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In Ajax, New York Times bestselling author Simon Kuper explores the myths of Holland's "Good War" -the brave nation that hid Anne Frank from the Nazis-by using the story of soccer in Holland and the Amsterdam club Ajax to puncture the tales that post-war Holland lived by. Through interviews with Resistance fighters, survivors, wartime soccer players and more, Kuper uncovers a history that has been largely ignored. Ranging far beyond the Netherlands and examining the stories of soccer and war in England, Germany and France, Kuper writes an alternative history of Europe at its darkest hour. He helps change the way we understand ordinary people's experience of the war in Europe.
The story does not end with World War II and the Holocaust. Though haunted, by this experience, Ajax became known during the postwar era as Holland's "Jewish club" because of historic links with Amsterdam's once-large Jewish population. It also became the envy of clubs around the world for producing unparalleled talent, epitomized by soccer genius Johan Cruijff. Kuper shows how Cruijff and his fellow Amsterdammers created the most exciting and revolutionary style of soccer in the world-"Total Football"
Acknowledgments ix
1 Orange Soldiers 1
2 A Sunday Before the War 15
3 A Friendly Salute: International Soccer in the 1930s 25
4 The Warm Back of Eddy Hamel: An American in Amsterdam and Birkenau 47
5 The Lost Memories of Meijer Stad 57
6 Sparta: A Soccer Club in Wartime 69
7 Boom: The Rise of Soccer in the Occupied Netherlands 93
8 Strange Lies: Ajax, World War II, and P. G. Wodehouse 105
9 Captain of France, Collaborator in Gorcum: Soccer and the Annals of Resistance 123
10 The Netherlands Was Better Than the Rest 139
11 Soldier Heroes: British and German Soccer in the War (and Long After) 153
12 Of Bunkers and Cigars: The Holocaust and the Making of the Great Ajax 187
13 The Most Popular Team in Israel 203
14 Soccer Songs of the Netherlands 219
15 Disneytown and the Secret Monuments 233
Afterword to the U.S. Edition 245
Sources 259
Index 265
Overview
In Ajax, New York Times bestselling author Simon Kuper explores the myths of Holland's "Good War" -the brave nation that hid Anne Frank from the Nazis-by using the story of soccer in Holland and the Amsterdam club Ajax to puncture the tales that post-war Holland lived by. Through interviews with Resistance fighters, survivors, wartime soccer players and more, Kuper uncovers a history that has been largely ignored. Ranging far beyond the Netherlands and examining the stories of soccer and war in England, Germany ...