Grandson of Jewish Holocaust survivor plays for Germany

By Carsten Lappe Feb 9, 2012, 2:01 GMT

Dusseldorf - Evan Kaufmann has made peace with Germany.

On Friday the ice hockey pro who plays for Dusseldorf top flight club DEG Metro Stars is set to make his debut for the country which under Nazi rule was responsible for the murders of many members of his Jewish family.

'My grandfather never saw his parents again and was never again able to find several of his cousins,' Kaufman told dpa.

Despite this Evan decided to play for the German national team and is a member of the squad taking part at the forthcoming four-nation Belarus Cup in Minsk, with Germany playing hosts Belarus on Friday.

'I didn't have to think too long about it. It's an big honour for me,' he said.

It's the sort of sentence you often hear from sportsmen and women when they are called up for the first time for international duty, but in Kaufmann's case it is no empty phrase.

His debut is also unusual for the fact that Kaufmann was born in the US state of Minnesota in 1984 and only visited Germany the first time nearly four years ago.

'It will be a very emotional moment for me. I am going to be nervous for sure,' Kaufmann said of the prospect of hearing the German national anthem for the first time as an international.

He is in fact telling a journalist for the first time the story of his grandfather Kurt who grew up in the Mosel region, who lived through the Nazi terror in Cologne and survived a concentration camp before managing to emigrate to the United States with his sister.

Kaufmann, who has learned to speak German during his time in Dusseldorf, prefers to speak English. In the United States, German was never spoken again by the Kaufmanns.

'It was very hard for him, it was something he never really wanted to talk about,' said Kaufmann of his grandfather.

Now there is no longer any opportunity. Kurt died in 1990 but Evan believes he would have been 'very proud' to have seen his grandson wear the German jersey. Maybe Kurt would have been able to have made his peace with Germany on Friday.

For Evan, feelings were, he said, mixed, when he heard in 2008 of Germany's interest in him. 'I had never thought about going to Germany,' he said.

None of his family had ever returned to Europe after World War II, never mind to Germany. Kaufmann though decided to take the chance, something he has never regretted.

'Everything was very positive,' he said. 'I was received fantastically and felt really well in Dusseldorf from the start.'

His parents are now regular visitors. 'They come over every season and they have seen how well we are doing. That was very comforting for them,' he said.

Together they have visited Evan's grandfather's Mosel homeland, with Evan recalling how some elderly local people could still remember Kurt. 'That was a very emotional moment,' he said.

From a sporting point of view, things also went well for Kaufmann who early on decided to take German citizenship in order to ease the strain on the permissible contingent of foreign players.

He has regularly been one of the best scorers in the German Ice Hockey League (DEL) and helped Dusseldorf reach the final once and once the semi-finals of the German championship.

His form has now drawn him to the attention of Germany coach Jakob Koelliker who wanted Kaufmann late last year, saying he was a consistent goalscorer. However injury delayed his debut until now.

Koelliker had not heard Kaufmann's story, at least not from the player himself.

'I haven't spoken to him about it,' said Kaufmann. 'It's not something I've ever made a big thing about. My team-mates know I am Jewish and it's something they were also always interested in knowing about.'

It's quite possible Kaufmann may have to be seeking new team-mates though, at club level. Dusseldorf have lost their main sponsors and may have trouble retaining a player of Kaufmann's calibre.

But one thing is certain: Kaufmann wants to stay in Germany, and preferably in Dusseldorf.