Leendert Cornelisse

Amerongen 12 Mar 1924 – Tilburg 16 Nov 1996

About: A helper at Amerongen, born there in 1924, a deputy in the N.B.S. there, who took evaders over the Rhine and fetched them from Maarn and Veenendaal, from September 1944 to May 1945. His 1945 statement is part of what identifies Hardy's "Koen" with Mrs Esveld's younger son, and nothing puts him with Murphy.

Unit or role: N.B.S. at Amerongen, "deputy P.C." as he gives it; known to the evaders as "Leen (Henk)" (his questionnaire, p. 4). Later a teacher.

Where: Amerongen, B 519 (1945); Gouda and Diessen on his Dutch award card.

Evidence: ✓ his file with the Americans, pp. 2, 4, 6; ✓ his Dutch award card; ✓ the British helper index, sheet C4.

His own questionnaire of 13 July 1945 gives him as born at Amerongen on 12 March 1924, living at B 519, Amerongen, his father R. Cornelisse his next of kin ("naaste bloedverwant", nearest relative); the evaders knew him as "Leen (Henk)", and his movement is "N.B.S." at Amerongen, "deputy P.C." (his file, p. 4). The Dutch Chancery of Orders' card gives the same birth, at Amerongen on 12 March 1924 (his award card).

◐ The Dutch Red Cross register of forced labour (Arbeidsinzet) for Kreis Mainz has a "Leendert Cornlisse", Tewerkgestelde (put to work), born 12 March 1924 at Amerongen and died at Tilburg on 16 November 1996, entered three times under variant spellings (the record, Nationaal Archief 2.19.323, inv. 755; index only). The birth and death match his own file and his award card, so it is very probably him; the index gives no dates for the work, and none of his statements mentions it.

Nothing puts him with Murphy. His statement for the Americans, written on 13 July 1945, says:

Leen helped with the transport of evaders over the Rhine. He also went to MAARN to fetch them, and to VEENENDAAL (where they came from Dick). He helped Koen ESVELD (who only recently was found dead in the neighbourhood of DOODEWAARD) report 00261, often with the lodging of evaders in AMERONGEN and LEERSUM when it had become too "hot" for them in the other houses where they were staying. He helped with getting food for the Tommies, and he even managed to supply them with a bit of tobacco. This happened from Sep 44 till May 45.

— US National Archives · RG 498, helper file of Leendert Cornelisse · enclosure, A.B. No. 00329, 13 July 1945 · p. 6

It adds that for 14 days in February 1945 he "reported the radio news to CAWTON", that he had no financial help, and that he lost a winter coat helping the evaders (p. 6).

• ◐ The statement ties "Koen ESVELD" to report 00261, Mrs Esveld's household's number. It is part of what makes Hardy's "Koen" and the Coen of the Dutch histories very probably Mrs Esveld's younger son, Gerrit Herman Esveld, whom the Dodewaard register records as found dead there on 29 June 1945 (Coen Esveld). His part in the Amerongen line is told on Amerongen and the last night.
• Piet van Veenendaal's form lists "L. Cornelissen Kersweg" among the Amerongen addresses five airmen and a Polish paratrooper were passed to in the autumn of 1944, with "C. Cornelissen" of the Rijnstraat and the Esvelds (his file, p. 3); ◐ which Cornelisse that is, the form does not say.
• B. A. (Flip) Esveld's form, on the helpers he knew, ends "J. Doornebos, G.H. Esveld, Sr., L. Cornelisse" (Flip Esveld, p. 9; Berend Esveld), ◐ the same Leendert, of the Esveld circle at Amerongen.
• ◐ The Cornelisse household of the Rijnstraat, Chris and Elisabeth (Mr and Mrs Cornelissen), hid two of the Canadians of Murphy's crossing party (Porter and Schjelderup), and Chris took the ferry with them on 2 January (Schjelderup: "I was with CORNELISSEN and DERRICK"; Maljers, p. 16); no source says Leendert was related to them, or that he was at their house.

The Americans' summary sheet of 28 November 1945 has "Lt. van LOENEN" and "20 November 1945" where the investigating officer goes, and: "Helped with transport of evaders from Maarn and Veenendaal to Amerongen. Also transported over the Rhine. Procured food and lodging for evaders. Served as courier for Cawton group." The Americans graded him 5 (his file, p. 2; the folder cover, p. 1, has "GRADE 5" in pencil). ◐ Which van Loenen the sheet means it does not say. For Hendrik: CAWTON was his mission (Kluiters). Three things point away from Hendrik: the bicycle receipts of 30 October 1945 name "H.L. van Loenen Lt." (Berend Esveld's, p. 2); A. M. V. Stapper lists "L. van Loenen, M.I.S. Kersbergenlaan, Zeist (Luuk)" (p. 2), and Adrianus van Wijnen had made reports "on the request of Luuc van Loenen at Zeist" (p. 5), ◐ "Luuk" being, by our reading, his brother Herman Lucas (Kluiters gives 'ALEX' and 'LUUK' to one H.L. van Loenen; his page); and Hendrik wrote in 1946 that he was in the Indies "Tijdens de uitdeeling hier in Zeist" (during the hand-out here in Zeist) (p. 36), though the letter does not date that hand-out. Points that favour Hendrik are on his page, which sets out the evidence both ways: his account of handing out parcels and bicycles in the winding-up at I.S.9, a letter of December 1945 naming "Capt.van Loenen I.S.9Headqart.", and his brother's absence in Switzerland from January 1946. In July 1945 he hoped to become a professional pilot in the Dutch forces, or else with the K.L.M. (p. 6).

The British helper index has "CORNELISSE, Leendert", Amerongen B 519, certificate 21070, grade 5, on the line above "CORNELISSEN, Christiaan", Rijnstraat 472, certificate 21071, grade 5 (the sheet, read on the image; What the British recorded afterwards).

✓ He became a teacher. The Dutch Chancery of Orders' card for Leendert Cornelisse, born at Amerongen on 12 March 1924, records him made a knight of the Order of Orange-Nassau by royal decree of 14 June 1984, no. 19, as "leraar aan de LEAO-school Gouda en Omstreken" (a teacher at the LEAO school for Gouda and district), on the Education Ministry's proposal, and his death at Tilburg on 16 November 1996; his last address on the card is at Diessen (his award card, Nationaal Archief 2.02.32).

✓ He married at Doorn on 28 December 1949, aged 25 and born at Amerongen, the son of Roelof Cornelisse and Hendrika van Veenendaal (the record, Het Utrechts Archief; index only). The father's name is the "R. Cornelisse" of his questionnaire.

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