German team to visit Nazi death camp at Auschwitz

BERLIN (Reuters) - A German national team delegation, led by coach Joachim Loew and captain Philipp Lahm, will visit the biggest Nazi death camp at Auschwitz in Poland just before the start of the Euro 2012, the country's football association (DFB) said on Wednesday.

As many as 1.5 million people, mostly Jews, perished in the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp between 1940 and 1945, either in the gas chambers or from freezing temperatures, starvation, sickness, medical tests and forced labour.

Apart from DFB president Wolfgang Niersbach, German football league boss Reinhard Rauball and Germany manager Oliver Bierhoff, the delegation will also include Polish-born players Miroslav Klose and Lukas Podolski.

The visit will take place on Friday, a day after Germany's last friendly international against Israel in Leipzig.

The Germans, facing Portugal, Netherlands and Denmark in the group stage, will be based in the Polish city of Gdansk for the tournament that is co-hosted by Ukraine and will run from June 8 to July 1.

(Reporting by Karolos Grohmann)