| Ajax,
the Dutch, the War
Football in Europe
during the Second World War
|
foto:
Spaarnestad Fotoarchief/ANP Foto | Het
kampioensteam van Ajax in 1939
De oerversie van
deze studie verscheen als Hard gras-special in maart 2000 onder de titel Ajax,
de joden, Nederland. Het Ajax in de titel is wat misleidend. Ajax komt
zeker aan bod, maar de auteur behandelt, zoals de ondertitel aangeeft: het voetbal
in Europa tijdens de Tweede Wereldoorlog. Hoofdstuk 3 bijvoorbeeld gaat over het
internationale voetbal in de jaren dertig. Hoofdstuk 11 handelt over het Engelse
en Duitse voetbal tijdens de oorlog. En hoofdsuk 6 gaat over Sparta. Uiteindelijk
werkt Kuper toch toe naar het verband tussen Ajax, de joden en de oorlog.
citaat:
The Holocaust
and the Making of the great Ajax
“Ajax's transformation into
the best team in the world began that February afternoon (= 2 februari 1964; debuut
Johan Cruijff), but would probably never have happened without the ill-assorted
bunch of war-forged individuals surrounding Cruijff.
Not all of them
were Jews. In fact two of the main men behind Ajax's rise, the brothers Freek
and Wim van der Meijden, are known to this day as the ‘bunker builders’.
During the war Freek, the elder brother, had turned the little family firm into
a giant contracting company, working for the Germans. The brothers built barracks
and gun positions, and the bunkers along the coast that would give them their
undying nickname. A post-war court dismissed Freek's extremely lenghty defence
variously as
‘nonsense’,
‘fallacy’ and
‘just too childish’, and sentenced him to three years in jail.
Soon afterwards
the
‘bunker builders’
resumed their usual seats in the main stand at Ajax. The club would not allow
them to become members, but they threw parties and bought drinks in the directors'
room after matches, and soon began to strengthen the team. In 1954 a cautious
form of semi-professionalism had entered the hitherto amateur Dutch game. By the
1960s Ajax was probably the best-paying club in the country.
The Van
der Meijdens financed transfer fees, gave the players cars (Volkswagens of course),
supplemented their salaries and match bonuses, and took care of any fines imposed
by Ajax. They found houses for players and directors in the new Amsterdam suburb
of Buitenveldert, which, curiously, was just then replacing the desolate old Jewish
Quarter as the home of many of Amsterdam's Jews.
In
his restaurant Swart told me: ‘I had a cigar shop, Wim and Freek helped me
with that.’
‘The bunker builders,’ I replied (the Pavlovian
reaction to any mention of their names).
‘I don't know that,’ said
Swart. ‘People say that. No, we mustn't talk about that, We mustn't talk
about that.’
(In case you were wondering, Amsterdammers do not
live off cigars. ‘Cigar shop’ is just a generic Dutch tag for anything
resembling a newsagent.)
The Van der Meijdens eventually found a crucial
ally in their long quest to become Ajax members. Jaap van Praag was the Ajax man
who had spent much of the war hiding motionless above a photography shop. He had
emerged in 1945 to hear his parents and little sister had been killed in the camps,
and that his wife had run off with another man. He plunged himself into his work
and his club, and eventually decided he wanted to be Ajax chairman.
On
16 July 1964 Van Praag backed by the bunker builders, took the post from his former
best friend Jan Melchers. One member of his first board was Jaap Hordijk, the
man banned by Ajax at the end of the war for having played ‘internationals’
in the Third Reich.”
Auteur Simon Kuper schreef eerder Football
Against the Enemy.
Simon
Kuper
(Orion Publ.)
isbn 0752848771
prijs: € 14,95
paperback;
256 pagina's
verschenen november 2003
levertijd 5-7 werkdagen
Engelstalig
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