Holland: A Country Defined By A Color

As I walked through The Hague in the Netherlands this past weekend the amount of orange was overwhelming. Even in this internationally important city which houses the International Court of Justice, the International Criminal Court, and the Dutch Parliament, the orange color, a symbol of the Dutch royal family, was inescapable. From the ordinary flags and post boxes, to the orange themed shop windows and orange streamers strung across streets, the immense support for the national football team was quite apparent. In fact, one of the fountains in the city center had even been dyed orange. As the water spurted from underneath the ground through small holes in the center of the plaza, it literally appeared as though the country was bleeding orange.

For the United States the World Cup is just another sporting event that we compete in, ranking well below the Super Bowl, the World Series, and the Stanley Cup playoffs for many Americans. In Europe, however, the sentiment towards the World Cup is much different. It is the most important and looked forward to sporting event. Hosted every four years, the World Cup brings together teams from across the globe to compete for the most prestigious title in the sport of football. But for many countries, the World Cup is more than just another football game. The players aren’t just a group of guys dressed in colored uniforms trying to score goals; they represent the country’s history, people, and culture. They are a symbol of the country. The fans aren’t just showing their pride for their football team when they wear their colored scarves, but are showing their identification with their country – their nationalism.

The Dutch team is certainly no exception to this. The team represents the long history and interesting culture of the Netherlands. This includes their attachment to their language with Germanic origins, Dutch; their unique heritage characterized by windmills, tulips, and wooden-shoes; and their commitment to peace and justice, symbolized by the Peace Palace in The Hague.

One woman I had the opportunity to talk to in Rotterdam this past weekend truly knows the importance of the Dutch commitment to peace. Sitting on Jeanne’s couch as her daughter translated from a large book, I listened again to the story I had heard hundreds of times before. Jeanne Oussoren (seen below with her daughter, my mom, my brother, and I) was only teenager when World War II broke out and Holland was invaded by the Nazis. She was a Christian, as many people in Holland were and are today, but was working for a Jewish family at the start of the war. Frightened by what might become of this family and their children (she knew Jews were being rounded up and taken to Poland, but she didn’t know what was happening to them), she risked her life by joining the Dutch Resistance and helping to smuggle Jews to the Belgian border where they were then taken by other resistance members to safety in Switzerland. Throughout the remainder of the war she took a Jewish child and pretended she was her own, smuggled ration cards, and hid from the Nazis after being betrayed by a woman she worked for. Jeanne survived the war and in 1997 was recognized by Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial center in Israel, as being Righteous among the Nations (an honor bestowed upon non-Jews who helped save Jews during the Holocaust). Jean saw first-hand the devastating impact of extreme nationalism as the Nazis gained power throughout World War II and began exterminating people based on their religious beliefs.

Though I had met and spent time with Jeanne before, this time was more emotional. At 90 years old this extraordinary woman is blind and gets tired after only a few hours of light conversation. Sitting there, I realized the importance of keeping her story and the message of peace and justice alive because, sadly, those who were eyewitnesses to the atrocities of German nationalism gone wrong will soon be gone.

As we left her apartment we drove down the highway and passed an office building with plastic cows interestingly positioned on the front lawn. Facing each other as if they were about to go to war, one half of them were painted orange, and the other half were wrapped in Japanese flags to represent the pending World Cup game of Holland and Japan . It dawned on me that through football Holland is keeping alive its country’s shared history. Though sports casters don’t announce that the team is playing in memory of the country’s past and their commitment to peace in the future, it is clear that in Holland, as in most European countries the football games are more than just games. They are ways to settle old rivalries, peacefully battle against new enemies, and keep alive the spirit and nationalism of the country. The orange stands for more than just a football squad, but also for Holland’s past, present, and future.