German football is joining forces to honour the victims of the Nazis on the 71st anniversary since the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp to mark Holocaust Memorial Day on 27 January.

For the 12th consecutive year the German Football Association (DFB) and Football League (DFL) will back up the fan-driven campaign „Nie wieder“ (in English ‘Never Again’). Under the umbrella of the campaign football related activities will address anti-Semitism and discrimination. At professional and amateur matches stadium announcements and other actions will mark the day.

In addition, several clubs will raise awareness of the day's history through educational activities.

On 25 January, Makkabi Deutschland hosted the screening of the „Liga Terezin“ documentary followed by a panel discussion with the Israeli filmmakers Oded Breda and Mike Schwartz. The documentary tells the story of the Theresienstadt concentration camp football league, played by amateur and professional players emprisioned in the camp. Video footage of matches was used by the Nazis for propaganda purposes.

The documentary will tour around several German cities until 4 February as part of the „Nie wieder“ initiative.

In Hamburg, FC St Pauli will host a series of activities around the day highlighting the importance of welcoming those who seek asylum and fled war. Activities will include an wreath-laying ceremony and lectures on asylum and exile during Nazi Germany and the present, the current situation of the neo-Nazi groups, its symbols and codes.

Bundesliga giants Borussia Dortmund, FC Bayern-Erlebniswelt, fan project KOS, Fare member BAFF, the Eintracht Frankfurt Museum and journalists involved in Dietrich Schulze-Marmeling, such as Christoph Ruf and Ronny Blaschke, will also be actively involved in the day’s actions.

Observed every year on 27 January, the Holocaust Memorial Day marks the day when in 1945 the largest Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau, in south-western Poland, was liberated by Soviet troops. About 7,000 starving prisoners were found alive in the camp as the SS began to evacuate it in mid-January 1945.

It is estimated that 1.1 million prisoners died in Auschwitz-Birkenau.