Looking around: Scott Parker studies an exhibition as Cole (below) leads a group being shown other exhibits

His family produced Hirsch leather footballs, at the time a global brand much like England's sponsors Umbro are today. In 1939, Hirsch divorced his non-Jewish wife to protect her from the Nazi terror, and on March 1, 1943 he was deported, alone, to Auschwitz.

He sent a postcard two days later to his children, Heinold and Esther. It was the last they ever heard from their father. His official death was given as May 8, 1945 - the end of the war - but it is thought he was one of more than a million victims of the Nazi killing machine in Birkenau a few days later.

The Nazis eventually seized his children too, sending the 'first half breeds' to a concentration camp in early 1945. Mercifully, Heinold and Esther stayed alive long enough to walk free a few months later.

'That just sums it up,' said Hodgson. 'You play for Germany, fight for Germany, then you end up here.'

Eddy Hamel ended up here too. Born in New York in 1902, Hamel had travelled to Europe to play football. A talented right winger, he became the first Jew to play for Ajax and after he retired he remained in Holland.

He managed Alcmaria Victrix and continued to play for an Ajax veterans team. But he was murdered at Auschwitz on April 30, 1943. 'Everyone should come to this place,' said Hodgson.

They should, because people died here. Footballers included.

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