A passionate, haunting and moving work that tells the breathtaking
story of how Dutch Jews survived the unspeakable and came to play a
strong role in the rise of the most exciting and revolutionary style of
soccer -- "Total Football" -- the world had ever seen.
When most people think about the Netherlands, images of tulips and
peaceful pot smoking residents spring to mind. Bring up soccer, and most
will think of Johan Cruyff, the Dutch player thought to rival Pele in
preternatural skill, and Ajax, one of the most influential soccer clubs
in the world whose academy system for young athletes has been replicated
around the globe.
In Ajax, The Dutch, The War: Soccer in Europe During the Second World
War, bestselling author Simon Kuper shows how the story of soccer in
Holland cannot be understood without investigating what really occurred
in this country during WWII. For decades, the Dutch have enjoyed the
reputation of having a "good war." The myth is even resonant in Israel
where Ajax is celebrated. The fact is, the Jews suffered shocking
persecution at the hands of Dutch collaborators. Holland had the second
largest Nazi movement in Europe outside Germany, and in no other country
except Poland was so high a percentage of Jews deported.
Kuper challenges Holland's historical amnesia and uses soccer --
particularly the experience of Ajax, a club long supported by
Amsterdam's Jews -- as a window on wartime Holland and Europe. Through
interviews with Resistance fighters, survivors, wartime soccer players
and more, Kuper uncovers this history that has been ignored, and also
finds out why the Holocaust had a profound effect on soccer in the
country.
Ajax produced Cruyff but was also built by members of the Dutch
resistance and Holocaust survivors. It became a surrogate family for
many who survived the war and its method for producing unparalleled
talent became the envy of clubs around the world.
