THE FATAL ELEVEN
KIEV 1941: A FOOTBALL MATCH
OF LIFE AND DEATH
Reconstructing the tragic match between the forced labourers of Ukrainian team FC Start and the German Air Force side Flakelf, The Fatal Eleven tells the story of football and Nazism, of courage and power, of red jerseys and the fatal consequences of a 5–3 victory.
It was much more than a football match. When FC Start — the Ukrainian workers of the 3rd Bakery Unit — took to the pitch at Kyiv’s Zenit Stadium on 9 August 1942 to face Flakelf, the German Air Force side, everyone knew what was at stake. The spectator stands were packed.
A year earlier, on 19 September 1941, the German Wehrmacht had marched into Kyiv. Within two days, the Nazi regime murdered nearly 34,000 Jews. 630,000 Soviet soldiers were taken prisoner. The deportation of Jews and Ukrainian forced labourers to Germany was in full swing. The citizens of Kyiv were starving. Under such appalling conditions, no one could think about playing football. Yet no one had forgotten the game.
What the Nazis did not know: hidden among the bakery’s forced labourers were some of the finest football players from Dynamo Kyiv, the leading Soviet club, and their local rivals at Lokomotiv. Both clubs had been officially banned from the league in Nazi-occupied territories. But FC Start was permitted to compete against garrison and soldiers’ teams. The matches were meant to create an appearance of normality in wartime.
Football was meant to give the Nazi occupation a veneer of sporting humanity. FC Start, with its Dynamo Kyiv champions, was determined to play to win. No one on the pitch could imagine what a victory for the oppressed would lead to. The Fatal Eleven tells the true story of a very special match.
It was much more than a football match. When FC Start — the Ukrainian workers of the 3rd Bakery Unit — took to the pitch at Kyiv’s Zenit Stadium on 9 August 1942 to face Flakelf, the German Air Force side, everyone knew what was at stake. The spectator stands were packed.
A year earlier, on 19 September 1941, the German Wehrmacht had marched into Kyiv. Within two days, the Nazi regime murdered nearly 34,000 Jews. 630,000 Soviet soldiers were taken prisoner. The deportation of Jews and Ukrainian forced labourers to Germany was in full swing. The citizens of Kyiv were starving. Under such appalling conditions, no one could think about playing football. Yet no one had forgotten the game.
What the Nazis did not know: hidden among the bakery’s forced labourers were some of the finest football players from Dynamo Kyiv, the leading Soviet club, and their local rivals at Lokomotiv. Both clubs had been officially banned from the league in Nazi-occupied territories. But FC Start was permitted to compete against garrison and soldiers’ teams. The matches were meant to create an appearance of normality in wartime.
Football was meant to give the Nazi occupation a veneer of sporting humanity. FC Start, with its Dynamo Kyiv champions, was determined to play to win. No one on the pitch could imagine what a victory for the oppressed would lead to. The Fatal Eleven tells the true story of a very special match.
Facts
Nominated for Adolf-Grimme Prize
First aired 9th March 2005, 23:00 pm on ARD
Shot in original locations in Ukraine, Germany, United Kingdom
