Leeds United have invited a 99-year-old Holocaust survivor to be a special guest of honour for Saturday's Elland Road clash against Cardiff City.
Heinz Skyte is a lifelong Leeds fan who has followed the club since he was a teenager and has been a regular visitor to Elland Road since the 1990s.
Heinz will enjoy hospitality at Elland Road in a gesture organised through the Leeds-based Holocaust Survivors’ Friendship Association alongside his son Peter.
With Leeds United celebrating their centenary this year, Heinz will also turn 100 in February and the club are coming together to celebrate with him.
Heinz watched his first game as a 19-year-old after he fled Nazi Germany, taking in a 1-1 draw against Everton at Elland Road and beginning a life-long association with the club.
The Leeds United website describe the upheaval and hardships the young Heinz had to undergo in Germany, with Heinz then going on to work for the Leeds Jewish Welfare Board in the 1950s before being awarded an MBE for his dedication to community work in 1976.
“Sadly, there was a great deal of antisemitism at the time and that still exists today,” Heinz told the club. “After war broke out, Germans living in England were all regarded with suspicion and my family was arrested and interned, despite the fact we were more anti-Nazi than most people, having already been expelled from Germany.”
The Holocaust Survivors’ Friendship Association is based in Leeds and has raised £1.1m to create the centre, in partnership with the University of Huddersfield.
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