Elemer Hirsch (14 May 1895 – 17 May 1953) was a

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

lawyer A lawyer is a person who is qualified to offer advice about the law, draft legal documents, or represent individuals in legal matters. The exact nature of a lawyer's work varies depending on the legal jurisdiction and the legal system, as w ...

figure skater Figure skating is a sport in which individuals, pairs, or groups perform on figure skates on ice. It was the first winter sport to be included in the Olympic Games, with its introduction occurring at the 1908 Olympics in London. The Olympic d ...

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

player and a football defender,

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a government bodies through business administration, nonprofit management, or the political science sub-field of public administra ...

and

referee A referee is an official, in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The official tasked with this job may be known by a variety of other title ...

Life and career

Elemer Hirsch came from a wealthy Jewish family who owned large portions of land in

Beclean Beclean (; Hungarian language, Hungarian and German language, German: ''Bethlen'') is a town in Bistrița-Năsăud County, in north-eastern Transylvania, Romania. The town administers three villages: Coldău (''Goldau''; ''Várkudu''), Figa (''F� ...

. He studied law school in

Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

and

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

, starting to work as a

at age 24. He started playing football at CA Cluj. Several years later he moved to

Universitatea Cluj Asociația Sportivă Fotbal Club Universitatea Cluj (), commonly known as Universitatea Cluj or simply U Cluj, is a Romanian professional association football, football club based in the city of Cluj-Napoca, Cluj County, that competes in the L ...

, where he also played

. Hirsch also competed in

figure skating Figure skating is a sport in which individuals, pairs, or groups perform on figure skates on ice. It was the first winter sport to be included in the Olympic Games, with its introduction occurring at the Figure skating at the 1908 Summer Olympi ...

competitions, managing to win three Romanian national titles in 1924, 1925 and 1927, also becoming an international figure skating judge. After he retired from playing football, he became a football

, including arbitrating in a Romanian top-division

Divizia A Liga I (; ''First League''), also spelled as Liga 1 and officially known as SuperLiga for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Romania and the highest level of the Romanian football league system. Contested by 1 ...

match. In the 1940s following the

Second Vienna Award The Second Vienna Award was the second of two territorial disputes that were arbitrated by Nazi Germany and the Kingdom of Italy. On 30 August 1940, they assigned the territory of Northern Transylvania, including all of Maramureș and part of Cri ...

, due to his Jewish origin, the Hungarian authorities prohibited him from working as a lawyer and deprived him of his property which was later nationalized by the Romanian communist regime. He managed to escape from

Cluj Cluj-Napoca ( ; ), or simply Cluj ( , ), is a city in northwestern Romania. It is the second-most populous city in the country and the seat of Cluj County. Geographically, it is roughly equidistant from Bucharest (), Budapest () and Belgrade ( ...

when the authorities wanted to send him to a

Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...

extermination camp Nazi Germany used six extermination camps (), also called death camps (), or killing centers (), in Central Europe, primarily in occupied Poland, during World War II to systematically murder over 2.7 million peoplemostly Jewsin the Holocau ...

. After the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

he returned to Cluj and started his

coaching Coaching is a form of development in which an experienced person, called a ''coach'', supports a learner or client in achieving a specific personal or professional goal by providing training and guidance. The learner is sometimes called a ''coa ...

career at CFR. Between 1947 and 1948 he was the federal captain of Romania's national team. In 1950 he became coach at Armata Cluj. In May 1953 after the end of a match in

Baia Mare Baia Mare ( , ; ; ; ) is a Municipiu, city along the Săsar, Săsar River, in northwestern Romania; it is the capital of Maramureș County. The city lies in the region of Maramureș, a subregion of Transylvania. It is situated about from Buchare ...

he collapsed on his way to the team bus, the

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie, or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or i ...

Nicolae Szoboszlay tried to give him first aid but Hirsch died in his arms.

International career

Elemer Hirsch played in the first official match of Romania's national team at the

1922 King Alexander's Cup The 1922 King Alexander's Cup () was the first edition of the Friendship Cup. It was a single-game tournament in 1922 and the first official match of the national association football team of Romania. Pre-match The trophy was named after Alexande ...

, against

Yugoslavia , common_name = Yugoslavia , life_span = 1918–19921941–1945: World War II in Yugoslavia#Axis invasion and dismemberment of Yugoslavia, Axis occupation , p1 = Kingdom of SerbiaSerbia , flag_p ...

. Hirsch Romania's equipment for that match from his own money. He was also part of Romania's

1924 Summer Olympics The 1924 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the VIII Olympiad () and officially branded as Paris 1924, were an international multi-sport event held in Paris, France. The opening ceremony was held on 5 July, but some competitions had al ...

squad. ::''Scores and results table. Romania's goal tally first:''

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hirsch, Elemer 1895 births 1953 deaths Footballers from Cluj County Romanian men's footballers Romania men's international footballers Olympic footballers for Romania Footballers at the 1924 Summer Olympics Men's association football defenders Liga I players FC Universitatea Cluj players Romanian football managers CFR Cluj managers Romanian football referees Romanian ice hockey players Romanian male single skaters 20th-century Romanian lawyers Jewish footballers People from the Kingdom of Hungary Jewish Romanian sportspeople 20th-century Romanian sportsmen

Life and career

International career

See also

References

External links