ATHLETICS

He comes from a very poor family. He spends his days playing soccer in his neighborhood. His father dies while he was fighting during the First World War, and Matthias has to help his mother and sisters with the family-run laundry. But, in 1918, someone notices his talent and, even though his slight physique, the young Sindelar becomes a member of Herta ASV of Vienna, with whom he star out in 1921 during the maximum Austrian championship.
On the 12th march 1939 Matthias wakes up and finds out, together with millions of people from the same country, that his country has been deleted from geographical maps. The panzer-division of Adolf Hitler have passed the national border and annexed Austria to the Third Reich. Now it is just a province of the Great Germany: Germans begin the jewish persecution, who are purged from public life. Soccer's protocol states that, at the end of each match, the 2 teams have to line up in the center of the camp and greet the authorities by raising their arm. The players lined up are 22, the arms raised are just 20. Matthias is there, with his friend Karl Sesta, his eyes stuck on the tribune but his arms lying at his side. At the cost of risking his life, he swears to himself that he would never play in a German team. The Gestapo convenes him, firstly they flatter him, then they threath him in order to convince him to play for the Reich during the imminent French world championship, but they won't convince him. Matthias will be found later, in mysterious circumstances, on the 23th january 1939, in his apartment in Annagasse.

"Osso", he is nicknamed like this for its leanness, does not betray the expectations and debuts when he is eighteen years old in C series with the Fiumana club. He played a leading role for the promotion of his city's team to B series , becoming one of the most promising young man in his category.
In November 1944 Ottorino is arrested by the Germans together with his brother Claudio and deported to Dachau, where he stays for about six months. When the field is set free from Americans Ottorino weighs less than thirty-seven pounds.
Because of his poor health and of lung problems he is hospitalized first in Innsbruck, then in Bolzano and Merano. He is sent back home in 1945. In 1946 he got back to sporting activity, in the same year he decided to leave Fiume for Italy and he settled in Cremona, where his brother lived. He Signed a deal with the Cremonese where played for four seasons. In the 1950/51 championship he got traded to Udinese team in A Series. He returned to his family tin Cremona, where he died on March 15th 1980 at the age of 58 .

"Rino" starts playing in the Parish football pitch, then he passes in the youth team of Pordenone and then he is in the springboard of Bologna football team that compete in the big-league. It is selected for the Italian national team.
In 1943 Rino is enlisted in the alpine brigade. after the armistice of 8th September the Germans arrest him; he begins his sad journey to Hohenstein, then to Poland to Byalistok. The painful conditions of life make him lose thirty pounds in six months, but his passion for football does not stop. When the Red Army the camp is made to vacate, Rino, with seven companions, begins a long odyssey throughout Europe on his way back home. Back in Hohenstein, then in Odessa and then in Cernauti, where Rino meets other Italians fond of football. After the camps are closed, Rino returns home where he tries to resume a normal life starts to play again in the season 1945-46 with Bologna team.

In sport almanacs he is reported as Staccione to distinguish him from his brother, a footballer himself. Known as an anti-fascist, he was often arrested by the OVRA (secret police of the Mussolini regime). After the outbreak of the Second World War, on 13th March 1944 was arrested by the German SS and deported as a political opponent in the concentration camp of "Mauthausen" (Austria). After a year of imprisonment in terrible conditions, due to a gangrene in his leg he died on February 13th 1945. On 6th October 2012 his name was included in the Hall Of Fame of the Fiorentina football team as the best player "viola"of the '20s and' 30s.

Talented skier, and with a passion for painting, after finishing high school Bronislaw moves to Warsaw to achieve the degree at the Central Institute of Physical Education. Joins the Polish National Championships and plays in several disciplines (alpine skiing, nordic skiing, ski jumping), achieving the national title 24 times. With the National representative of his Country, Bronislaw participates in the Winter Olympic Games of 1928 at St. Moritz, of 1932 at Lake Placid and of 1936 at Garmisch-Partenkirchen, racing in the Nordic Combined, the ski jumping and the cross country skiing; he manages to achieve always great results. After the invasion of Poland by the Germans, Bronislaw joins the Resistance, but gets arrested and deported to Auschwitz where he'll eventually die. Some of his drawings are kept in the Auschwitz Memorial Museum.

National of the Team of Railways

His biggest love was cycling. He got noticed by Ernst Berkiner, former cyclist with Jewish origins. In 1932 the Olympic Games were held and the Cycling Federation claimed it could not afford to send him to Los Angeles; according to some people, his trainer's Jewish origins cost him the stage. The same year he won at the World Games in Rome. Afterwards, in France, he became a champion. He always had an anti-nazi soul, in fact he refused to wear the Swastika on his race shirts. In a picture he results to be the only one who's not doing the Nazi greeting. The regime no longer tolerated him, so he was forced to leave Germany. In 1939 he went back to Germany for Belin GP, but was stopped. They found 127.000 francs in his bike's wheels, which he was bringing to a Jew to give him some help. He didn't make it alive.

He was one of the best Polish athletes of the thirties participating at the Olympic Games in 1936 and at the Europeans of 1938. He was considered an idol by his fellow citizens, but it turned out to be an awkward element, persecuted for his being Jewish. He was took part to the resistance, but he was arrested and taken to Auschwitz, where he was assassinated in 1943.

His anti-fascist convictions led him to confinement to Manfredonia in 1942, then he returns to Fiume and continues to oppose the regime collaborating with the partisans. Captured by the Germans is transferred to Dachau and then to Buchenwald. On 11th April 1945 the camp was freed by the deportees themselves. The physical conditions of Ici are miserable and he dies on May 9th 1945.