Ajax, The Dutch, The War: Football in Europe During the Second World War

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Simon Kuper

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Pages: 272 (Paperback)

ISBN: 0752842749

Pub: Orion

Pub date: 2003-11-06

Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 66385

Editorial Review:

In Ajax, the Dutch, the War, Simon Kuper, broadsheet journalist and author of the bestselling Football Against the Enemy, turns his attention to the Dutch club Ajax of Amsterdam, and the hidden history of the Nazi occupation of Holland in WW2.
At one level the book can be seen as an investigation into the mystery of how and why Ajax, like one or two other of Europe's major club sides, are considered to be a Jewish team--their supporters, of no discernable faith, still wave an Israel flag at matches; in return some rival fans revel in anti-Semitic language and gestures. Kuper tries to locate the roots of this alignment through interviews with the ever-decreasing number of living witnesses, players, club officials and supporters, who experienced the period from the early 1930s to the end of the Second World War in 1945--a time in which the soul of Amsterdam, "the city of Jews and bicycles", was indelibly stained by the horrors of occupation, ghettoisation and the Holocaust.
What he finds is the story of a city, its people and its football team, that challenges the semi-truths and misconceptions about civilian lives in wartime that most of us hold--including how and why the mass obsession with football thrived in the unlikeliest circumstances. It's a personal history too. Kuper's parents, Jews from South Africa, moved to the Netherlands more than 30 years after the war had ended, but were confronted by its legacy at every turn.

By weaving himself, his family and the contemporary voices of ordinary people into what is essentially a book on a facet of 20th Century Northern European history, Kuper pulls off the remarkable feat of creating a readable, entertaining work out of potentially difficult material. Free of the occasionally pompous, cod-academic tone that soured parts of Football Against the Enemy, the book breathes a little more easily, is more involving, funnier, and more moving than its predecessor--and as such, is warmly recommended. --Alex Hankin

Reader Reviews:

The title should be "Football Under Occupation" (1/1 people found this helpful)

This book is written about an extraordinary period in the history of the famous club Ajax during the World War 2. The writer carefully analyses the backgrounds at the time in Holland and in Europe. People live merrily and without a concern for their lives. Interestingly most of all the Dutch under occupation do not feel the occupation or the hardships of war unless they are Jew. So few Dutch people joins the Resistance Movement. Ajax is not exempted from this whole picture either. They bar their Jewish members from membership and after the war they willlingly allow members to join even if they have cooperated with the occupiers. The book deserves a lot of attention as it goes beyond Ajax and Holland. The notorious Nazi salute given by the English football team before the war is analysed in detail, interestingly that was not the only example of appeasement in sports to growing fascism in Europe. Finally the book is written around Ajax in the beginning but later grew bigger to cover the whole era. The subject is interesting but Ajax has no history to be proud of during the War unlike Dynamo!

Simon (1/3 people found this helpful)

Serves mainly to bring about his own critisms of the Holocaust. Well researched in the main but it seems that on every page he has to mention that Jews were killed or murdered in concentration camps. The public know this and don't condone this and the need to constantly remind us at every turn of the page is not necessary and detracts from what could be a good read. Does raise some interesting points and explores the war and football from a lot of angles and so on that basis it is worth a read.

Terrific (0/1 people found this helpful)

Simon Kuper has written another gem, this time about a little known and less understood period of football history.

It is an intriguing book, bristling with tales of the unexpected and the unknown, and shatters several commonly held myths - even amongst seasoned football followers such as myself.

If you enjoy football history, you'll find this a great book; and even if you don't, its insights into wartime Europe and descriptions of football's political importance in the appeasement years provide gripping reading.

A fascinating read (3/4 people found this helpful)

A brilliant and moving book based on first hand research and interviews. The best football book I have read for a long time and a refreshing change from ghosted autobiographies.

Should have won the William Hill prize (6/6 people found this helpful)

A fascinating and moving book which is as much about the impact of war and brutality on ordinary life as it is about football.

In adding to what began life as a lengthy essay on Ajax during the Second World War, Kuper also examines the effect of the conflict on the game in England and Germany as well as Holland.

Frinstance: on the day Hitler began the invasion of Russia, around 90,000 people attended the German Cup final.

However, it is probably at its most compelling when examining the fate of Dutch Jews through the prism of their football clubs.
Jewish members, who start the war as important and influential people, appear in committee meeting minutes less and less frequently before finally fading away completely.

Will appeal to historians as much as football fans. Buy the book.

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