Football
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Viewing the photograph above, you can see a few boys having fun. You might ask yourself, “Who are these boys?” or “What game are they playing? I don’t know who these boys are. I know they were cared for by the BjZ or Buitenschoolse Jeugdzorg, a part of the Jewish Council in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.…
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I’ve written about Eddy Hamel before, but I wanted to revisit his story as we’re in the middle of the FIFA World Cup qualifying campaign, with the finals set to take place in the United States — in East Rutherford, New Jersey in 2026. I hope his memory will be honored then. Eddy Hamel was…
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One of the most cruelest crimes committed by the Japanese Imperial Army during WWII, was the Bataan Death March. It was a march in the Philippines of some 66 miles (106 km) that 76,000 prisoners of war (66,000 Filipinos, 10,000 Americans) were forced to take, by the Japanese military to endure in April 1942, during…
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Football in the Netherlands did not come to a complete halt during World War II, despite the Nazi occupation and the hardships of wartime. Instead, it became both a form of escape and subtle resistance for many Dutch people. When the Germans invaded in May 1940, football matches continued under occupation. The Dutch football association…
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Although I have literally written hundreds of posts on World War II and the Holocaust, I hadn’t heard about the great bank robbery. The bank robbery at Almelo 1944, is a bank robbery was committed by the Dutch resistance on November 15, in which 46.1 million guilders (value in 2023: €354 million) was taken. It…
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The Netherlands has produced some of the greatest football players in the world. The Dutch are proud of their footballing history. My hometown of Geleen is where Dutch professional football originated. However, there are some football stars we are not proud of. Gejus van der Meulen was a goalkeeper of HFC and the Dutch national…
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When you hear about football tragedies, you might think about something like Manchester United being beaten 7-0 by Liverpool, but not about a great number of casualties among supporters. Yet there have been dozens of football disasters with a great number of deaths. One I hadn’t heard of before is the Burnden Park disaster. Thirty-three…
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We are less than a month away from the Fifa Worldcup. The selection of Qatar as the host nation is, to use an understatement, controversial. But I hope it will do some good. I was wondering though about the history of Dutch football and especially the World War II years, the national competition didn’t halt.…
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Sports are taken very seriously in the Netherlands, and the Dutch are passionate about many sporting events. For a small country, it does well in many sporting disciplines. Equally important are the people reporting or covering sports, especially on the radio. Hartog “Han” Hollander was the first Dutch radio sports journalist. He was Jewish—but changed…
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I have written several blogs on Westerbork. The reasons I highlight Westerbork are: It is the sinister aspect I want to explore here. The biggest crime committed in Westerbork was it gave those imprisoned— hope, or rather, false hope. It was a distraction from their awaited fate. The Dutch government established a camp at Westerbork…
History of Sorts 