On Friday, Richard Gere visited the town where I was born and raised, Vlaardingen, to accept the annual “Geuzenpenning” or Geuzen Medal, an award for groups or individuals that fight for the preservation and promotion of democracy, and against all forms of dictatorship. This year the award went to the International Campaign for Tibet which is why Gere, a tireless campaigner for this issue, attended.

It’s an annual award named after the short-lived Dutch resistance movement that was established in 1940 in the town of Vlaardingen, shortly after the Germans occupied The Netherlands. The group in turn was named after the Dutch irregular army that fought the Spaniards in the Eighty Year War (1568-1648). The name Geuzen is pretty much untranslatable, but it was derived from the French word Geux which was used as a derogatory term for the rebellious Dutch nobility during that long war by their Spanish rulers and essentially means “beggars”.

The Geuzen resistance movement in World War II was a very short-lived effort as the unsuspecting founders had no idea of the ruthlessness with which the Nazi occupiers would go to work in the territories that they had forcibly occupied. As diligent Dutch organizers the group had of course compiled a member list and before they could get into action the list somehow fell into German hands and the group’s members were either executed or deported to German concentration camps. I am quite familiar with the story for my grandfather ended up in Buchenwald as he had enthusiastically volunteered to be part of the new group and thus had his name on the list. He survived, but never ever spoke a word about his experiences in the concentration camp even though as a small boy I probed him endlessly. Never a word.

Anyway, the group lives on in a monument on the town’s central square (see photo below, my father was part of a committee responsible for getting it there) and in the annual award, previous recipients of which have been Vaclav Havel, the Anne Frank Foundation and Asma Jahangir. Not only does it support those that fight for freedom, justice and democracy, it draws attention to causes that often do not have the benefit of massive press coverage. The latter may explain why we haven’t seen any Iraqi of Afghani heroes in Vlaardingen but it could also be that their cause for some reason is not as popular in Europe as others are. Still, it is worthwhile to reflect on the lonely man that holds up his hand to stop tyranny.