"A great name in French football"
In August 1938, the French newspaper "L'Ouest-Éclair" honoured Eugène Maës as a great name in French football. At that time, the high points of his career had already been more than 25 years in the past. But the name Maës had left its mark on the French sporting world.
Born in Paris in 1890, the centre-forward celebrated his first successes in the jersey of the Catholic club "Patronage Olier", with whom he won the "Trophée de France" in 1908 and 1910. He became famous above all for his header. He continued his career at the Parisian club "Red Star AC". Maës also proved to be a scorer in the French national team, for which he played from 1911, scoring 15 goals in eleven international matches. The First World War, from which he returned with a chest injury, put an abrupt end to his promising career. He settled in Caen in Normandy and played for SM Caen. He made a living from a swimming school and a dance club, which he advertised using his reputation as a former international.
A joke about the swimming ability of German soldiers was his undoing in June 1943. The Gestapo arrested him for "anti-German remarks". Three months later, he was sent to Buchenwald concentration camp and from there to the Dora subcamp at the beginning of 1944. There and in the Ellrich subcamp, he had to perform hard physical labour. In March 1945, the SS deported him to the infirmary and death camp in the Boelcke barracks in Nordhausen. Eugène Maës has been missing since the end of March 1945. Today, a street and a swimming stadium in Caen bear his name.
