Ernst de Jonge

Ernst de Jonge
Ernst de Jonge, 1937
Birth name	Ernst de Jonge
Born	(1914-05-22)May 22, 1914 Netherlands
Died	September 3, 1944(1944-09-03) (aged 30) Rawicz concentration camp, Poland
Allegiance	Netherlands
Service/branch	Centrale Inlichtingendienst Dutch resistance
Years of service	1940–1944
Awards	Bronze Lion Resistance Memorial Cross

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 concentration camp in Poland in September 1944.

Ernst 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. Ernst 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, 3 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.

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."