Maccabi Tel Aviv’s history is intertwined with the Holocaust, as the roots of the yellow in the club’s uniform come from the 1940s in order to stand in solidarity with the Jews of Europe, who were forced to wear the Yellow Star as they were persecuted and murdered during the Holocaust.
Rafi Menco, who has played for Maccabi the past few seasons, as well as for the Israel National Team, is also connected to the horrors of the Holocaust, as the Nazis attempted to exterminate his family who lived in the Netherlands, but they were able to survive and eventually saw his parents make their home in the State of Israel.
Maccabi Tel Aviv spoke to Rafi about the trials and tribulations his family had gone through and how his grandparents, Dave and Bela, were able to survive.
This is their story:
Bela was born in the Netherlands. Her father, Maurits van Praagh-Polak, was a butcher and cattle dealer, and her mother Judith was a saleswoman and seamstress in a large shopping center. She had a sister named Rosa and two brothers, Leo and Bob. They were a family of six, part of an extended clan of 50 people – grandparents, uncles and aunts, brothers and sisters, nephews and nieces. Dave also lived in the Netherlands with his brother Eli and his mother, Dina Menco-van Gelder.
The Jewish community in the picturesque Western European country had existed since the 12th century. In fact, in 1796, the Netherlands became one of the first countries to grant equal rights to Jewish citizens. Pastoral, but temporary. The upheavals of World War I, the global economic crisis, and the rise of nationalist dictatorships around the world began to affect the Netherlands as well, certainly when the winds of racism and war began to infiltrate the country from neighboring Germany. Bela and Dave, Rafi Menco’s grandparents, also felt this.
On the eve of World War II, about 140,000 Jews lived in the Netherlands – about 1.5% of the country’s population. Because they had enjoyed prosperity, security and tolerance from the government and citizens up until then, the majority were in no hurry to be displaced.
In May 1940, Nazi Germany launched a crushing attack that included the merciless bombing of some of the cities, and within just four days, the Netherlands surrendered and became an occupied territory. Many Jews tried to escape to Britain or the south, while dozens committed suicide.
The Nazi regime viewed the Dutch as potential partners and invested in propaganda to bring them closer to its views. The occupation’s local leadership was imbued with Nazi motivation and looked to establish an effective system for persecuting Jews. Soon, the laws also began to change accordingly.
At first, children were required to attend Jewish schools, and later the academic staff were also fired. By late August, government departments were already being forced to promise not to hire Jews. Less than two months later, Jewish-owned businesses were required to register as “Jewish businesses.”
On November 4, 1940, it was decided that Jews would be dismissed from government jobs, and by January, the civil service would be “purified.” In February, some 400 young Jews were arrested, and in August 1941, orders were issued to deal with Jewish property, which was to be transferred entirely to the Lippmann, Rosenthal & Co. bank (LiRo Bank).
“During the first years of the war, my grandfather Maurits was very worried about what was going to happen and began to prepare to hide all six members of the family,” said Lex Menco, father of Rafi and son of Dave and Bela.“The rest of the family refused to listen to his warnings and asked him to stop talking about ‘Judgment Day.’”
Dutch Jews required to wear a yellow Star of David
In May 1942, two years after the beginning of the Nazi occupation, Dutch Jews were required to wear a yellow Star of David with the word JOOD on their clothing and to move to the Jewish quarter. This was the same year that rumors of the mistreatment of European Jews reached Israel. Maccabi Tel Aviv soccer player Yosele Merimovitch suggested at the time that the club add the color yellow to the blue-and-white uniform as a sign of solidarity.
“Sometime before the first rounds of deportations in July 1942, my grandparents took all four of their children to hiding places and then went into hiding themselves,” revealed Rafi’s father. “For three years, until the liberation, they hardly saw their children.”
His father, Dave, also decided to go into hiding.
Young Bela, Rafi’s grandmother, was forced to live in a space under the living room floor of the family that hid her. When the Nazis came to search the house, she huddled in complete silence, careful not to make a sound. Above her head, she heard the footsteps of their boots back and forth on the wooden beams. Once, she remained like that for six hours straight – without moving and breathing softly. This was also the reason why, for the rest of her life after the war, she always slept with the window open.
One time, Dave was caught stealing identity cards from a public swimming pool in Utrecht and was arrested in Amsterdam, then interrogated.
“They used a basketball arena as a gathering point,” explained Rafi Menco. “It was a transit station after the Jews were captured, and in the morning they were put on trains to send them to concentration camps. He managed to escape through the bathroom window of that arena when the guards didn’t notice.”
The deportations were carried out from concentration camps in the Netherlands, as they told the Jews that they were being sent to labor camps in Germany. The Germans were assisted by massive cooperation from Dutch public and transport employees. In September 1942, units of Dutch collaborators were established in the Netherlands, whose members worked to hunt down Jews in hiding. These units were assisted by informers who turned in Jews in hiding for a fee.
It was not until 1943 that an organized Dutch underground was established, after the Germans began recruiting Dutch citizens for forced labor. By this time, most Dutch Jews had already been deported to the extermination camps.
Of the approximately 140,000 Jews living in the country at the time of its occupation, 107,000 men, women, and children were sent east to the camps, and only 5,000 returned. It is estimated that approximately 25,000 Jews hid in the Netherlands, and a third of them were exposed through acts of intimidation. Over 75% of Dutch Jews were murdered in the Holocaust.
In September 1944, Allied forces attempted to invade Germany through the Netherlands in order to try to end the war. The operation failed, and the British forces were stopped at the Arnhem Bridge, near the area where Rafi’s family was hiding. The country was only liberated with the surrender of Nazi Germany in May 1945. After the liberation, very few Jews returned and were met with a lack of understanding of what they had been through. Others even described it as a lack of sympathy.
It took Maurits a long time to locate all of his children, but he eventually found them all alive, safe and well. Of the approximately 50 relatives, only the van Praagh family of six and one brother of Judith’s grandmother survived. Dozens of others were murdered. Like most of the survivors, they were saved thanks to the help of a few Dutch citizens who risked their lives, hid them, and took care of their needs. Approximately 5,900 people from the Netherlands were recognized as Righteous Among the Nations.
After the war, Bela finished her high school education in one year and continued her nursing studies with the intention of immigrating to Israel and working as a nurse. In 1953, she met Dave, married him, and together they built their own family in the Netherlands.
Lex, Rafi’s father, grew up with a love for Israel, and after visiting Israel in the late 1970s, he realized that this was where he wanted to live. He completed a master’s degree in chemistry and met his wife Renee.
Decision to immigrate to Israel
They decided to immigrate to Israel in 1989, married, and then moved to Suriname in South America to work with the local Jewish community. A year later, they returned to the Netherlands, where their eldest son, David, was born. In 1992, they returned to Israel, and two years later, Rafi was born in June, while Gil was born in 1999.
Lex played amateur soccer until he was 25, and he claims that his children, David and Rafi, “betrayed” him by playing basketball.
“But Rafi became the first professional athlete in the family and made us very happy and proud [even if it wasn’t in soccer].”
Asked when he became aware that he was a member of a family of Holocaust survivors, Rafi said it preceded his memories.
“From the moment I can remember, it’s something that’s been present, that I’ve always known about. My grandparents stayed to live in Holland, so we would visit them in the summer. After my grandfather passed away, my grandmother immigrated to Israel at the age of 85. It is always something that was there, but it was also very clear that we didn’t talk about it.
“There were pictures of the family at my grandparents’ house, but it was a subject they didn’t like to discuss. When my grandmother immigrated to Israel, I remember my father really opened up about it with her. She cooperated and told the entire story of everything she had been through. That’s how he actually reached the family in Australia who were the ones who hid her and saved her. They were recognized as Righteous Among the Nations.”
Rafi recalled some of the times he spent with his grandparents.
“As a child, I remember them as being amazing grandparents, but my father has the characteristics of a child of Holocaust survivors – if it’s eating quickly or finishing all of the food on the plate. You don’t throw away food. My grandmother, for example, was in hiding underground for a long time. She would get a sandwich and not know if it was for a day, two days, or until the next time they could come to her. If there’s a difficulty that needs to be talked about, he often resorts to cynicism. I know he had a complex childhood. He had many friends who were Christians and not necessarily just from the Jewish community, but he did talk here and there about manifestations of antisemitism that also happened after the war.”
Seeing the atrocities of the Holocaust first-hand
Menco has travelled multiple times to Europe to see the atrocities of the Holocaust first-hand.
“I was on a trip to Poland in high school, and I also wanted to go there with the national team as well. My older brother told me that when he went, they asked everyone who had a connection to the Holocaust to bring names of people from their families who were murdered. People go there with three, four, maybe five names. My father sent him with a list of nearly a hundred names of people from our extended family who didn’t survive the Holocaust.
“When I was in high school, we arrived at Majdanek. You enter the camp and you see everything there is green. You see wooden huts like these that have been renovated, you look and say, ‘I can’t believe that something like this happened. This situation doesn’t compute.’ Then they tell you that 100,000 people passed through this pavilion and 150,000 here. They talk in numbers that you say to yourself that such a thing couldn’t have happened. Finally, after the crematoriums, you reach the huge mountain of ashes.”
“In Auschwitz, everything is like a museum. Seeing the amount of shoes, glasses and all of the things there, you just get dizzy. You can’t believe that it was a death factory. Those who haven’t experienced it, who haven’t been there, can’t understand it. You can’t understand the numbers, you can’t understand the magnitude, you can’t understand the evil. In contrast, I’m afraid that what happened here on October 7 will become another story. We’ve been saying all these years, ‘Never again,’ that’s when we founded this country. ‘Never again’ can’t just be a sentence. Unequivocally, we have to remember, recognize and investigate.”
Rafi became emotional when describing arriving at the extermination camp as a member of the Israel National Team with the Israeli flag.
“I was already more mature at this point in time, and I understood the magnitude of the event better. This, for me, was the fulfillment of our victory. That we are indestructible. That this death machine, all the evil plans against us and the hatred towards us, won’t help. We are here to stay. I entered Majdanek wearing the Israel National Team’s clothing, and I definitely feel that it’s also a victory for my family. My grandparents survived, but there are many who didn’t. Maybe I wasn’t supposed to be here. It’s a crazy closing of the circle for my entire family’s history.
“As I got off the bus, you see all of the awful and horrible things right there, but that made me walk upright. To remember and remember the stories, but also to look forward. To believe that they won’t beat us, to believe that things like this won’t happen again.”
“It wasn’t until I got to Maccabi that I realized that the yellow uniform and logo actually came from there, so it immediately connected me to this point. That my family went through a lot so that I could be here, play basketball in the State of Israel, and as a Jew to feel safe and play for Maccabi Tel Aviv, which also represents the memory of the Holocaust. I have no words to explain this feeling.”
Importance of learning from the Holocaust
Menco believes it is important to learn from the Holocaust era and take lessons that apply today.
“Looking at the situation in the country today, my father takes the division and hatred within us very hard because, a) he understands where this can go, and b) because of what his family had to go through for us to establish a state here and how we are tearing it apart with our own hands. People used to experience antisemitism and had nowhere to run, so this is something that can really be very upsetting.”
“The main thing is to remember, to hear testimonies – anything. To understand that they tried to exterminate all of the Jews in the world just because they were Jews. It’s easy for us to remember this on Holocaust Day, but in the days after this day we continue our lives as normal. We established the State of Israel so that we would have a safe place to live. If we return to the root of our essence here – to the understanding that a lot of people would prefer us not to be in the world – I think we can live a better life here with each other, despite the differences of opinion and despite cultural differences. We still have a lot of reasons for hope.”
