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Soccer | Dutch team to visit Auschwitz
KRAKOW, Poland (Haaretz) – The Dutch national team for the European Championship – Euro 2012 – will visit the memorial at the former Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau on Wednesday, team officials said.
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Coach Bert van Marwijk and the players will make the 60-kilometer trip from their Euro base in Krakow to the site of the extermination camp where the Nazis killed some 1.3 million people, mostly Jews, during World War II in occupied Poland. The team was prepared for the visit during a recent training camp in Switzerland by a university professor.
“This will certainly make a big impression,” captain Mark van Bommel said.
“Two years ago during the World Cup in South Africa we were at Robben Island [where former South African president Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for many years]. It is good that we take the opportunity while we are here.”
The England and Italy teams also plan visits to Auschwitz. A German delegation featuring three players led by captain Philipp Lahm, coach Joachim Loew and German soccer supremo Wolfgang Niersbach visited the Auschwitz memorial on Friday.
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In addition, the Dutch team funded a hard-court soccer training facility for Krakow youth …
Netherlands squad open football field for locals in Krakow
(Goal.com) – In a continuing project backed by the legendary Johan Cruyff, the Dutch players have donated their match bonuses to build a safe place for Bronowice youth to learn and play.
The Netherlands squad, in partnership with the Johan Cruyff Foundation, have announced the installation of an `Orange Cruyff Court’ in Krakow.
The newly-formed football pitches will officially open on June 5 after members of the Euro 2012 team donated their match bonuses to fund the project.
The field, which is situated in the city’s Bronowice neighbourhood, marks the sixth completed site by the Foundation and adheres to 14 rules to teach children to have respect for each other, among other things, both on and off the pitch.
Where does this social responsibility originate in the Dutch soccer team? Most likely by their manager Hans Jorritsma who made a statement as a field hockeyer by refusing to accept a bronze medal with the Dutch National team in Argentina from dictator Videla in 1978. BRAVO!
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."
