A CONTROVERSIAL photograph from 1934 showing Derby County players performing a Nazi salute before a match in Germany is to go under the hammer today.
The picture was taken during the club's four-match tour of the country and the players were instructed to give the Nazi salute, with right arms outstretched, to please Adolf Hitler before each game.
All the Rams reluctantly played ball apart from goalkeeper Jack Kirby, who famously refused to raise his arm.
The photograph is included in an album from the tour being auctioned at Bamfords, in Derby, and is expected to fetch £300 to £400.
Auctioneer James Lewis said the album had been put up for sale by an unnamed vendor in Mickleover.
He said: "It's a photo album from the tour with postcard-sized black and white pictures. It shows the players travelling, during matches, being guarded by army officers and relaxing on the Rhine.
"The picture of the players doing the Nazi salute was taken on the pitch. They are all doing it except Jack Kirby, who is looking down the line up with utter disdain. You can see it on his face – it's quite incredible. You can really imagine the atmosphere."
The Rams' visit to Nazi Germany in May 1934 came two years before the Berlin Olympics, when many Britons were still blissfully unaware of the political turmoil unfolding in Europe and the rise of the Nazi Party.
The Derby contingent took a train to Dover and then a cross-Channel steamer to Ostend, eventually reaching the German border to find the swastika emblem flying everywhere they looked.
The four matches they played were all against teams designated as a "German XI". The Rams lost 5-0 in Cologne, 5-2 in Frankfurt, 1-0 in Dusseldorf and drew 1-1 in Dortmund.
And the players got a rude awakening when Hitler decreed that they should recognise his burgeoning regime by giving the Nazi salute prior to their games. All reluctantly obeyed except Kirby, who not only failed to raise his arm but also turned away to show his disdain.
Rams star George Collin, who captained the side for the latter half of the tour, spoke about the dilemma before his death, aged 83, in 1989.
He said: "We told the manager, George Jobey, that we didn't want to do it. He spoke with the directors but they said that the British ambassador insisted we must.
"He said that the Foreign Office were afraid of causing an international incident if we refused.
"It would be a snub to Hitler at a time when international relations were so delicate.
"So we did as we were told. All except our goalkeeper, Jack Kirby, that is. Jack was adamant that he wouldn't give the salute."
Derby Telegraph columnist Anton Rippon has written a book about the time, called Hitler's Olympics. He said: "In 1934 most people were totally oblivious to the situation in Germany – it only really became apparent in 1938 of the danger we were in – so the players were totally shocked when they arrived.
"I interviewed some of them in the 1960s and 70s, and they said they had seen a country preparing for war. Everywhere they went they were greeted with the 'Heil Hitler' salute.
"Jack Kirby was from old South Derbyshire mining stock and when the players were asked to perform the Nazi salute he refused and actually appeared to be turning his back.
"But at the time nobody really noticed and nothing was said. It was only years later, with hindsight, that we can see what he is doing on the photograph. He is better known for it now."
