Árpád Weisz (; also spelt ''Veisz''; 16 April 1896 – 31 January 1944) was a Hungarian Olympic

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. Weisz was

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

, and was murdered with his wife and children by the

Nazis Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...

during

the Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...

World War II 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 ...

Auschwitz Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It con ...

Career

Playing career

Weisz played club football as a

left winger A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

in Hungary for

Törekvés SE Törekvés Sportegyesület is a Hungarian football club from the town of Kőbánya, Budapest. History Törekvés debuted in the 1903 season of the Hungarian League Hungarian may refer to: * Hungary, a country in Central Europe * Kingdom of Hung ...

, in Czechoslovakia for Makabi Brno, and in Italy for

Alessandria Alessandria (; pms, Lissandria ) is a city and ''comune'' in Piedmont, Italy, and the capital of the Province of Alessandria. The city is sited on the alluvial plain between the Tanaro and the Bormida rivers, about east of Turin. Alessandria ...

and

Internazionale Football Club Internazionale Milano, commonly referred to as Internazionale () or simply Inter, and colloquially known as Inter Milan in English-speaking countries, is an Italian professional football club based in Milan, Lombardy. Inter is ...

. Weisz earned seven international caps between 1922 and 1923, and was a member of the Hungarian squad at the

1924 Summer Olympics The 1924 Summer Olympics (french: Jeux olympiques d'été de 1924), officially the Games of the VIII Olympiad (french: Jeux de la VIIIe olympiade) and also known as Paris 1924, were an international multi-sport event held in Paris, France. The op ...

in Paris. A serious injury cut short his playing career.

Coaching career

After retiring as a player in 1926, Weisz became an assistant coach at

before moving to F.C. Internazionale Milano, where at the age of 34 he won one championship in the 1929–1930 season. Weisz had three separate spells as manager of Inter, 1926–28, 1929–31, and 1932–34, managing

Giuseppe Meazza Giuseppe "Peppino" Meazza (; 23 August 1910 – 21 August 1979), also known as il Balilla, was an Italian football manager and player. Throughout his career, he played mainly for Inter Milan in the 1930s, scoring 242 goals in 365 games for the ...

among his players. He also coached

Bari Bari ( , ; nap, label= Barese, Bare ; lat, Barium) is the capital city of the Metropolitan City of Bari and of the Apulia region, on the Adriatic Sea, southern Italy. It is the second most important economic centre of mainland Southern Italy a ...

Novara Novara (, Novarese: ) is the capital city of the province of Novara in the Piedmont region in northwest Italy, to the west of Milan. With 101,916 inhabitants (on 1 January 2021), it is the second most populous city in Piedmont after Turin. It is ...

and

Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label= Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nat ...

, where he won two league titles (in 1936 and 1937) before he was forced to flee Italy with his wife and two children following the enactment of the Italian Racial Laws. Weisz finished his career by coaching

FC Dordrecht Football Club Dordrecht, or simply FC Dordrecht () is a professional Dutch association football club based in Dordrecht, a city in the Western Netherlands, located in the province of South Holland. They currently compete in the Eerste Divisie, ...

in the Netherlands, leaving in 1940 following 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 ...

. Four years later he was arrested by the SS and murdered by the Nazis at

Auschwitz concentration camp Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It con ...

, with his family of four (including his wife Elena, his son Roberto, and his daughter Clara) when they were gassed immediately upon arriving at

Birkenau Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It con ...

Legacy

In January 2020,

Chelsea FC Chelsea Football Club is an English professional football club based in Fulham, West London. Founded in 1905, they play their home games at Stamford Bridge. The club competes in the Premier League, the top division of English football. Th ...

unveiled a mural by

Solomon Souza Solomon Souza (born 1993) is a British-Israeli street artist. He is best known for spray painting portraits of contemporary and historical figures on the metal shutters of the Mahane Yehuda Market ("The Shuk") in Jerusalem, turning them into an ...

on an outside wall of the West Stand at

Stamford Bridge stadium Stamford Bridge () is a football stadium in Fulham, adjacent to the borough of Chelsea in West London. It is the home of Premier League club Chelsea. With a capacity of 40,341, it is the ninth largest venue of the 2022–23 Premier League seas ...

. The mural is part of Chelsea's 'Say No to Antisemitism' campaign funded by club owner

Roman Abramovich Roman Arkadyevich Abramovich (, ; he, רומן ארקדיביץ' אברמוביץ'; born 24 October 1966) is a Russian Russian oligarchs, oligarch and politician. He is the former owner of Chelsea F.C., Chelsea, a Premier League football club ...

. Included on the mural are depictions of footballers

Julius Hirsch Julius Hirsch (7 April 1892 – declared dead 8 May 1945) was a Jewish German Olympian international footballer who was murdered by the Nazis in Auschwitz concentration camp during the Holocaust. He helped Karlsruher FV win the 1910 German foot ...

and Weisz, who were killed at

, and Ron Jones, a British

prisoner of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of wa ...

known as the 'Goalkeeper of Auschwitz'.

References

External links

Jews In Sports
{{DEFAULTSORT:Weisz, Arpad 1896 births 1944 deaths Association football wingers Hungarian footballers Hungarian expatriate footballers Jewish footballers Jewish Hungarian sportspeople Hungary international footballers Olympic footballers of Hungary Footballers at the 1924 Summer Olympics Hungarian football managers Inter Milan players Inter Milan managers S.S.C. Bari managers FC Dordrecht managers Hungarian expatriate sportspeople in Czechoslovakia Hungarian expatriate sportspeople in Italy Hungarian expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands Expatriate football managers in Italy Expatriate football managers in the Netherlands Hungarian people who died in Auschwitz concentration camp Hungarian civilians killed in World War II Sportspeople from Bács-Kiskun County Expatriate footballers in Czechoslovakia Hungarian Jews who died in the Holocaust