Sports in Prison Camps during the First World War

Abstract

The playfulness of sports in concentration camps has only represented one single aspect, a very small one indeed in a reality plagued by others much more overwhelming and hostile. Surely it is just one little aspect that has been largely overpowered by the others. However, outlining and insisting on this tiny aspect evidences that there was actually a flicker of hope alive even under those conditions and circumstances dominated by destruction and death. Therefore, throwing some light on any of these episodes is a civic duty and, at the same time, it also bears a certain political value. In fact, for thousands of those arrested, to be able to spend their time doing something that could actually be considered a small oasis of happiness, despite the constraints of the situation and the unprecedented magnitude of this tragedy, seems like an accurate and necessary statement of humanity and peace. In other words, as Primo Levi put it, it was one of the few instruments that helped them to keep hoping for a possibility to be saved.