Meeting Hengelo's School Crossing Guards

On September 10th, after the morning memorial service at Hengelo's war monument, the team members explored the city and crossed paths with two young school crossing guards and their guiding police officer. My father, Uri Cohen, is standing on the right; Feldman is on the left; and Moshe Nutman is kneeling in front.

These young school crossing guards were traditionally called 'Klaarovers' in Dutch, a name born from how they operated: one guard would call out 'Klaar?' (Ready?), and the partner would reply 'Over!' (Cross!) before allowing pedestrians to step into the street. They wore distinct long white coats and held circular stop signs nicknamed 'Spiegelei' (sunny-side-up egg) due to their appearance. The high-contrast checkered area on the road was their designated zone to halt traffic. By the late 1950s and early 1960s, these checkerboard boxes were systematically phased out across the Netherlands and repainted into the standard linear zebra stripes we use today.

Based on a safety model developed in the United States, Hengelo launched this school crossing guard project in late 1955 - just about a year before this picture was taken. Police officers were assigned to tutor the children and ensure that motorists obeyed their signs. In Israel, a similar nationwide initiative - the 'Mishmarot Zehav' (School Crossing Patrol) - was deployed in 1952, extending Tel Aviv's successful 'children's traffic police' project that began shortly after the establishment of the state in 1948. Consequently, the sight of children directing traffic would have been quite familiar to the Israeli athletes, despite the differences in attire and equipment.

At the time, there were two schools located right near the Emergency War Monument: the Industrial School for Girls, adjacent to the Kloosterhof, and an elementary school in the same quarter on Thiemsburg Street. It would be incredible if either of the children in this photo could be identified today!