". Ynetnews.
  9. ^ Strack-Zimmermann, Benjamin. "Józef Klotz". www.national-football-teams.com.
  10. ^ Liphshiz, Cnaan (June 7, 2019). "Polish soccer team honors Holocaust victim who scored its 1st international goal". The Times of Israel.
  11. ^ Grunwald-Spier, Agnes (2016). Who Betrayed the Jews?: The Realities of Nazi Persecution in the Holocaust. The History Press. ISBN 9780750958011 – via Google Books.
  12. ^ "Before Polish-Israeli soccer match, murdered Jewish player honored". The Jerusalem Post. June 10, 2019.

Sources

  • ^ Andrzej Gowarzewski "FUJI Football Encyclopedia – History of the Polish National Team (1) – White and Red" ; GiA Katowice 1991