Historie židovské kopané v Československu – Král Lubomír (2019)

This Czech-language hardcover book is the first publication in the country devoted to the history of Jewish football in Czechoslovakia. When the Czechoslovak Football Association was established in 1922, the country’s top football authority was organized along national lines. Alongside the existing Czech and German minority associations, Hungarian, Polish and Jewish associations also became part of it; the Jewish association, founded in 1921, was the largest in terms of active players. The book describes the establishment and activities of the Jewish Football Association, including inter-district and inter-association matches, and provides brief profiles of its officials and administrators as well as the history of the Jewish Referees’ Corps. Much of the publication consists of a directory of clubs, detailing the history and activities of both major clubs, such as Makabi Brno, Makkabea Bratislava, Makabi Prostějov and Hagibor Praha, and many smaller ones. Particular attention is given to Makabi Brno, nicknamed the “Manchester of Moravia”, which ranked among Europe’s leading teams in the early 1920s. Although it played no regular competition and focused on friendly and exhibition matches, it held its own against the popular Prague “S” clubs. Its activities were centered largely abroad, where tours of Spain, Italy and Austria brought it into even competition with major clubs such as FC Barcelona, Juventus Turin and Admira Vienna. Its roster included more than 40 Hungarian international players. The book also profiles selected players and officials who, unless they emigrated overseas in time or escaped German fascism by leaving for Palestine or Australia, ended up in the Terezín ghetto and extermination camps, including football internationals and Olympians. The final chapter covers the Terezín Football League of 1942–1944, in which football played in the barracks courtyards became one of the few ways to forget the hardships of life there, if only briefly.