Between the 1930s and today: olive leaves to fig leaves

In the 1930s the English extended a hand of peace to the Germans, including a flag with a swastika in a game between them on White Hart Lane, but on the day of command they lined up for war.

Nowadays the apparent lesson was learned when the boycott of the Russians began in sports, but precisely the consequences this time could be devastating

Nir Kipnis

28/04/2022

Thursday, April 28, 2022, 8 p.m.

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In 1938 there was no war.

That is - not yet.

Although Adolf Hitler did not hide his intentions of gaining "living space" for the Aryan race, the United States was still a mature deal and Britain was sure that the Anschluss, the annexation of Austria and the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia, curbed the Nazi war aspirations - while in practice they only increased their appetite .

The Nuremberg Laws were already in place in those days, but Kristallnacht had not yet taken place - all the horrors of war, from the killing pits to the extermination camps.

The phrase "solution" and "final" still did not take on the chilling meaning added to it after the Vanza conference, a few years later.

In other words: in 1938 Adolf Hitler was not yet a name to be remembered for a lifetime in the history of peoples, but rather a dictator, who was considered a clown, obsessed with greatness, obsessed with increasing power and investing in the "defense budget" and aggressive foreign policy.

In other words: a bit like another contemporary European leader, who meanwhile only seeks to annex territories from neighboring countries to return to his homeland seemingly plundered territories from it - all, how similar the rhetoric is, even if the actions on the ground are still far from the horrors.

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Very different, and yet - the harassing signs are similar.

Putin portrayed as Hitler (Photo: Reuters)

You did not get confused in the section, we are involved in sports.

Especially in sports as an expression of normalization, of relations between peoples who are sometimes rivals on the field, but the very fencing of rivalry within the sporting framework, on the playing field and not on the battlefield, is what promotes peace.

With the examples one can sail between the pages of history as far as ancient Greece, and with all due respect to some exceptions such as the famous "football war" in Central America, then for the most part sport is an expression of peace, or at least an index: the US-China Ping pong (immortalized in the movie "Forest Gump"), the dying convulsions of the Cold War (or better said "Cold War" these days a bit like Lebanon and the Intifada) have gone through the mutual boycotts of the Olympics in Moscow and Los Angeles - and we all hope the upcoming World Cup That will allow Israelis to enter Qatar for the first time under a blue-and-white passport, will be the first swallow with one of the hawks in the Gulf states.

Back to 1938: As part of the desire to show friendship, there were two showcase games between the English and German teams.

In the first performance, which took place in Berlin, the players of the English team were instructed to honor the hosts with a fascist salute in hand, while the orchestra played "Deutschland Deutschland over Als" (Germany, Germany above all, the German anthem lyrics changed since then).

Look at the picture: the players of the English team stand and salute those who in a short time will become the most abominable figure in history.

Salute in Berlin (Photo: GettyImages)

The game in London also summoned some sights that from a historical perspective look insane, the most prominent of which is the hoisting of the swastika flag over White Hart Lane Stadium (Tottenham's old home ground, a team known as the "Jewish" team of England).

Putin is not Hitler, but in 1938, the days of the Munich Agreement designed to "save peace in Europe" to quote from the mouth of British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, Hitler was not yet Hitler either.

And yet, 84 years later, the world seems to have learned something.

The embrace given at the time to Hitler and Nazi Germany in an attempt to prevent war turned into sanctions against Putin's Russia - to end the war.

The dismissal of teams, national teams and even Russian athletes from the main sports establishments and the suspension of bodies such as the UEFA, FIFA and the Olympic Committee, hint that this time there will be no "normalization assumption" for the aggressors.

The picture that embarrasses the English to this day.

The Nazi German flag (top right) is flown on White Hart Lane (Photo: GettyImages)

Really?

Apparently the historical lesson was learned, but in fact - England who bowed to Hitler and abandoned Czechoslovakia, took up arms on the day of command - and sided with Poland and later managed to hold out until American joining the war, which with all due respect to the Red Army's miraculous survival finally overcame it. .

In contrast, the West of 2022, the one that rushed to keep the Russians away from important sporting events, immediately made it clear that it would not send troops to fight on Ukrainian soil, to stop what is slowly becoming a massacre.

In other words, there is a very reasonable fear that any "severe" sanction imposed on Russia, from the economic arena to the sports arena, will be interpreted by the attacker as a green light to continue (just this week we were informed that the US does not enforce sanctions against Putin's girlfriend. "). In other words: the sport remains only symbolic - in 1938 it was an olive leaf, in 2022 it is no more than a fig leaf.

• sport

• World football

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• England team

• Germany national team