Photo Gallery Top German Football Players Visit Auschwitz
The German national team, some representatives of which visited the Nazi death camp of Auschwitz outside of Krakow, Poland late last week, has been criticized for not travelling to the memorial as a team. Here, Miroslav Klose, team manager Oliver Bierhoff, team captain Philipp Lahm and Lukas Podolski pay their respects.
Representatives of the German national team visited Auschwitz on June 1. Here, their signatures are sean in a book of condolence to Nazi regime victims.
German national team trainer Joachim Löw signs a book of condolence at the Auschwitz memorial. The team was criticized by Jewish leaders in Germany for not attending the memorial site as a group.
"If the whole national team had come, one could have reached hundreds of thousands of young people -- more than a thousand memorial speeches," Dieter Graumann, head of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, said on Sunday. Here, team captain Philipp Lahm.
In addition, German Jews have blasted team manager Oliver Bierhoff (left) for saying that the squad would address the Holocaust in the form of a "fireside chat." In German, the phrase uses the word for chimney, which some found insensitive.
German team captain Philipp Lahm, German Ambassador to Poland Rüdiger Freiherr von Fritsch and national team trainer Joachim Löw in Auschwitz on Friday.
