As Germany spread its troops across Europe, conquering all in their path, the pockets of resistance began to grow as well. Men and women went into hiding, taking any chance to sabotage and attack Axis powers. Boy Ecury was one of the heroes in these underground factions, helping to pave the way to liberation.
When Segundo Jorge Adelberto Ecury was born in Orajestad, Aruba on April 23, 1922, no one could have predicted where his life would lead. He grew up in a very large and affluent Catholic family, who sent him away to school in 1937 because of his rebellious spirit. Boy, as he was nicknamed, along with his brother Nicky eventually attended the Brother of St. Louis in Oudenbosch, Holland.
After graduating with a diploma in commerce, Boy moved around Holland, visiting many areas including Rotterdam. While he was there, the German occupation began after the Nazi's destroyed the city and took control in May of 1940. Another student from the Antilles, Luis de Lannoy, met Boy in the nearby city of Tilburg at this time, and the two became fast friends. It was Luis who first introduced Boy to the underground resistance, who all together crippled German troops at any opportunity.
By 1942 it was too dangerous for the swarthy Boy to remain in Tilburg, and he moved on to Oisterwijk to join their resistance party. Luis stayed behind, but the men kept in touch by sending letters whenever possible. The Oisterwijk Resistance Council, along with Boy, continued to sabotage the Axis army by blowing up their trucks with homemade bombs and ripping up railroad tracks. They would also aid any allie pilots, soldiers, or other victims of the occupation that they encountered. The force that drove Boy and his comrades was that they had nothing to lose in their resistance, since nothing was worse than the current domination.
When Boy heard that his old friend Louis had been betrayed and arrested in early 1944, he traveled to the prison in Utrecht to free him. He was unsuccessful, and although Boy managed to remain free, Louis was stuck in the prison to be tortured and interrogated for information. Luis finally escaped in September of that year during the bedlam of Mad Tuesday.
Boy aborted his mission and returned to Oisterwijk to rejoin the opposition. He and the others traveled around from place to place, searching for shelter in safe spots. Boy's dark-skin put him in even more danger than the rest, and so he was transferred away again, back to Tilburg in October 1944. Allied troops had surrounded the nearby area, and soon after were able to liberate Oisterwijk. Though Boy had a chance to be freed as well, he decided to stay and continue the struggle.
There was an underground commando group called the Knokploegen in The Hague, which Boy left Tilburg to join. Together with these onderduikers, or freedom fighters, Boy took many courageous risks on missions, such as the attempted assassination of a leader of the Dutch NSB party, who supported the Nazi's. The members of the resistance would endanger their lives daily in hope of making a difference in the war and some did not survive.
On November 5, 1944 Boy was heading back to his hiding place after attending mass for the day, when he was attacked and arrested in front of the German security police building. He, like Luis, has been betrayed by a previous member of the rebels who had been captured. Boy was sent to Scheveningan where the prison guards tortured and interrogated him the rest of the day. It was clear that Boy would not give away anything, and so was shot to death on the Waaldorpervlatke plain the next day.
Years later, Dundun Ecury traveled to the Waaldorpervlatke to retrieve the body of his son Boy to bring him back to Aruba to be buried. In 1947 there was a burial ceremony for Boy, where he was awarded military honors. The city of Oranjestad, where Boy Ecury was born, erected a statue in his honor in 1949 and later built a war museum in which Boy was granted a permanent exhibition to celebrate their hero. A Resistance Commemorative Cross from the Dutch government was posthumously bestowed to Boy in 1984 to thank him for his sacrifice on their behalf.
Boy's legacy continues past his death through his nephew Ted Schouten, a film maker who took interest in the uncle he had never met. He talked with his grandfather Dundun and wrote a book 'Boy Ecury, an Antillean Boy in the Resistance' in 1985 which was reprinted again fifteen years later. Franz Weisz, a famous Dutch director, approached Ted to make a film about Dundun's search for his son after the war which came out in 2003 in the Netherlands.
