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.

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.

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.

[5] Early that summer he and childhood friend Karel Hardeman competed as a pair, joined by Johan Frans Van Walsem as coxswain.

[2] During that summer while preparing for the Olympics De Jonge and Hardeman both completed their undergraduate work and passed exams.

Although involved in a number of extracurricular activities which distracted from his studies, De Jonge was quite bright and was at the head of his class.

He rejoined his artillery battery, but a short time later BPM requested the Department of Defense release him because they urgently needed him for a job overseas.

Because of the increasing threat of war, BPM was secretly making preparations to move their headquarters from The Hague to a temporary office on the island of Curacao in the Dutch Antilles.

He accepted the job on condition that he could take his best student as assistant: the recently graduated Ernst De Jonge.

De Jonge found his work with BPM challenging and interesting, and he enjoyed living in the Dutch Antilles.

De Jonge used his influence with Prince Bernhard, the German born husband of Princess Juliana, to secure his release from BPM.

At the end of the interrogation, and partially due to De Jonge's attitude throughout, he was asked if he would consider serving as an agent in occupied Netherlands.

He was instructed in Morse coding and decoding, security measures and training in the organization and ranks in the German army.

The initial plan was for he and his radio operator Evert Radema to be dropped by parachute, but this was abandoned in favor of the transport service that had been developed by Erik Hazelhoff Roelfzema, Peter Tazelaar and Chris Krediet, which used a motor torpedo boat to cross the English Channel before rowing the party to shore.

[4] They were rowed to the beach with Hazelhoff, who came ashore with them and helped them to a hiding place near the boulevard where they could wait for the first morning tram leaving for Leiden.

While being transported away in a car the following day he was able to shout 'Hello' to a classmate he knew at Leids, thus letting the organization know that he had been taken into custody.

In the late 1960s De Jonge's friend, writer Erik Hazelhoff Roelfzema, began to work on writing down the story of what had happened to them during the war.

He cast Jeroen Krabbé in his first major role to play Guus LeJeune, the friend of Hazelhoff Roelfzema's character, which was based on a combination of De Jonge and Peter Tazelaar.

[9] When the war ended De Jonge's older brother Marien returned to the Netherlands and was reunited with his wife and son.

[10] 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?")

[11] On the four panels of the plaque are inscribed the following: Praeses Njord, Olympische Spelen 1936 Praeses Collegii 1937, Commissaris Sociëteit Minerva 1936 Geheim Agent WO II, verraden en omgebracht, postuum Bronzen Leeuw Jhr mr Ernst de Jonge 1914–1944 (President Njord Rowing Club, Olympic Games 1936) (Student Body President 1937, President Minerva Society 1936) (Secret Agent WW II, betrayed and murdered, posthumous Bronze Lion) (Jhunker Mr. Ernst de Jonge 1914–1944) Bibliography