Claus Von Bulow
Football and Facism
Ajax, The Dutch, The War: Football In Europe During The Second World War
By Simon Kuper
Orion 244pp £14.99 order from our bookshop
A Conspiracy of Decency: The Rescue of the Danish Jews During World War II
By Emmy E Werner
Westview Press 210pp £19.99 order from our bookshop
HERE ARE TWO books on the subject of anti-Semitism and the Holocaust in two small European countries: Holland and Denmark. The stories are distinctly different. Sirnon Kuper, who is also a leading sports writer, shocks us fkm the start. Even today, the Feyenoord (Rotterdam) football fans shout anti-Semitic abuse at the Ajax (Amsterdam) supporters. There is an element of class warfare in this: the Rotterdamers consider themselves tough workers and look on their rivals as rich burghers.
The differences in the treatment of Jews in Holland and Denmark during the Second World War were partly a result of the two countries' colonial pasts. The Dutch had a huge empire in the Far East and a global commercial apparatus, with a concomitant Jewish population and a tribal social
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