Bayern Munich exhibit on its Holocaust victims opens at Dachau

German football club tells the story of 56 of members who were persecuted by the Nazis during WWII

MUNICH — Bayern Munich’s president Karl Hopfner has opened a touring exhibition at the former Dachau concentration camp, dedicated to club members who were victims of the Holocaust under Nazi rule.

The exhibition, titled “Idolised – Persecuted – Forgotten: Victims of National Socialism at FC Bayern Munich,” tells the story of the 56 members who were deported or had to flee Germany during the Nazi era.

Former club presidents Kurt Landauer, who was briefly imprisoned in Dachau, near Munich, and Siegfried Herrmann, were among the victims of Nazi persecution for religious or political reasons.

The exhibition at the Church of Reconciliation at the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site is open until May 1.

Karl Hopfner, the soccer executive for Bayern Munich FC speaks at a press conference on November 29, 2014. (Screen capture: YouTube)

“It is important for us to take action, year after year, against forgetting (the victims),” said Bayern president Karl Hopfner at the exhibition.

“The opening of this exhibition by Bayern Munich is once again a stand against racism and discrimination in football.”

Once the exhibition leaves Dachau, it will tour exhibition venues, some of Bayern’s fan clubs, and schools.

“The memory of this terrible chapter of German history is also important and right in football,” said Klaus Schultz, deacon of Dachau’s Church of Reconciliation.

The exhibition opened on Wednesday as part of the International Holocaust Remembrance Day.