Natan Panz

Natan Panz (Hebrew: נתן פנץ‎), (September 28, 1917 – April 28, 1948) was a Jewish football player from Mandatory Palestine, who played for Maccabi Tel Aviv and Beitar Tel Aviv, as well as playing one match with the Mandatory Palestine national football team. He was also an Irgun member, and was killed during the 1947–48 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine in battle with the British Army.[1][2]

Natan Panz
Personal information
Date of birth (1917-09-28)September 28, 1917
Place of birth Vitebsk, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Date of death April 28, 1948(1948-04-28) (aged 30)
Place of death Jaffa, Mandatory Palestine
Youth career
Maccabi Tel Aviv
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1936–1939 Maccabi Tel Aviv
1939–1948 Beitar Tel Aviv
1948 Maccabi Tel Aviv
National team
1938 Mandatory Palestine 1 (0)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only

Biography

Panz was born in Vitebsk, then in the Russian Republic, shortly before the October Revolution. In 1921 the family left Soviet Russia to Eretz Israel and settled in Tel Aviv. Panz studied in Herzliya Hebrew Gymnasium and Nordia Gymnasium and later in the American University of Beirut, and worked as a clerk in the Tel Aviv municipality.[2]

Career

Panz started playing football in Maccabi Tel Aviv's youth team, and appeared for the senior team at an early age.[2] Panz's performance during Maccabi's tour of North America, landed him an offer to join a New York club, but Panz refused.[1] Panz won two championships, in 1936 and 1937 and made one appearance with the Mandatory Palestine national football team, against Greece, during 1938 FIFA World Cup qualification.

In 1939, Panz transferred to Beitar Tel Aviv, and led the club to promotion to the top division. During the following years, the club won two cups (1940 and 1942) and a joint-championship (1945), as well as finishing as runners-up both in the league and the cup. Panz also took part in Beitar's victory over Hajduk Split in 1944.[3][4]

In 1947, after Beitar Tel Aviv was forced to disband by the Mandatory Government and was reformed as Nordia Tel Aviv, Panz refused to appear in the newly reformed team and transferred back to Maccabi Tel Aviv.[1]

Death

As the 1947–48 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine broke out, Panz aided both the Haganah and the Irgun in their defensive activities on the Jaffa frontline, before joining the Irgun, where he was appointed a ranking officer.[2] He participated in a raid on a British munitions train in which arms were seized, helping enable the Irgun to attack Jaffa. On 25 April 1948, the Irgun launched an offensive on Jaffa, which was countered by British forces.[5] Panz was commanding an armored vehicle in Menashiya, and was killed when a British armored vehicle shelled it.

Honours

References
  1. Natan Panz RIP: Gave Up Football for the Etzel Adi Sardas, 27 April 2009, ynet.co.il (in Hebrew)
  2. Private Panz, Natan izkor.gov.il (in Hebrew)
  3. Beitar in Football Archived 2013-09-27 at the Wayback Machine mbeitar.co.il (in Hebrew)
  4. The Beitars Have Beaten The Partizans (4:2) HaMashkif, 7 May 1945, Historical Jewish Press (in Hebrew)
  5. Morris, Benny (1987). The Birth of the Palestinitan Refugee Problem 1947-1949. Cambridge University Press. p. 95. ISBN 0-521-33028-9.

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