May 29, 2009; Amstelkade 118, Amsterdam @ 12.50
Today's photo of the day is brought to you by my cousin Mark S. who tipped me to this. Thanks Mark! Now back to our regularly scheduled programming.
Not so far our apartment are these two sidewalk memorial tiles in memory of Han Hollander and his wife Leentje. These two Jewish residents of Amsterdam were deported and finally executed in the Sobibor concentration camp on July 9, 1943 after Leentje dared to start an argument with a camp guard. Their daughter Froukje died a half year earlier in Auschwitz where her husband most likely also died although there is no information about him to confirm that.
Han Hollander was one of the Netherlands most well-loved, most celebrated and most
accomplished sports broadcasters. In fact, when he did the radio commentary for a Belgium-Nederland inter land football match on March 11, 1928, he became the country's first live sports broadcaster as this was the country's first live sports broadcast. His ability to bring the game to life for distant listeners was the source of his popularity.
He always loved sports apparently. At the age of 16, he and his brother played a major role in establishing the football club Go Ahead Eagles (the name was thought up by Han) in their hometown of Deventer in the east of the Netherlands. It is one of the country's oldest still operating football teams alternating between the premier league and the first division.
After completing his compulsory military service, Han began his career working for the railroad company. In 1921, at the age of 35 he decided to make his hobby his work and went to work as a sports reporter for the national daily newspaper De Telegraaf.
Several years later, the AVRO broadcast network was looking for a radio reporter for that historic first live broadcast of the Belgium-Nederland inter land. The director of the AVRO recalled his army buddy Han Hollander who could always keep people on the edge of their seats with his sports stories. He asked Han to do the broadcast and so began his career as a live radio sports broadcaster.
Han Hollander also reported live from the (in)famous German Olympics in 1936, receiving an award of recognition signed by the Fuhrer himself, Adolf Hitler. This certificate was to indirectly contribute to his death several years later.
When the Germans occupied the Netherlands, introduced their anti-Jewish laws and began rounding up Jews for deportation, Han Hollander did not go into hiding believing he would be spared by that certificate of recognition with Hitler's own signature on it. Sadly, that was a fatal error.
The text on the tiles reads: "Here lived Hartog 'Han' Hollander (right tile: Leentje Hollander-Smeer); born 1886; deported 1942 from Westerbork; murdered 9-7-1943; Sobibor"