Ajax, the Dutch, the War: The Strange Tale of Soccer During Europe's Darkest Hour
✍ Scribed by Kuper, Simon
- Book ID
- 107825732
- Publisher
- Nation Books
- Year
- 2012
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 1 MB
- Category
- Fiction
- ISBN-13
- 9781568587240
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
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 Cruyuff, 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 (and most notably by Barcelona and the 2010 world champions, Spain).
But as international bestselling author Simon Kuper writes in Ajax, The Dutch, The War: Soccer in Europe During the Second World War , 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...