Ernst de Jonge

Ernst Willem de Jonge (22 May 1914 – 3 September 1944) was a lawyer and Olympic rower who volunteered to serve in the Dutch resistance during the Second World War. He was captured in May 1942, interrogated and moved through several concentration camps. He died in a prison in German-occupied Poland in September 1944.

Early life De Jonge was the youngest son of Johan Maurits de Jonge and his wife Pauline Clasina Berg. They were not wealthy but they were Jonkheer, with a long family history. His father was an engineer. The family moved to Sumatra in the Dutch East Indies when his father accepted a post with the Java Timber Company and a few years later to Semarang on Java. De Jonge was born in the town of Sinabang on Simeulue. He was the second son and the youngest in a family of four children. His brother Marien was the oldest child in the family, three years older than Ernst. As a youngster De Jonge was known for being rambunctious, intelligent and at times reckless. De Jonge was eleven when his father was appointed director of the Combined Javanese Timber Companies in Amsterdam in 1925 and the family returned to the Netherlands. He was sent to Baarnsch Lyceum in the Dutch city of Baarn for his schooling, where he was expelled three times for a lack of discipline. He was always allowed back in because he was warmhearted and charming. He passed his final exam and graduated just after his 18th birthday.

Military service and Leiden

He was sent to Ede for his obligatory military service. After eight months he was made an officer. In 1933 he was transferred to the artillery in Leiden. While there he "borrowed" a junior officer's horse so that he could go on a trip. This episode garnered him a poor conduct report, which initially blocked him from advancing in rank. He received his next step as an officer a year later. Said his brother Marien, many years later: "He had the reputation of being the most penalized cadet in the history of the armed forces. The stories even reached the top of the army, which led to an angry letter from the higher ups asking why this troublemaker had not yet been sent out of the service. The commanding officer replied, "He's a wild boy, but if the fatherland is ever in the war, he'll be of great value." He was a member of Minerva's rowing association, KSRV Njord, and was selected president of the rowing club. He competed in the 'fours with coxswain' race in the Varsity rowing regatta in the North Sea Canal in the spring of 1936. Early that summer he and childhood friend Karel Hardeman competed as a pair, joined by Johan Frans Van Walsem as coxswain. They competed in the Olympic trials meet and placed second, however the team that won the trials turned out to be Germans, so they were selected to represent the Netherlands at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin.

His first job was at the Bataafse Petroleum Maatschappij and was posted to their office in London. He died there in September 1944. At the time of his death he was 30 years old. One year later, in 1980, it received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Foreign Language Film.

Memorial at Leiden When the war ended De Jonge's older brother Marien returned to the Netherlands and was reunited with his wife and son. Nine months later they had a second son, which they named Ernst in memory of Marien's younger brother. When Marien reached 100 years of age a celebration was held for him, and though happy to be with all his family, he asked ‘Waarom word ik honderd en is mijn broer zo vroeg gestorven?’("Why did I live to be a hundred and my brother died so young?") His family started a fund to raise money for a memorial to his brother. On March 9, 2012, a casting of De Jonge was placed in the Minerva Society at Leiden.

On the four panels of the plaque are inscribed the following:

Honours Bronzen Leeuw (Bronze Lion) 14 December 1949 Verzetsherdenkingskruis (Resistance Memorial Cross)