George Maduro
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George John Lionel Maduro (born in Willemstad (Curaçao)), July 15, 1916; died Dachau concentration camp, February 9, 1945) was a Dutch student that served as an officer in the 1940 Battle of the Netherlands and distinguished himself in the attack on The Hague.
The miniature city of Madurodam is named after him, as well as the Maduroplein area in Scheveningen, in The Hague.
Maduro was born in Curaçao as the only son in the Jewish family of Joshua and Rebecca Maduro. He departed for The Netherlands and studied law at Leiden University. By a royal decision on November 21, 1939 Maduro was appointed to second-lieutenant-reserve in the Dutch Cavalry. In the Battle of the Netherlands he was quartered with the Dutch Hussars in The Hague as a reserve officer. Under his direction German ground troops stationed in Rijswijk were defeated and parachutists were captured.
When the Dutch military capitulated, Maduro was captured by German troops and jailed in the Oranje Hotel in Scheveningen.
When he was released after half a year, the Germans had required that all Jews wear the Star of David. Maduro refused to wear the star and joined the resistance movement. He tried to help Allied pilots escape to the United Kingdom via Spain, but was caught for treason and placed in jail again. After he figured out how to escape, he rejoined the Dutch resistance. He was captured again, this time by the German Gestapo. By way of a jail in Saarbrücken, he was transferred to the Dachau concentration camp. Just before the liberation of the camp by American troops in 1945, Maduro died of typhus. He is buried in the cemetery of the camp.
In 1946 Maduro was posthumously granted the honor of Knight 4th-class of the Military Order of William, the highest and oldest honor in the Kingdom of the Netherlands, because he had distinguished himself in the Battle of the Netherlands against German troops.
He is the only Dutch person of Antillian descent to receive this honor.
A documentary about Maduro's life was made in 2001 by Alfred Edelstein.
[edit] Madurodam
After World War II, Maduro's parents provided seed money for a miniature city called Madurodam that opened in 1952 in The Hague. Madurodam is considered by the Maduro family to be a monument in honor of their only son. In 1993 a scale model of Maduro's birthplace was built in the park.
