Episode Four:
Eddy's First and Last Jewish Club
"On the 15th of April in 1937, while he was still coaching in both Volendam and Beverwijk, Eddy Hamel was also named the new football coach of HEDW, a large multi-sport club in the Middenmeer neighborhood of Amsterdam, just a few miles from his home on Amstelkade. Eddy was now the head coach of three teams in three different cities.."
This episode covers the last stage of Eddy's coaching career, as well as enigmatic "friendlies" between HEDW and Ajax to raise funds for the Committee for Jewish Refugees, and between AED, the top Jewish club of Amsterdam, and APGS, the top team of the Amsterdam police.Â
Eddy Hamel is announced as the new coach of HEDW
Under the headline, "Former Ajax player trains H.E.D.W.", the new Ajax trainer is announced. "Soon, the well-known former Ajax player Eddy Hamel will serve as a trainer at the Amsterdam fourth division club H.E.D.W. This is not the first club that hopes to benefit from his wise lessons, after all, for in the 1936-1937 season, Hamel brought De Kennemers from third to second, while the Roman Catholic football club Volendam became champion of the Netherlands under his leadership. H.E.D.W., which celebrated its 25th anniversary in 1938, have high hopes since the red-blacks have a lot of young material to offer its board a championship title. Something that doesn't seem so impossible to me: it has seven teams."
Source: Delpher
HEDW match in Oosterpark
HEDW in action in Oosterpark during the Madjoe Tournament in 1941. (Opponent team unknown.)
Source: WV-HEDW. All rights reserved. Do not download or re-distribute without permission.
Hamel Twins Birth Announcement
The Ajax Club News announces (at bottom right) the birth of Eddy and Johanna's twin boys.
Mr. and Mrs HAMEL-WIJNBERG
announce with joy the birth of their sons ROBERT and PAUL
Amsterdam, April 19, 1938.
Our warmest congratulations.
Source: Ajax Archives
HEDW v Ajax Charity Match
An announcement in De Sportweek promoting the upcoming charity match on 20 November 1938 between HEDW and the Ajax Veterans, on the occasion of HEDW's 25th anniversary. The announcement lists the Ajax team, including Eddy Hamel, as well as the location on Kruislaan, which is "accessible by bus A and D and the Gooische Stoomtram." Entrance fee is listed as 25 cents, or 12 cents for boys under 12 and the unemployed, upon on presentation of a stamp card. It closes with this extra incentive:
Now that the capital is virtually devoid of football on Sunday due to the match for the Golden Independence Cup in Rotterdam, countless numbers will certainly direct their steps to the Kruislaan, especially since the sympathetic goal speaks for itself.
Funds from this match helped to pay for construction of a new refugee camp in the north of Holland, in a desolate area known as Westerbork.
Source: Delpher
Anti-Jewish Measures Announced
Announcement in Het Joodsche Weekblad, a weekly publication for Dutch Jews, in August 1942:
All Jews who do not immediately respond to a call addressed to them for labor expansion in Germany will be captured and taken to the Mauthausen concentration camp. This or other punishment will not be applied to those Jews who register before Sunday, August 9, 1942 at 5 p.m. at the latest, or declare that they are willing to participate in the work expansion.
All Jews who do not wear the Star of David will be taken to the Mauthausen concentration camp.
All Jews who change their place of residence or home without the permission of the authorities - even if they do so only temporarily - are taken to the Mauthausen concentration camp.
Source: WV-HEDW. All rights reserved. Do not download or re-distribute without permission.