George Maduro
George John Lionel Levy Maduro (born July 15, 1916 in Willemstad ; † February 9, 1945 in Dachau concentration camp ) was a Dutch student who resisted the German occupation in World War II . According to him, in is The Hague located miniature city Madurodam named.
resume
George Maduro was born in Curaçao , a colony in the Netherlands , the only son of a family of Sephardic Jews. One of his ancestors emigrated there from Portugal in 1672 and founded the Maduro & Sons bank , now Maduro & Curiel's Bank . After leaving school, he moved to Leiden in the Netherlands to Jura to study; he dropped his name Levy . On November 21, 1939, he became a reserve - lieutenant of cavalry appointed. During the first days of May in 1940 he was stationed in The Hague as a reserve officer for the Hussars . Under his leadership, the Villa Dorrepaal near Leidschendam , which had been occupied by the German occupiers, was recaptured and German paratroopers captured.
After the surrender of the Netherlands on May 14, 1940 Maduro was pow taken, released after a short time and then for six months in the Oranje Hotel in Scheveningen prison. After his release, the Germans made it mandatory to wear the Star of David, which Maduro refused to do. He joined the resistance and helped Allied pilots flee to Great Britain via Spain . In 1943 he wanted to depose himself to London to report there as a soldier. But he was betrayed and placed on the border between Belgium and France. He was imprisoned in Strasbourg but managed to escape, but arrested again while trying to free a fellow prisoner and imprisoned in Neue Bremm . From there the prisoners were sent on the death march to Dachau . Shortly before the concentration camp was liberated by the United States' armed forces , George Maduro died there of typhus . He was buried in the camp's cemetery.
Madurodam
After the end of World War II, George Maduro's parents, Joshua and Rebecca Maduro, gave the start-up capital of 100,000 guilders to build a miniature city, which opened in The Hague in 1952 and was named Madurodam . The proceeds from Madurodam were intended for the Stichting Nederlands Student Sanatorium in Laren , where students with tuberculosis have been treated since 1947 . The idea went back to Bep Boon-van der Starp , who sat on the advisory board of the sanatorium and was inspired by a similar construction in Beaconsfield, UK . The Maduro family viewed the miniature city as a memorial to their son. Since 1993, a model of Maduro's birthplace has been on display next to a plaque in Madurodam. The entrance to Madurodam is on George Maduroplein .
Honors
On May 9, 1946, George Maduro was posthumously awarded the Military William Order , knight 4th class. He is the only Dutchman from the Antilles who has ever received this medal.
In 2002 Alfred Edelstein and Frits van Veenendaal shot the documentary Madurodam, monument met een glimlach about the life of Maduro. The film also shows an interview with the then Queen Beatrix , who was the first mayor of Madurodam until her enthronement in 1980.
Next to Boy Ecury , Maduro is seen as the most important resistance activist in the Second World War in the Antilles. His parents are buried together on Curaçao, on their grave there is a memorial plaque for the son, whose burial place is not known.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Marius Bremmer: Een miniatuurstadje as eerbetoon aan de oorlogsheld Maduro. RD.nl, October 25, 2012, accessed on September 29, 2014 (Dutch).
- ↑ a b c George Maduro (1916-1945). Historiek, August 31, 2009, accessed September 29, 2014 (Dutch).
- ↑ Divorce. madurodam, accessed September 29, 2014 (Dutch).
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Maduro, George |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Maduro, George John Lionel Levy (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Dutch student and resistance fighter |
| DATE OF BIRTH | July 15, 1916 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Willemstad |
| DATE OF DEATH | February 9, 1945 |
| Place of death | Dachau concentration camp |