Ajax will offer sc Heerenveen a plaque on Saturday evening prior to their mutual match for a humanitarian war operation during the Hunger Winter of 1944-45, it reports. Friesch Dagblad. On behalf of four Amsterdam football clubs, the current leader of the Eredivisie would like to thank the former VV Heerenveen for the care and accommodation of 86 pupils in foster families.
During the Hunger Winter of 1944-45, 86 youth players from Ajax, Blauw-Wit, DWS and De Volewijckers were taken in by Heerenveen host families, an operation initiated by the then secretary Floor Féléus. This was possible because of the contacts the clubs had made during the championship games against Blauw-Wit (1942) and De Volewijckers (1944). Only months after the liberation in 1945, the children could return to North Holland again, because mines had to be cleared first in the IJsselmeer.
The reason for the award came from an article in The Parool, in which Janneke Lenstra, the daughter of VV Heerenveen icon Abe Lenstra, shared the story of the shelter ‘because it was so beautiful and powerful’. General manager Edwin van der Sar of Ajax came across it and decided, also on behalf of the three other clubs involved, that the action deserved a suitable memento. Actually, that should have happened last year, but because of corona it could not take place.
The plan is that the plaque will be presented to Gilles Veenstra, former goalkeeper of Heerenveen twenty minutes before the start of the game, which starts at 6:45 PM. His family was one of the families who took in the players at the time. The award ceremony will be done by Rob Been, one of the children who was cared for by the club at the time.