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Zeeland schoolchildren present minister with comic book about the Netherlands and America

News item | 16-11-2009

Yesterday – Dutch-American Heritage Day – 11-year-old pupils at De Wilgenhof primary school in Middelburg (Zeeland) presented foreign minister Maxime Verhagen with a comic book about four centuries of Dutch-American relations.

Entitled Strijd om New York (‘The struggle for New York’), the book was studied in history lessons by the Middelburg pupils. The children talked to Mr Verhagen about the book and about links between the Netherlands and America. They also asked him about his life as Minister of Foreign Affairs.

In answer to the children’s questions, Mr Verhagen explained that the Dutch and the Americans work together on many subjects. He said that he had met President Obama and mentioned that last year he spent about 180 days abroad. He also revealed that when he was younger, he had considered becoming a history teacher.

Strijd om New York recounts Henry Hudson’s discovery of Manhattan and describes how the first settlers struggled for survival. It was compiled by Marc Verhaegen (former illustrator of the popular children’s comic series Suske en Wiske) and writer Jan Kragt, who presented Mr Verhagen with the first signed copy this afternoon. From that moment the book went on sale at bookshops, including comic book shops, in the Netherlands. Every Dutch primary and secondary school will receive a copy, with an accompanying learning package.

It is no coincidence that the Middelburg school was the first to read the book and use it in lessons. The province of Zeeland was home to the ancestors of a famous American family – the Roosevelts. They emigrated in 1650 and produced two presidents and one First Lady. The Roosevelt Study Center in Middelburg collaborated on the production of the comic book.

On 16 November 1776, the American warship Andrew Doria was greeted with a gun salute as it entered port at St Eustatius in the Dutch Antilles, making the Netherlands the first country to recognise the independent status of the United States. Some 215 years later, President George Bush Senior proclaimed 16 November Dutch-American Heritage Day. It is now a well-established tradition celebrated on both sides of the Atlantic.