🇵🇱 Jutrzenka Krakow (Poland)

Jutrzenka Krakow (Poland)

Jutrzenka Krakow was founded in the year 1909 and was a Jewish minority Polish football team based in Krakow, Poland. At the time, it was seen as one of the most important Jewish sporting teams in Europe, alongside Hasmonea Lwow, Hakoah Czernowitz and their big city rivals, Makkabi Krakow. The fans and players of the club were connected to the Bund political party, a secular Jewish socialist party formed back in 1897, whilst their rivals Makkabi Krakow were aligned to the Zionist movement and political parties. This caused more tension between the two football clubs and the matches between them became known as ‘The Holy War’, a term that has since been adopted by the two biggest clubs in Krakow today, Cracovia and Wisla.

Jutrzenka wore black and white stripes as their colours and played their home games in the place where Wisla call their home today. Ironically it was Makkabi who had a strong alliance with Wisla back in the day, with Wisla seen as having a somewhat antisemitic view as a football club, with their policy to not sign any non-Catholic players to their side. Naturally, Jutrzenka aligned with the more democratic Cracovia. The rivalry between the four clubs was more than just football, with political, religious, and social aspects all being involved in their distain of one another.

Back to the football, Jutrzenka had little to no success on the field. Their best season came when they finished second to Wisla Krakow in the 20’s in the A-Class League, the highest level of football in Krakow at the time. It was considered a success as they finished ahead of the much bigger and more supported, Cracovia, who finished third. However, Jutrzenka do have somewhat a lace in polish footballing history for being one of the founding clubs of the first Polish soccer league in 1927. The league was founded on March 1^st, 1927 and was held independently from the Polish Football Federation, which didn’t last long as the Polish Football Federation finally recognised the league in December 18^th, 1927. The first league title went to Wisla Krakow, whilst Jutrzenka finished 14^th and last in the table, winning just three games, drawing five and losing eighteen. It meant they dropped out of the league and therefore had the honour of being the first Polish team to be relegated from the Polish Football league. It would be their only appearance at such a level, with the club playing it’s football in the lower and local divisions for the rest of it’s existence. And that existence lasted until 1939, when the club was dissolved after the German Armed forces invaded Poland. The club never re-emerged after World War II and that was the end of Jutrzenka Krakow, a club that many may have forgotten, but one that still holds a place in the history of Polish football, not least for being the pioneers of the ‘Holy War’, but also having the unwanted accolade of being the first Polish club to ever get relegated from the Polish football league.

One of the most notable players to have pulled on the Jutrzenka jersey was Polish born Jozef Klotz. Born 1900, in Krakow, Klotz was of a Jewish background. He came up through the ranks of the Jutrzenka youth team. Klotz played for the club for fifteen years before moving to another Jewish minority team, Maccabi Warszawa. He was a centre-back but still holds the record of scoring Poland’s first international goal, which came in their third ever game, against Sweden in Stokholm on May 28^th, 1922, in which Poland won 2-1. It was only one of two appearances he made for the Polish national team, the other coming in a 3-0 defeat to Hungary on May 14^th, 1922, in his home city of Krakow. Koltz retired at the age of 30 years old, although it’s not known if he remained playing with other clubs in lower divisions. He died in the Warsaw Ghetto, in 1941, when he was murdered by the German Army, having been imprisoned there since 1940. In 2019, Josef Koltz was honoured by the Polish Football Association.

When I went looking for someone to speak to about Polish football and the history of Polish football, one name kept being mentioned. It was Ryan Hubbard, Author of ‘Partition to Solidarity: The First 100 Years of Polish Football, a brilliant read for anybody interested in Polish football, or football in general. It was a coin flip as to whether put this interview in for this chapter or the second polish club I write about further on in the book. As it is, I decided to put in for this chapter and Ryan didn’t disappoint with his input. Here is what he had to say.

Thank you for taking time out to answer my questions on Polish football and Jutrzenka Krakow. It was one of the shortest chapters I have written in the book, but still one of the most fascinating ones. The club has been gone since 1939, but where one of the founders of the Polish football league. What can you tell me about how the Polish football league was formed and the history of it?

Ryan Hubbard: The Polish football league was established on the back of a very tumultuous time in the country’s history. Not even ten years earlier, Poland was merely a distant memory on the map of Europe – its historical lands swallowed up by the empires of Russia, Prussia, and Austro-Hungary.

Prior to the re-establishment of the Polish state in 1918, the few “Polish” clubs which had been created – most under a push for Polish autonomy – actually fell under the umbrellas of their respective empires. But after 1918, efforts were doubled to bring them all together for a national competition.

At first, competition was very fragmented. Links between the different regions – which had been in separate countries for more than a century - were simply not established, while the end of the First World War did not bring an end to all hostilities in Central and Eastern Europe. It was decided that, for the first five seasons, regional qualifying tournaments would be played to establish a regional champion. Those champions would then take part in a national tournament, to ultimately decide the Polish champions.

In Kraków, Cracovia and Wisła were the dominant teams, with the former even winning the first national championship in 1921. Jutrzenka yo-yoed up and down the table over the early years, but remained the only other constant presence in the regional competition.

By 1927, the majority of Polish clubs – pushed by the likes of Wisła and Czarni Lwów, who felt that the current structure didn’t satisfy those cities which had more than one strong team – began to favour a national league system. In April, this new system began outside of the auspices of the PZPN, and without the participation of Cracovia, whose president at the time was also a high ranking PZPN official. With their absence, a position in the league was instead offered to Kraków’s third club, Jutrzenka.

In my research, the 'Holy War' came up, with Jutrzenka and Makkabi Krakow being the original derby in which this name came from. What can you tell me about this game, back then and in modern days between Cracovia and Wisla?

Ryan Hubbard: The rivalry between Jutrzenka and Makkabi was, indeed, the original “Święta Wojna”, or “Holy War” in Kraków. Despite the two being the city’s Jewish clubs, the rivals’ hatred of each other was unquestionable.

Jutrzenka were considered as the left-wing, anti-Zionist Jewish club, whilst the views of the Jewish Zionists Makkabi were diametrically opposed. While tensions did exist between Jewish and non-Jewish clubs, sometimes they actually co-existed very well.

Jutrzenka soon realised they had much more in common with Cracovia – described as a “club for all” – than their Jewish rivals. Makkabi, meanwhile, saw themselves as much closer to Wisła. Perhaps these “alliances” were even some of the first instances of club “friendships” within Polish football.

The term “Holy War” in regard to the rivalry between Cracovia and Wisła, is thought to have been first coined in the mid-20s. Cracovia’s Jewish player, Ludwik Gintel, is said to have encouraged his teammates by shouting: “this is our Holy War!”. With the increasing dominance of the two clubs, the term continued to stick.

There were quite a few Jewish clubs in Poland back then. I think I named four of them in the chapter and they were known as Jewish minority clubs. Are there still Jewish minority football clubs in Poland?

Ryan Hubbard: There are now very few, if any Jewish-minority clubs remaining in Poland. World War Two absolutely decimated the country’s Jewish population, with those who weren’t killed emigrating at the earliest opportunity.

The likes of Jutrzenka and Makkabi, as well as clubs of other minorities (such as Ukraina Lwów and 1.FC Kattowitz) were disbanded as the borders of Central Europe shifted. In their place, New Polish clubs sprung up to take their place; and under the Soviet structure, clubs aligned themselves more to industry than religion.

Politics also played a huge part in how these football clubs were run and who were their fan bases. Is this still the case nowadays? 

Ryan Hubbard: Politics do still play a minor part in Polish football fandom, although perhaps to an ever-decreasing degree.

During communist rule, clubs found themselves attached to different industries: Legia Warsaw were the army club, Wisła Kraków belonged to the militia, Górnik Zabrze were the mining club, and Lech Poznań were the main club of the railways. The army and mining clubs had the most financial and political clout, and therefore found themselves able to attract the best players. This often caused resentment fans of other clubs. Teams such as Polonia Warsaw – perhaps one of the most Liberal, anti-communist, Polish nationalist clubs in the country – found themselves attached to the destitute railway industry, and found themselves plummeting down the leagues.

Nowadays, some of these attitudes and views still remain amongst older generations; but amongst those younger, who knew nothing of the communist system, they have begun to fade. Certain fan groups are known for their political views (Ruch Chorzów’s Silesian nationalism, Legia’s right-leaning tendencies), but nowadays the club and their supporters as a whole are no longer defined by their views.

Polish football has always been seen as being followed by fanatical supporters, so it is quite surprising to see that there have been so many clubs that have dissolved throughout the years in Polish football. What are the main reasons for this in your opinion?

Ryan Hubbard: Political and cultural changes in Poland were usually the reason for many clubs disappearing from the map, but nowadays it is often cashflow problems which cause clubs’ dissolution. In recent years we’ve seen a number of former Polish champions drop into the financial quagmire, and either plummet down the division, or be forced to start again at the very bottom.

Many clubs fell into chaos after the fall of communism, as their government subsidies dried up. Górnik Zabrze and Ruch Chorzów, both fourteen-time Polish champions by the late eighties, suddenly couldn’t cope without their backing, and haven’t won a title since.

Poor ownership has also led to the downfall of clubs such as Widzew Łódź and Polonia Warsaw, while several others struggled after demotion due to their part in a match-fixing scandal which engulfed Polish football.

Fortunately, there have been a number of improvements in the Polish football system in recent years, and such incidents seem to be happening much less often.

Some great players have played in Poland or have come from Poland. I mentioned Josef Klotz, a player who played for Jutrzenka for fifteen years and became Poland’s first ever goal scorer in an international match. What can you tell me about him?

Ryan Hubbard: Klotz was born on the second day of the new century, in Austro-Hungarian-occupied Kraków. The son of a shoemaker, Klotz began studying medicine; although he soon quit his studies to volunteer in the early days of the new Polish Army, and fought in the Polish-Bolshevik war between 1918 and 1920.

Józef was a part of Jutrzenka Kraków from the club’s establishment in 1910, while his younger brothers all joined the club in various different disciplines. It was whilst playing for Jutrzenka that he received a call-up to the Polish national team for its second-ever match (a 3-0 defeat to Hungary), and then again for a trip to Sweden a few months later.

In Sweden, he wrote his name into Polish football history, with a well-taken penalty to give the White Eagles a 1-0 lead. Poland eventually won for the first time, 2-1. It was the last time that Klotz played for the national team.

In 1925, Klotz married a Catholic woman and then transferred to Warsaw, where he turned out for the capitals Jewish club, Makkabi. Unfortunately, little more is known about his career.

Klotz lived in Warsaw until his death, in 1941, in the city’s Jewish ghetto. Although the exact details of his murder aren’t known, its likely he was killed in a mass execution by Nazi soldiers.

My last question is a multiple question really. With the introduction of the Europa Conference league, there will be more clubs playing European football, and I envisage Polish clubs will look at this as a way of picking up a European trophy. Maybe even looking a little bit higher and being competitive in the Europa League. But do you think they can reach a higher level? Maybe compete in the Champions League in the future? What do you see as success for Polish clubs in the future and what do you think they can achieve?

Ryan Hubbard: Unfortunately, Polish success in European competition still seems to be some way off. The addition of the Europa Conference League may give more opportunity for Polish teams to play in Europe, but the strength of the teams in the latter stages of the competition this year, still is likely to be too strong for Polish clubs at the moment.

For Polish football, European success at the moment would be to see more than one club participate in the group stages. It’s been more than a decade since Legia and Wisła both reached the Europa League, and since then, even one team progressing through the qualifying rounds has been difficult.

If Poland can get back to seeing more than one team qualify on a regular basis, it will do wonders for the strength of both the clubs and the league as a whole. The coefficient will improve, and the country may even get to a point where one of its clubs is guaranteed a spot in the group stages without having to go through the qualifying rounds. Unfortunately, that still seems a way off.

Not the longest or most detailed club I will write about in this book, and there was very little information about them when I did my research. A lot the information I gathered on the club was either too political or too religious to include in ‘Forgotten Clubs’, and I just felt that information would be better off being written in a different type of book. However, I could not leave this club out, for a few reasons. Mainly, they are the catalyst for what is now one of the fiercest rivals in Polish football, maybe even European football, and so that deserved to be said. It was also important to include a football club so influenced by politics and religion. Whilst I do try navigating away from such topics as political and religion when talking about football, I just felt that somewhere, in this book, I had to include it as part of football, even in a small way. I could have easily picked several bigger, more detailed clubs, but something about Jutrzenka just lured me in to include them. The story of Jozef Klotz also caught my eye. Whilst this book is mainly about football clubs, I have come across so many so-called ‘Forgotten Players’ as well. Klotz has an eternal place in Polish footballing history for scoring that goal against Sweden and should be remembered for the loyalty he showed Jutrzenka, playing with them fifteen years. His death is also a stark reminder that even football players were not immune to the atrocities of World War II. I doubt that Jutrzenka Krakow will ever re-emerge and form as a football club again, although Josef’s Koltz other club, Maccabi Warszawa have since reformed in 2014, since their initial dissolving in 1939. However. their legacy still lives on as long the ‘Holy War’ is played in Poland.