Today marks Holocaust Memorial Day (HMD), which remembers the six million Jewish men, women and children killed by the Nazis and their collaborators in the Holocaust.
Premier League clubs and affiliated academies will commemorate those murdered between 1941 and 1945, as well as in subsequent genocides such as in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur, with a variety of events and activities.
As part of the Under-14 Football Remembers The Holocaust Programme, young players have been learning about Austrian-born professional footballer Otto Fischer, who was shot in the Liepaja massacres in Latvia.
There are 14 Academies taking part in The Holocaust Programme and this weekend they will be joining other age groups in wearing HMD stickers, reading out HMD cards, and pausing for a period of silence before their matches and training sessions.
We are proud to work with @premierleague for #HolocaustMemorialDay 2023.
— Holocaust Memorial Day Trust (@HMD_UK) January 27, 2023
Footballers from different clubs have come together to call the nation to #LightTheDarkness.
Light a #candle in your window at 4pm on 27 January.
In addition to this, clubs will be delivering their own bespoke activities.
Manchester United and Manchester City Academies came together earlier in the month to hear a presentation from Dr Noemie Lopian, whose parents were both Holocaust survivors, and Derek Niemann, who is a descendent of an SS officer.
The youth teams then played a match against each other before exchanging gifts.
In February, Brighton & Hove Albion will be hosting a learning lunch, delivered by two club champions, which will be open to all club staff.
The Under-14 Football Remembers The Holocaust Programme is a small part of the extensive work the Premier League and the Holocaust Educational Trust carry out to educate Academy players about the horrors of the Holocaust and the lessons to be learned for today.
This includes educational visits to Europe, such as when Liverpool visited the Auschwitz II-Birkenau concentration camp as part of a Premier League and Bundesliga Academy tour.
And in 2020, players from 12 academies attended a workshop at the Jewish Community Centre in Krakow, where they had the chance to reflect on their experiences by painting Foundation Stones, which are, in Jewish culture, traditionally laid on a headstone as an act of remembrance.
