workingclasshistory:

On this day, 14 May 1938, the players of the England football team raised their arms to give the Nazi “Heil Hitler” salute before a match in Berlin. They had been instructed to do so directly by the British Foreign Office. Reportedly the players at first refused, until the British ambassador and Football Association secretary intervened and ordered them to do so. At the time the British government was pursuing a policy of appeasement of Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler, and shortly after signed an agreement permitting Germany’s annexation of parts of then-Czechoslovakia. Much of the British ruling class supported Hitler, as well as the dictatorships in Italy, Spain and Portugal, as bulwarks against communism and an organised working class. According to his biographer one of the players, Stan Cullis, would not perform the salute and was dropped from the team for that match as a result.
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