The Extraordinary Tale of Bela Guttmann: From Nazi Persecution to European Glory
How Real Madrid's Champions League rival Benfica was shaped by a Jewish coach who survived the Holocaust before creating football history and a famous curse.
The man behind Benfica’s greatest triumphs and most famous curse lived a life that reads like a Hollywood thriller, surviving persecution and war before conquering European football.
Jewish Roots in Pre-War Europe
Born in Budapest during the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Bela Guttmann’s football journey began with Hakoah Vienna, a groundbreaking club created specifically for Jewish players in 1909. While the club aimed to fight stereotypes about Jewish people, their approach of paying triple wages to attract the best Jewish talent inadvertently played into antisemitic tropes about wealth.
Hakoah quickly became a lightning rod in an increasingly hostile Vienna, where a young Adolf Hitler was absorbing the antisemitic attitudes that would later devastate Europe. The atmosphere at matches was so toxic that the club employed Jewish wrestling champion Mickey Herschel and other fighters as security for their supporters.
From Champion to Refugee
Guttmann’s star shone brightest in 1925 when, as Hakoah’s standout player, he helped the club win Austria’s first professional league championship. This triumph led to an American tour where they were received at the White House by President Calvin Coolidge and drew crowds of 40,000 in New York and Chicago.
However, controversy followed when prominent rabbis condemned the team for playing matches on Saturdays, the Jewish Sabbath. The tour marked the beginning of the end for Hakoah’s golden era, with several players including Guttmann remaining in America.
After losing his fortune in the 1929 Wall Street Crash, Guttmann returned to a Europe sliding toward darkness.
Surviving the Holocaust
When the Nazis occupied Budapest, Guttmann’s survival became a daily struggle. He found protection through his relationship with a non-Jewish woman, Mariann Moldován, whose brother hid him in an attic. Despite the brother being arrested and tortured, he never revealed Guttmann’s whereabouts.
The claustrophobia eventually drove Guttmann to risk exposure. In a sequence of desperate moves, he voluntarily entered a forced labor camp, then escaped when transfers to Auschwitz began, hiding in a factory until war’s end. By liberation, he was 46, and the Jewish Budapest of his youth had been obliterated.
The Legendary Coach
Marrying Mariann in 1945, Guttmann returned to football, transforming his playing experience into a legendary coaching career. Though he rarely spoke about his wartime ordeals, these experiences surely shaped the determined, uncompromising manager who would later lead Benfica to consecutive European Cup triumphs.
This remarkable journey from persecution to glory makes Guttmann more than just the author of Benfica’s famous “curse” – he represents football’s capacity to rise from history’s darkest chapters.