People here are particularly proud of their heroes. Each year ten thousand visitors come to the commemoration of the Gallipoli battle (ever heard of it?). Thousands of people travel to Turkey to commemorate their great-grandfathers and great-uncles. It will be reported in newspapers and on TV. Such being the case we have to understand why this theft shocked the nation. The thieves have stolen about one hundred war medals, including (shock horror) fourteen Victoria Crosses!

Man and power
Hundreds of police have been deployed, Interpol has been called in and, no kidding, for several weeks the wretched theft was daily news. Without any result. All this time, museum curator and old warhorse colonel Seymour was in tears and spoke of a dreadful crime against the country. He summoned the criminals to bring back the medals immediately. "We need them and the country needs them", he cried.

Highest reward
Even a two hundred thousand dollar reward has been offered for retrieving the medals. Initiated by the English Lord Ashcroft, not by accident, the most important collector of war medals. His noble gesture has a somewhat suspicious feeling about it, by knowing that he has a collection of hundred and forty Victoria Crosses, which according to him are worth millions of pounds - and surely will become that valuable now. He even admits that they can't be sold on the illegal market and could only be sold for a high price at an auction. And mid-January, when the police had achieved absolutely no result, in spite of the thorough investigation, the reward has been raised to no less than three hundred thousand dollar! How much that is, you will understand by knowing that in New Zealand the highest reward ever offered was one hundred thousand dollars. That was in the nineties for a serial rapist.

Squandered
Still it remains a fact that those small bits of metal just have a symbolic value. They are printed certificates and could be replaced easily. That is what the family Upham thought too. Charles Upham was the biggest hero New Zealand ever had. Anyway, for his heroic actions he received a ‘double’ VC. Still after his dead last year, his daughter sold that medal for an unclosed amount - to the horror of the entire nation. Upham’s medals squandered! Fortunately the buyer, a very rich foundation set up by the friend and former commander of Upham, has decided that the medal will be on loan - for 999 years(!) - to… the Waiourou War Museum. And now this medal has also disappeared.

Remembrance Day
The Dutch look in astonishment to the incredible fuss this theft of old war medals brings about here. But if you think about it, you will understand it a bit. This is a nation with a world history of less than one and a half century. In all that time it has never been attacked or even been threatened. Except for accidents and crime nothing really happens. The wars are the only way the New Zealanders have taken part in the world history. And this must be the reason why the entire nation still gather annually on Boer War Memorial Day, on First and on Second World War Memorial Day. Finished with Last Post and hot tears. Not for the misery of the war, because the average New Zealander knows just as much of wars as of clogs. They are in tears for the heroic compatriots who have given their lives for… whose country?

Old medals
And therefore those medals are worth millions here, although nobody wants to pay for them. Therefore the family Upham is reprehended openly because they happily want to exchange - with an English friend - their just as valuable as un-sellable medals against welcome money. Therefore the entire nation was up in arms about decades-old medals which are for sale for a couple of euros on flea markets in the Netherlands.
My advice: dig up a couple of those war medals and have them stolen here.

The Dutch version of this article is published in the March/April 2008 edition of Holland Focus.
Ask your News Agent or take out a subscription.