Anton "Antoine" Raab (16 July 1913 – 12 December 2006)
was a German
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...
player and manager. Raab spent most of his career in France after having escaped
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
, being prosecuted and incarcerated for refusing to give the
Nazi salute
The Nazi salute, also known as the Hitler salute (german: link=no, Hitlergruß, , Hitler greeting, ; also called by the Nazi Party , 'German greeting', ), or the ''Sieg Heil'' salute, is a gesture that was used as a greeting in Nazi Germany. Th ...
at a football game.
Biography
Raab, born in
Frankfurt
Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...
,
Hesse
Hesse (, , ) or Hessia (, ; german: Hessen ), officially the State of Hessen (german: links=no, Land Hessen), is a States of Germany, state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt. Two other major histor ...
, was one of four children of a German
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
veteran. His father, through his own experience during the war, raised Raab a pacifist and Christian and the latter held a strong conviction against any form of killing. Raab turned from his Christian faith however when, as a 19-year-old, he saw a priest bless a
submarine
A submarine (or sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability. The term is also sometimes used historically or colloquially to refer to remotely op ...
in
Hamburg
(male), (female) en, Hamburger(s),
Hamburgian(s)
, timezone1 = Central (CET)
, utc_offset1 = +1
, timezone1_DST = Central (CEST)
, utc_offset1_DST = +2
, postal ...
.
A promising young player for
Eintracht Frankfurt
Eintracht Frankfurt e.V. () is a professional sports club based in Frankfurt, Hesse, Germany. It is best known for its football club, which was founded on 8 March 1899. The team is currently playing in the Bundesliga, the top tier of the Germa ...
, Raab was selected to captain a German youth side in a game in
Stuttgart
Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the ...
where he refused to give the
Nazi salute
The Nazi salute, also known as the Hitler salute (german: link=no, Hitlergruß, , Hitler greeting, ; also called by the Nazi Party , 'German greeting', ), or the ''Sieg Heil'' salute, is a gesture that was used as a greeting in Nazi Germany. Th ...
. He was not immediately prosecuted because of his status as a youth international, but was monitored by the police, and arrested 18 months later. Raab was detained and tortured for the next 11 months and eventually sentenced to 15 years of hard labour. Imprisoned in the fortress of
Kassel
Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Kassel and the district of the same name and had 201,048 inhabitants in December 2020 ...
, Raab contemplated suicide but was talked out of it by one of the guards. Raab fabricated a key, escaped and found shelter with a woman whose husband had been shot and killed by the Nazis. With the help of his brother, Raab escaped Germany for France on 1 May 1937, dressed in a SS uniform.
Unable to speak French and without any money Raab received help from local people and eventually made his way to
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
where he was recognised as former German youth international and, despite opposition from Germany, signed for
CA Paris. Raab moved to
Nantes
Nantes (, , ; Gallo: or ; ) is a city in Loire-Atlantique on the Loire, from the Atlantic coast. The city is the sixth largest in France, with a population of 314,138 in Nantes proper and a metropolitan area of nearly 1 million inhabita ...
for work reasons in 1938 but had to give up his post as a draftsman after the outbreak of the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
because of the company being involved in national defence contracts. He was eventually arrested because of his German nationality and sent to work in an ammunition factory until shortly before the
armistice in 1940 when he escaped from the advancing German Army. During the German occupation of France Raab avoided arrest by the Germans and wrote pacifist leaflets which he distributed to German soldiers, hiding for a time in the village of
Treillières.
After the liberation of Nantes in 1944 Raab joined
FC Nantes
Football Club de Nantes (; Gallo: ''Naunnt''), commonly referred to as FC Nantes or simply Nantes (), is a French professional football club based in Nantes in Pays de la Loire. The club was founded on 21 April 1943, during World War II, a ...
and played for the club until 1949. He also had two stints as manager of FC Nantes as well as becoming the club's director of sports for a time. He became a critic of the money involved in professional football when, at the same time, there was so much suffering and poverty in the world. Raab died on 12 December 2006 in Nantes.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Raab, Antoine
1913 births
2006 deaths
German anti-fascists
German footballers
German torture victims
German escapees
Association football defenders
Escapees from German detention
German people imprisoned abroad
Prisoners and detainees of France
World War II civilian prisoners
German expatriate footballers
Expatriate footballers in France
German expatriate football managers
Expatriate football managers in France
German expatriate sportspeople in France
Footballers from Frankfurt
Eintracht Frankfurt players
CA Paris-Charenton players
Stade Rennais F.C. players
FC Nantes players
Stade Lavallois players
FC Nantes managers