DFB President Bernd Neuendorf took a clear stance against anti-Semitism at the Julius Hirsch Award ceremony. "If you know our past, you cannot question the existence of the state of Israel," Neuendorf said during a media roundtable in Munich.
He felt it was "a disgrace that certain things are being articulated here in Germany again and that people are not aware of the history for which we are responsible," said the 63-year-old.
The German Football Association is "very clearly on the side" of the Jewish community, he said, adding that it is "difficult when people have to be afraid to wear a kippah, when they have to read slogans on walls that we believed would never happen again".
Awards for Leipzig, Karlsruhe and Bonn
The DFB awards the Julius Hirsch Prize annually to clubs, institutions and individuals who use soccer to promote democracy and human dignity and to combat anti-Semitism, racism and discrimination. This year, the awards went to the Initiative for More Social Responsibility in Popular Football (IVF) in Leipzig, the fan club "Blau-Weiss statt Braun" in Karlsruhe and FC Hertha Bonn 1918.
"Every application is a piece of hope for us in difficult times," said Neuendorf. "It's about respect, about togetherness, about everything that soccer should stand for. We know that this is unfortunately not the case everywhere in our society, that there is often hatred, racism and anti-Semitism."
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