Ice hockey star Liam Kirk haunted by concentration camp visit

The 24-year-old former Sheffield Steelers' winger spoke with dignity and maturity about the Nazi death camps, in an interview with German daily newspaper, Tagesspiegel.

The Great Britain athlete believes the Holocaust should always be remembered and lessons learned for the future.

Generally, 'Kirky' is enjoying the first spell of his two-year contract in Berlin, and is looking forward to Alisha, his South Yorkshire wife of four months, joining him, next year.

The German media interviewed the former Maltby Academy pupil about his life and career, after his top-flight DEL club was drawn against Steelers in the last 16 of the Champions Hockey League.

He said he was aware of some historic details about the capital city before settling in. “I studied history in school...I came to Berlin on a school trip, actually,” he recalled.

“We went to the concentration camp memorial site at Sachsenhausen and the Checkpoint Charlie museum, so I’m familiar with the history of the city.

“It’s weird to think that I went to Checkpoint Charlie (a once notorious crossing point between East and West Berlin) as a kid and now I live just around the corner from there.

“It’s funny how things come full circle."

The newspaper quizzed him about the “difficult topic” of a visit in September to a murderous camp operated by Hitler's henchmen in Poland in the 1940s.

The hockey team had gone there as part of their trip to play Polish side Unia Oswiecim. “It was a very surreal feeling,” he said.

“Obviously, I learned about it in school, but it’s just that when you hear the stories and you see all the items that were left behind, it’s quite haunting.

“I think it was good for us as a team to go and see that and to understand why it should be remembered, and why something like that should obviously never happen again."

The newspaper interviewer asked Liam: “During the game itself, the Polish fans held up a banner reading ‘German death camps: Welcome to the city of your biggest crime’ - did you realise what was going on when you were on the ice?"

He replied: “I saw it, and obviously, no one wants to see stuff like that. I can’t really comment too much on it, though.

“I think the most important thing was that we as a team went to the memorial site, paid our respects and learned more about it.”

In Berlin, day-to-day life has been good to him, says Liam, who joined Eisbären from Czech team HC Litvinov.

“It’s been fun, but also a bit different for me. I grew up in a small town near Sheffield and in the last two years, I was playing in small cities in different countries like Finland and the Czech Republic.

“So this is my first time being in a capital, and it’s really exciting. There’s so much to do, so many things to see, and obviously a lot of history and culture as well." Liam said he was excited about playing Steelers, the club he iced for 106 times and set him on his way to becoming drafted by the Arizona Coyotes in the NHL in 2018.

“I’m very excited. I grew up supporting the Steelers, and I’m still a fan.

“I was hoping we’d get them in the draw for the group stages and it didn’t work out. Seeing their success has been awesome, and now we get to go and play them home and away.

“All my friends and family will be there, so it’s really exciting." Kirk also gave the newspaper a summary of his earlier sporting links.

“I’m a Sheffield United fan and I played cricket a bit when I was younger. But hockey was always my first love.

“My parents are big hockey fans and my older brother played, and I always wanted to do everything he did.”