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September 1941, Nazi flags fly over Kief, the capital of Ukraine. The troops of the German Vermachn are celebrating their invasion of the Soviet Union and their advance eastwards. Streets are renamed to German names. Daily life is ruled with an iron fist in Kief. Those who resist risk immediate execution or being shipped to Germany for slave labor. One of the Vermach commands is each combat operation must be motivated by an iron will to mercilessly and completely destroy the enemy.
Yet, the Germans try to make daily life in Kief appear as normal as possible. That's why in early summer 1942, they organized the first public football matches since the invasion. One of these games will go down in history for the Ukrainians, as deeply rooted for them as is the 1954 World Cup victory in burn for the Germans. I'm standing here near the entrance to the stadium of the football team called start. In 1942, the stadium was called Zenit. Nine football matches took place here in 1942. KF start team was made up of bread factory workers who played against German, Hungarian, and Ukrainian teams.
They played four matches against German teams. one against the German artillery unit, one against the German railroad, and two against the German air force, the Luftwafer. The Germans were all dressed up in uniforms and sat here on the main grandstand. The Hungarian soldiers stood on the other side and there along the football pitch stood the Russians. A small locker room for the teams was behind that. players were shot here during the war because they beat the Germans. It was a very important match, but it was not a fair battle. Before the game, a German general came to them and told them that they should deliberately lose or they would be shot.
Our dynamo players beat the Germans who then shot them. Over 60 years later, the legend of that game lives on. Yet the events of the 9th of August 1942 are more mysterious than the young football players from Kief could ever know. A select group of German soldiers is set to face the bread factory number three company team. The Ukrainian team in the soldout stadium is not only playing for a warm meal and their city's honor without realizing it, they're also playing for their lives. As a greeting, we would always yell, "Long live sports." I don't know what the Germans yelled hy or zeke or something like that. Anyway, our team yelled what everybody in the Soviet Union yelled back then. Fitzg all hail sports.
Operation Barbarasa, the Nazi assault on the Soviet Union begins in June 1941. 3 months later, Kief is captured following a dramatic battle of encirclement and annihilation. The Vermacht takes over 600,000 Soviet soldiers prisoner. Soon after, hunger, thirst, exhaustion, and epidemic wreak havoc on the prisoners. There are no barracks or fixed shelters. The prisoners receive 1/4 the amount of food necessary to keep a normal person alive. The Germans provoke mass death. Only a handful of prisoners managed to escape the camps and go into hiding in Nazi occupied Kief. A few of them are
football players from the pre-war champion team Dynamo KF. Almost all of the Dinam Mov players worked in the bread factory back then. The German command ordered that all men must sign up and be prepared to work at any time. Anyone who didn't work would be shot. Despite the draconian regime, shortly thereafter, football matches begin again in Kief. Yet the German occupying forces have no idea who the bakery team players really are.
Bread factory number three. To this day, KF's main supply of bread comes from a series of bakery combines like this one. During the occupation, the Ukrainians are already producing over 50 tons of bread a day. The bread factory director, appointed by the Germans, is a football enthusiast. Bit by bit, he gathers together in his factory the former Dynamo KF stars who have gone into hiding. Yet behind the director's back, the resistance to the occupying German forces is also being organized.
There was a resistance group in the collective that planned and carried out acts of sabotage. A few of the servtors were later shot by the Gestapo here in the Brad Facto's courtyard. I have a document here about the 14 partisans who worked in the Brad Factory and were shot here on these grounds. The manager of the bread factory back then had ambitious plans to round up the best players from Kiev for the company team. The first person he called in was the goalkeeper True Savage, then my father, Mkhal, then the center forward, Goncho Reno, and the others in the factory. At least none of them had to go hungry. Altogether, there were nine players from the Damo KF team. Public calls were made for the other players.
They ended up being more like substitute players. And then there were also Suaref, Balakin, and Melnik from locomotive Kief FC. when this photo was taken in the summer of 1942. He loved being at all the football games his father Mikael played. He also admired his father when he used to play on the famous Dynamo KF Championship team. The Soviet secret service had originally founded that club. Dynamo is still considered one of the best football clubs in Europe. The photo of the Dynamo KF Championship squad shows the same players who are now hiding as workers in bread factory number three. Gonerenko, Clemenco, Kutzmano, Karov, Chuchef, Spiridovski, Koratkovic and just as in the championship year of 1938, the famous Nikolai Trusevich is guarding the goal
against the Germans. There are no accounts from German spectators who watch the match between the German Flack elf team and the bakery workers team FC start. It's also unknown whether any of the German players survived the war since many of the soldiers were sent to Stalingrad in the winter of 1942 and never returned. Before his death, Villi Engelbard, who played in one of the other games in Kief, was the only one to describe his impressions to a German sports historian. Angelbot said that during Halime, one of the military officers came to the team and said, "You must win no matter what."
He said it wasn't an open match and that both sides were very inhibited. The atmosphere in the audience, the applause and how the spectators followed the game was also apparently very different than usual. When Angelbot later found out that the opposing team was playing under a death threat, he called off sick for every game after that. The game on the 9th of August between the bakery workers and the German team is a return match. The Germans had unexpectedly lost to the Ukrainians in a game 3 days before. To keep from losing face again, a stronger German squad has been assembled for the 9th of August game. The Germans are also hoping that the Ukrainian team has not regained its strength after just a three-day break.
My father's team wasn't sure if they could play again after only three days. My father, just like the goalkeeper Drew Savage, was a kind of authority figure among the team. At the time, he was also coaching the youth teams of Damo Kief and Damo Lamberg. So he had experience as a coach and he wasn't sure if the team was strong enough to win again. They thought they could possibly lose the return game. Tusvich was the only one who insisted that the team play and play to win. But the German plan seems to pay off at first. Just a few minutes into the game, the Germans score a goal, giving them the lead over the still fatigued Bread Factory team.
The match began with an attack by the Germans who were playing very offensively. They scored a quick first goal. Then they scored another goal soon after that. It didn't look like the Ukrainians would be able to catch up. I was a ball boy then and stood behind the goal. I had to throw back the balls that crossed the touch line, but I always took my time since Tavage had said to me, "Be slow about it." You know how these things work. While the football matches are underway in Kief, the German troops are penetrating further into the Soviet Union during the summer of 1942. Their goal to reach the Vular River and oil deposits in Caucasus.
Certain of victory, the German troops arrive at the Dawn River. The German Sixth Army pushes as far as Stalingrad, but that's where the advance ends. Back in Zenith Stadium in Kief, the German team increases its lead. It looks like a sure victory for the occupying forces. Years later, this game will become legendary in the entire east block and come to be known as the death match of Kief. Frivel, an East German magazine, is the first in Germany to report on the death match in their July 1968 issue. Editor Gizela conducts an in-depth interview with Macar Gonerenko who played center forward for the bread factory number three team in 1942.
He later becomes a Soviet sports official and repeatedly tells his story. Listening to a recording of one of his radio programs reminds Gizla of her talk with Gonerenko. You know that most of the team worked in the bakery and they were not counting on winning at all. Konenko said the team got angry and angry because the Germans were playing so unfairly. They hit the other players and used every chance they had to be unfair and that got Ukrainians so riled up as the game went on that they started scoring goals. The two-nil deficit injects new vigor into the KF team. After all, the players of the supposed company team are considered the best Soviet football has
to offer, even if the occupying German forces aren't aware of it on this particular day. Germans have not played in football matches against Soviet teams since Hitler's seizure of power. The stars of the Dynamo KF team are therefore completely unfamiliar to the German players. As the Germans realize their athletic inferiority, they become increasingly rough. I had noticed the defender Clemenco during all the matches, not just the one against Flake elf. He was not very tall, had bow legs like a cavalry man and could shoot the ball from almost any position. I also remember some of the
great savings of the goalkeeper Trus Savage and of course how Maka Gonchareno worked the ball. My husband loved football very much and all of us suffer because of it. Maka only wanted to work in the football profession. He refused any other job. He was crazy about football. He worked everywhere as a coach and never would have worked as a welder or anything like that. Football was his life. Gonchareno and the other dedicated football players surely do not realize what it will mean if they win against the Germans on this Saturday afternoon. Before the war and also for the matches during the occupation, the names of all
players were always printed on a poster. The names of the German players too. The names of the German players didn't mean anything to the Ukrainians, of course, but for the German soldiers, some of the names did ring a bell. Strangely enough, though, there weren't any German names printed on the poster for the August 9th game. For reasons of propaganda, in the Soviet feature film, The Third Half, the aggressive manner of the German team is exaggerated. Yet, both sides surely viewed the actual game as a battle of wills between the occupiers and the oppressed. The 1962 feature film can at least be seen as a testament to the game's atmosphere.
Back then, the spectators took the game very seriously. It was like they were wired during the games, especially during the grudge game against German soldiers. The spectators on the grand stand called out, "Beat the Germans." And they didn't just mean during the game. They also believed in a military victory. Even though in the summer of 1942 that seemed far out of reach. By 1942, the German troops have advanced almost to Moscow, but the occupied areas are getting out of hand. Attacks by resistance groups are becoming increasingly precise. a 100,000 partisans are active. Attacks on supply lines bring the German advance
to a standstill. When the German troops come to a halt near Stalingrad, the mood among the occupying forces in Kief also becomes aggressive. My father repaired radios for the Germans, so he always knew what was going on. One day a German came into the workshop and said, "So the Russians are destroyed. Stalingrad has been taken. I remember once there wasn't anything to eat. So during curfew hours, I headed out towards our little garden. A guard caught me near our house and beat me up so badly that I could hardly move for days.
The tension can also be felt on the football pitch. Even after two goals by the bakery team, the spectators still don't feel comfortable cheering. But they're beginning to sense the possibility of at least beating the military victors on the football field. The Nazi strategy of simultaneously demonstrating normality and Aryan supremacy is beginning to falter. In the film, the third half, the German players are put under extreme pressure by their superiors. Another defeat of the master race by the Bolshevitz can't be tolerated. The pressure mounts when the bakery players take the lead and begin to have fun on the pitch. One of the attackers danced around the goalkeeper and headed toward the goal with the ball. But when he got there,
instead of scoring, he trapped the ball on the goal line and then booted the ball back into the midfield. Not very sportsmanlike, but that's how the Ukrainians could make fun of the Germans. But not all of the Ukrainian players want to win against the Germans at any cost. The fear of possible retribution in case of a Ukrainian victory is depicted in the film The Third Half. One of the Ukrainian players deliberately handles the ball so that the German Flack elf team is awarded a penalty. The game will be up for grabs again. The area around the stadium was renovated during the 1980s.
Only one of the sixstory buildings was left standing. That's historically significant because it proves the authenticity of the only photograph showing the start players together with the German flag elf. You can see the sixstory building in the background. The match between the Flack elf and start FC teams heads into the final stage. The superiority of the Dynamo players becomes ever clearer. They've rediscovered their pre-war finesse and defeat the reinforced German team. The mood in the stadium reaches its climax with the last goal of the game, resulting in a final score of 53 to start. The occupied city's inhabitants can temporarily forget about the war. But just seconds after the end of the game, doubts are raised. Will the
Germans simply accept such a humiliation? What will happen to the Ukrainian players shown here posing peacefully with their German opponents in the only existing group photo of the games after their victory. I remember it like it was yesterday. My father and the other players met up for a few drinks. Cleanco, my father, Karov, Tru Savage, and Chuchv headed to the market square after the party. Of course, no one had any money, so they tried to borrow some. I still remember that Karov was particularly good at that. And I remember that he gave me a present. I don't remember anymore what it was, but I do remember that they were in high spirits. for My father was working in the Verma Back
then we went there for lunch. And when we arrived, someone whispered to us that Collia had been taken away. When my mother and I returned home, our whole apartment had been turned upside down. The couch had been pushed away. All our toys had been destroyed. Everything had been searched through. My mother left immediately to find my father. Papu. Little Yeggina with her parents. Father Nikolai Karotkitch is not only a dynamo player but also an officer of the NKVD, the Soviet secret police. Karotkich, photographed here with his teammate Putistin at a football training camp, is
ordered to go into hiding in Nazi occupied Kief. He works undercover in a Vermacht canteen. His former Dynamo teammates nonetheless recruit him to play on the bakery start team. All of the bakery players were arrested and my father told us how it happened. He said that a few days after the game, a car full of Germans came by. They read aloud a list of names that included Trusavage, Clemenco, Kuzmano, and others. Balakin and Melnik were also there, but they were left alone. Only the players who had formerly played on the Dinamo team were taken away.
Coraleno Street in Kief. Before the war, Stalin's infamous NKVD secret police headquarters were located here. Following the German invasion, the Gestapo seizes the notorious house number 33 and uses it for interrogations and torture. To this day, no one knows how many people lost their lives in this building. The bakery footballers also end up here. This was the main entrance to the local Gestapo headquarters and Kiev's regional inspection office. And over there in the courtyard where the fence is blocking the view, that's where the tragedy began for the Dam KV players. My father didn't come home that day. My mother immediately went to Fedya Chucha's mother's house. She asked her where Fedya was and his mother said she
didn't know. Then she went to the Clemenco family who lived across the street, but they weren't there either. Only the eight players who were on the Dynamo team before the war are arrested. Goalkeeper Nikolai Jose, center forward Macar Gonerenko, midfielder Mikail Putistin, Defender Alexe Clemenco and defender Mikidovski who is missing in this group picture. News of the arrests spreads like wildfire in Kief. Families desperately try to find out where the players are being kept.
We had no idea where they had taken my father. A German who was trying to help us only got as far as the Gustapo. He then told us, "I can't go any further or I'll risk being arrested myself." We didn't know what had happened to my father long after the war. And even now, we still don't know how he was killed or where he was buried or if he was buried at all or if he was just quickly buried outside of the city somewhere. No one knows anything. The arrested dynamo players are moved from the local Gestnappa headquarters to Camp Zerets outside of Kief. Banfura Palonraki is the SS commander of the camp. Daily atrocities include random mass shootings, sadistic torture
of prisoners, and fatal beatings of weak and sick prisoners. From the outset, Zeretsz has been considered a death camp. The Nazis set up Sirret's concentration camp right on this spot here in the spring of 1942. In the summer of the same year, the Dinamok players were brought here and held prisoner. Countless shootings took place here and over there in that gorge. All of these grounds were part of the camp. To avoid reprisals by the guards, the Dynamo players try not to assemble as a group in the camp. They assume that their arrest is directly associated with their football victories against the Germans.
It's now certain that Nikolai Karotkitch did not even make it to Zerret's concentration camp. He's last seen at Gestabo headquarters. One group consisted of True Savage, Cleanco and Fusco. The three worked together but they slept in different barracks in various places in the camp. My father Pavl Karov and Foduch were in the other group. The execution facility Babi was located right next to Camp Zerettes. Oleg is one of the last remaining survivors of the camp.
Svetkov suffered from frostbite on both his legs while he was imprisoned. He now needs crutches to walk. And he's never forgotten the cruelties imposed by the SS camp director Radomsky and his henchmen. Nor has he forgotten the first words the translator spoke to him upon his arrival. He said, "You have landed in this camp and there's no escape. There are only two routes here. The one to the left that leads to Babby. The one to the right to the gallows. The rope was already hanging there. The suffering that Kief citizens and other Ukrainians endure during German occupation comes to light only many years later.
Entire segments of the population are transported to Germany for slave labor. Thousands of people are systematically murdered in camps. Hundreds of thousands of KF Jews die during transport and mass executions. According to their own records, the SS kill 33,771 people in the gorge at Babbyar in just 2 days on the 29th and the 30th of September 1941. After that, an engineering unit blows up the perimeter of the gorge and levels off the site, creating a mass grave. A week later, my mother and I were ordered to come to Gestapo headquarters on Coroleno Street. So, my mother took me along. She was interrogated first while I had to wait in the hallway. Then it was my turn. They had put out candy
and sweets and chocolate on the table to lure me into talking. Despite the circumstances, Putistine's father is lucky. In the battles to capture Kief, parts of a historical monastery have been destroyed. Prisoners are forced to repair the majestic building as quickly as possible. The vermar thereby hopes for continued support from the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The footballers Putistin Kumarov and Juchev managed to become part of the group to repair the electric wiring in the monastery buildings. The structures have been part of Kief's cultural heritage for centuries. By coincidence, Putistine's wife and son, Vladelin, find out that husband and father Mkayer is working outside of the camp at the monastery during the day.
The monastery was sealed off and guarded by the Germans. But when the lorries carrying the prisoners rolled out, we actually saw my father sitting in one of them. The convoy slowed down, so we were able to run up to the truck my father was sitting in. He yelled out the name of the place where they were being held. I ran back to my mother and told her what he had said. From then on, we would often go up there to the fence surrounding Cets to visit him. This is the road that once led to Zerret's concentration camp and the Babbyar execution facility. The footballers likely traveled along it every day. For three of the imprisoned players, it was the road to death. They presumably
refused to take part in one of the so-called axion. My father described how he got mixed up in one of these so-called actions. It involved a group of prisoners that was meant to be hanged. The Nazis usually didn't hang anyone themselves. They just appointed someone else to do that. Of course, no one wanted to do it. The camp commander had everyone count and every third, fifth or 10th person had to step forward. Those who had stepped forward had to do the hanging. This time it was every 10th person who had to do it. And my father said once I was the ninth one. The team photograph from the summer of 1942.
Half a year later in Zerret's concentration camp, Nikolai Rosvich and his teammates striker Ivan Kosmenco and defender Alexe Clemenco become the second, third, and fourth victims. Nikolai Karotkage has already been murdered at Gustavo headquarters. A rumor quickly spreads throughout the city that all of the players are dead. On the 16th November 1943, the newspaper is Vestia reported that all of the players had been shot. So everyone assumed that all of them were dead. When I said, "How can that be shot to death?" My father's still alive. No one believed me. I was still in school then and at some point I just stopped telling people otherwise. A film was even made later
suggesting that all the players had been shot on the football pitch. Modern-day Kief and its main commercial street called Kstatic. The traces of the war have long since faded, but the memory of the death match in the summer of 1942 remains one of the greatest legends of the city and the former Soviet Union. The path to official recognition as heroes was full of obstacles for the dynamo players. Following the war, the Soviet secret police, the KGB, accused the surviving footballers of having collaborated with the Nazis. According to their logic, those who played football with the Germans and survived the camp must have
been traitors. That, however, did not correspond with Soviet hero worship. Thus, for years, the Soviet propagandistic regime concealed the fact that some players had survived the death match. The footballers were not vindicated until the 1960s. A monument at the stadium now pays homage to the murdered football players and recalls the story of their final game. A football match that goes down in history as a macabra example of the insane atrocity of war.
