Antonie Eldert Kauffeld

Borger 15 Jun 1892 – Ede 27 Jan 1972

About: A trading-company director at Roekel, near Ede, who with his neighbours fed Allied men hiding in the woods after the failed Pegasus II crossing of November 1944, ◐ probably Murphy's party among them. The SD held him from 24 November 1944 to 20 January 1945.

Unit or role: Head representative at Soerabaja, then from 1939 a director, of the N.V. Borneo Sumatra Handel Maatschappij (the Borsumij); a helper of Allied soldiers at Roekel, a member of no underground organisation by his forms; Grade 5 on the British and American lists of helpers.

Where: 121 Otterloosche weg, Ede, with "Den Roekel" the address the Allied men knew (his forms); the hamlet of Roekel (Ede's history); after the war Scheveningscheweg 56, The Hague (June 1946); Otterlo, in the municipality of Ede, at his death.

Evidence: ✓ his own helper file with the Americans, US National Archives 286665945 (the forms, pp. 1–10, read on the images); ✓ J. van Vemde's letter of 20 May 1946; ✓ Ede, manuscript "Het Verzet", pp. 48–49 (Gemeentearchief Ede 1006/1160); ✓ Boeree, Kroniek van Ede (1947), pp. 188, 201, 203; ✓ the civil records of his marriage of 1945 and his death in 1972 (index records); ✓ the Dutch papers, 1934 to 1972 (below).

• ✓ Birth and parents. He was born at Borger on 15 June 1892, by his own forms (p. 3, p. 7) and by the civil records, which spell his first name Antonie, where the forms have Antoine. His death record names his parents as August Ludwig Heinrich Kauffeld and Anna Alberdina van Wel (index records: the death at Ede, 1972, and the marriage at Bloemendaal, 1945). A card in Amsterdam's family-card series (1893–1939) carries the same name, birth date and birthplace (the card; the scan is worn, and only his own line is read here).
• ✓ The Borsumij. On 31 March 1937 De Locomotief reported that "Morgen zal de heer A. E. Kauffeld, hoofdvertegenwoordiger der Borsumij te Soerabaja den dag herdenken, dat hij 25 jaar geleden in dienst trad dezer maatschappij" (tomorrow Mr A. E. Kauffeld, head representative of the Borsumij at Soerabaja, will mark the day he joined this company 25 years ago), with a reception and a dinner (the report, checked on the page image).
  • In May 1934, on leave in Europe and expected back in July, he was to resume as head representative at Soerabaja (De Locomotief, 9 May 1934, OCR only).
  • In July 1939 the shareholders' meeting at The Hague appointed him a member of the board of directors; he had gone out to the Indies in connection with the leave of the head representative W. Th. Houtstra and had been back at Soerabaja for about a month; the initials differ from the W. F. Houtstra of the 1933 case below, and the papers do not say whether he is the same man (Algemeen handelsblad voor Nederlandsch-Indië, 14 July 1939, checked on the page image).
  • In October 1939, as director, he opened the company's new office building in Central Java (De Locomotief, 28 October 1939, his speech, OCR only).
• ✓ A case in Soerabaja, 1933–1934. The Raad van Justitie at Soerabaja convicted him and the company's agent W. F. Houtstra on 4 August 1933 on two counts, each "het ter bedriegelijke verkorting van de rechten der schuldeischers, in het vooruitzicht van het faillissement, terwijl dit is gevolgd" (to the fraudulent curtailment of the creditors' rights, with a bankruptcy in prospect, which then followed), of accepting payment:
  • The first count was of "een niet opeischbare schuld" (a debt not yet due), the second of "eene opeischbare schuld ten gevolge overleg met den schuldenaar" (a debt that was due, as a result of consultation with the debtor).
  • The court had found that, knowing a Chinese firm they had a claim on faced bankruptcy, they had persuaded it to assign one of its claims on another firm to them. It sentenced them "tot respectievelijk een jaar gevangenisstraf en zes maanden gevangenisstraf voorwaardelijk" (respectively a year's imprisonment and six months' imprisonment, suspended).
  • On review the Hooggerechtshof acquitted both, because "de schuld van beide beklaagden niet wettig en overtuigend is bewezen" (the guilt of both accused was not lawfully and convincingly proved):
    • "in het bizonder niet is komen vast te staan, dat beklaagden bij de cessie geweten hebben, dat daardoor de overige schuldeischers zouden worden benadeeld" (in particular it was not established that at the assignment they knew the other creditors would be harmed) (De Locomotief, issue dated 16 January 1934 in Delpher, its masthead printing Monday 15 January, checked on the page image; the acquittal also in the issue of 13 January, OCR only).
• ✓ Marriages before the war.
  • A divorce from Lucij (Lucy) Agnes de Rooze was registered at The Hague on 2 September 1924 (index records).
  • He married Geertruida Johanna Jansen at Bangil, in the Netherlands East Indies, on 17 January 1925, and the court at The Hague dissolved that marriage on 1 October 1943, when he was living at Ede (Staatscourant, 22 October 1943, checked on the page image).
  • He gave three children on his forms of July 1945, with ages a year apart between the two forms (p. 5, p. 7); the only one named in the sources on this story is his daughter Tonny (below).

• ✓ His own account. "I had 2 parachutists with me after the battle of Arnhem", he wrote on his form of 24 July 1945, and his table names them: Cpl R. Anderson, 2nd Bn Par. Rgt., 1126901, British, and "Christofer Glidle same Rgt", both shot down (the form's column) in September 1944 at Arnhem, hidden 14 days (p. 7, p. 8). He named "Dr. Beensma, Otterlo" as having attended injured men (p. 7).
• ✓ Van Vemde's account. J. van Vemde wrote that he found the first man himself on 18 September 1944, "Anderson" as far as he remembered, with a broken calf bone, and "Met behulp van Mr.Kauffeld is deze verborgen gehouden in een schuur op het terrein van Mr.Kauffeld" (with Mr Kauffeld's help he was kept hidden in a barn on Mr Kauffeld's land).
  • J. Bettink found another in the wood on 19 September and a third came in a few days later; after Dr Beumer of Otterlo had treated the wounded man, the three were given civilian clothes after about three weeks and handed to one Edens of Harskamp, and reached the other side of the Rhine through various people (Van Vemde's letter, p. 8).
  • The typed English version of Van Vemde's form has "Anderson. Broke his leg and with v.d. Brink and Kauffeld and kept for three weeks" (his file, p. 2, checked on the image), and Bettink's lists "R. ANDERSON CHR. GLIDLE PARA TROOP REG." (Bettink's file, p. 4). The forester H. van de Brink's page has the same days from his side.

No source names Murphy with Kauffeld. ◐ The men he helped feed after Pegasus II were probably Murphy's party among others: J. van Vemde's dug-out near Roekel, which the Kauffeld family helped to supply, was very probably the one Murphy hid in from 20 to 24 November 1944 (Pegasus II and Roekel). The sources do not agree on which men Kauffeld helped (see the last section).

• ✓ The morning after the crossing. With Kootwijkerbroek's helpers in hiding after the arrests of 15 November, "Gelukkig waren Kauffeld, van Vemden, Betting en Morren, die in de naaste omgeving woonden, tot helpen bereid" (fortunately Kauffeld, Van Vemden, Bettink, printed "Betting", and Morren, who lived close by, were ready to help) (Boeree, p. 201, checked on the page image).
• ✓ The dug-out.
  • "De mannen in het hol bij van Vemden werden goed verzorgd, mede dank zij de hulp van de familie Kauffeld, die op de Roekel woonde." (The men in the dug-out at Van Vemden's were well cared for, partly thanks to the help of the Kauffeld family, who lived at Roekel.)
  • When a better hiding place was made in the wood behind Morren's house, Bettink brought bread in the morning and "'s middags zorgden de families Kauffeld en van Vemden voor een groote ketel stamppot" (at midday the Kauffeld and Van Vemden families provided a big pan of stamppot) (Boeree, p. 203, checked on the page image).
• ✓ Ede's history. The SD found Van Vemden's and Kauffeld's houses through the forester, and "Zij hadden beiden de geallieerde militairen geholpen, die zich op de 18e in het bos schuil hadden moeten houden" (both had helped the Allied soldiers who had to hide in the wood on the 18th) (Ede manuscript, p. 48). ◐ The same words on its p. 46 are for the twenty to thirty men from the north Veluwe who arrived too late to join the column and hid in the wood behind Van de Brink's house on the 18th (p. 46).

In his own words, on that form:

Furthermore there were many Allied soldiers in hidingplaces in the forests around my house. I took care of food, clothing, books for them. We cooked for up to 30 men Allied sodiers [sic] after the debacle of the 2nd Rhine crossing.

— A. E. Kauffeld · questionnaire for the American Military Intelligence Service · 24 July 1945 · his file, p. 7

An undated typed slip in the same file, in the office's third person, gives the number as about 35 and the men as having come "in the hands of Frans Ha Hals", ◐ a name Kragt used (below):

He sheltered about 35 pilots and parachutists in the woods and helped with clothing and food (after failed crossing). Owing to theseactivities [sic] he was arrested and the Germans plundered his house and stole his papaers [sic] with notes concerning the Allies helped by him. All these persons came after the failed crossing from 18-11-'44 and came in the hands of Frans Ha Hals [sic].

— US National Archives · RG 498, helper file of A. E. Kauffeld · typed slip, "Classification C." · his file, p. 4

◐ "Frans Hals" was one of the names Dick Kragt worked under (Kragt's file, p. 6).

• ✓ His neighbours' accounts.
  • J. van Vemde put the men he helped at about 35: "Ik werd hierin bijgestaan door J.Bettink, Edescheweg 27, Otterloo en A.Kauffeld, Otterlooscheweg, Otterloo" (I was helped in this by J. Bettink … and A. Kauffeld …) (his letter, p. 8).
  • Of the 10 or 12 he took in after the crossing, "De 12 overgebleven menschen zijn in mijn schuilplaats verzorgd tot 24 November. Op deze datum werden Mr. Kauffeld en ik gearresteerd door de S.D. (Untersturmführer Heineman)." (The 12 who were left were looked after in my hiding place until 24 November. On that date Mr Kauffeld and I were arrested by the SD, Untersturmführer Heineman.) (his letter, p. 8).
  • The American office typed on Van Vemde's form that he "worked with Mr. Kauffeld and the farm v.d. Brink in rendring [sic] other assistances about thitty [sic] evading paratroopers" (p. 2, checked on the image).
  • J. Bettink's summary card, a faint carbon dated 6 June 1946, has him working with Van Vemde, Kauffeld and "A. Morren Dammakkerweg 6 Ede" (A. Morren), "In total sheltered and fed 34 paratroopers and pilots", and "van Vemde and Kauffeld were a rested [sic] by the SD" (Bettink's file, p. 8, read on the image with the contrast raised); a slip in Bettink's file reads "Kauffeld (5) same story of the 35 pilots" (p. 7).

• ✓ The round. Six days after the failed march the SD men Heinemann and Rappard, with Landwacht men, arrested the forester Van den Brink, his son and a man in hiding with them, and made the forester and his son show them the houses of Van Vemden (who lived at Aerdenhout but had been evacuated to Wekerom, to a house on the Roekelseweg) and of Kauffeld, "in de buurtschap Roekel" (in the hamlet of Roekel).
  • Both were arrested, "evenals Kauffeld's dochter Tonny en hun dienstmeisje, de tweeëntwintig-jarige Maria Bunt uit Lunteren" (as were Kauffeld's daughter Tonny and their maid, Maria Bunt, 22, of Lunteren), and all were taken to "De Wormshoef" at Lunteren (Ede manuscript, p. 48; p. 49).
  • "Tonny en Maria werden, zonder dat hen enig kwaad was aangedaan, na acht dagen weer op vrije voeten gesteld; Maria hield aan het gebeurde wèl een zware zenuwinzinking over" (Tonny and Maria were set free after eight days without having been harmed; Maria did suffer a severe nervous breakdown from it) (p. 49).
• ✓ The date. Van Vemde gives 24 November for his and Kauffeld's arrest (his letter, p. 8), and Boeree has a razzia at Otterlo and Roekel that day, which took Van Vemden and Kauffeld and missed Bettink, who was out with the men in the hiding place bringing their bread (Boeree, p. 203).
• ✓ In his own words. "Because of this work I and my youngest daughter and maid were arrested by the SDM [sic] During my imprisonment my house was completely robbed of furniture and my personal belongings and papers." (his form, p. 7, checked on the image; a word struck out after "robbed" is left out here).

• ✓ The Wormshoef. Boeree has Kauffeld and Van Vemden taken to the Wormshoef, where "de huiszoeking in hun woningen had niets opgeleverd" (the search of their houses had found nothing), and where they met Streefland, Van den Born, Heijen, "Martien" (Abraham du Bois) and Sister Den Hartog (p. 203). Sister Den Hartog's account has her hear there that Martien had been taken "en dat ook Kauffeld en van Vemden waren gegrepen" (and that Kauffeld and Van Vemden had been seized too) (p. 188).
• ✓ To Velp. Her account lists him among those taken to Velp on 7 December: "Op 7 December ging zij op transport naar Velp. Daarheen werden ook overgebracht Martien, van den Born, Streefland, Dr. Gerritsen, Heijen, Kauffeld en van Vemden." (p. 188). Ede's history has Kauffeld and Van Vemden sent on to the SD at Velp "na veertien dagen" (after fourteen days) (p. 49); Boeree's other passage has all of them sent to Velp "Even voor Kerstmis" (just before Christmas), to the Rotterdamsche Bank building, where most were put in the vault (p. 203).
• ◐ With Coslett in the cellar. The same typed slip in his file goes on in the first person, about the Velp prison (p. 4); it is undated, headed "Classification C." and typed by the office, so the words are very probably his but the slip is not his own letter:

In the S.D. prison in Velp I met Frank Coslett, flying officer living in Pensylvania [sic], civilian profession radio-fitter. He was condemned to death but not yet executed when I was released. I should like to contact his family.

— A. E. Kauffeld, as typed by the office · US National Archives · RG 498, helper file of A. E. Kauffeld · typed slip · his file, p. 4

• Frank Coslett, an American navigator, was held in the cellar of the Rotterdam Bank at Velp from 24 December 1944 (his declaration, p. 34).
• Charles Verbruggen of Bennekom wrote on 21 January 1946 that Coslett "was with me in the cellar of the prison in the Rotterdam Bank [sic] at Velp with Det. Gerritgen [?] and Instr. Kauffeld, van der Vemde etc." (his letter, p. 9, read on the image).
• ✓ Released, 20 January 1945. "Daar werden ze op 20 januari 1945 … vrijgelaten en konden naar huis terug gaan" (there they were released on 20 January 1945 and could go home) (Ede manuscript, p. 49); Boeree has Van Vemden discharged the same day (p. 203).
• ✓ A constable thanked. On 28 June 1945, Ede's history says, Kauffeld wrote to the acting head of the Ede police, Inspector Van Kooten, thanking the constable G.J. Michels (Otterlo in the war, Harskamp after) for his help "vóór, tijdens en nà zijn arrestatie" (before, during and after his arrest), and Van Kooten passed the thanks on (p. 49). The letter has not been seen. ◐ The manuscript's note 45 cites "Registratie 1940-1945, inv. nr. 256" (the notes, p. 78), which the archive's concordance makes today's Ede 1006/469, "Kauffeld, Fam." (the inventory), very probably the letter's file.

• ✓ A third marriage. At Bloemendaal on 26 June 1945 he married Augusta Helena van Meurs, 28, born at Amsterdam, a fashion artist; the record gives him as 53, born at Borger, "directeur van een handelsmaatschappijj" [sic: the index's typing] (director of a trading company), and notes that he had been divorced in turn from his two earlier wives (index records). ◐ She is the wife, aged 28, on his form of 5 July 1945 (p. 5), and the "Mrs Kauffeld" of Coslett's letter below; neither names her.
• ✓ His forms. He filled in the American Military Intelligence Service's questionnaire twice, on 5 and 24 July 1945, giving no underground organisation and the names the Allied men knew him by as "Kauffield" and "Antoon" (p. 5, p. 7). He asked leave to contact his agent in America, C. P. Veenhof of New York, to have clothing and shoes sent, "for which the most urgent need exists" (p. 7).
• ✓ Coslett's letter. By then Coslett had joined, on 1 July 1945, the American office at Wassenaar that dealt with Dutch helpers (the office's history, PDF p. 2; Frank Coslett). On 29 July 1945 he wrote to Kauffeld at Otterlooscheweg 121, Ede:

It was very pleasant to have you and Mrs Kauffeld as our dinner guest here at our headquarters and you and your family were more than gracious to Captain Kay, Lt Kiek, and myself on our visit with you. … I hope to see you again soon when we both have more time to reminisce over the days of our imprisonment by the Gestapo and the strange comaraderie [sic] which only those who have been such a prisoner can possibly share.

— Franklin D. Coslett, Captain, Air Corps · 6801 MIS-X Detachment · 29 July 1945 · Kauffeld's file, p. 9

He ended "Best wishes to Mrs Kauffeld and Toni" (p. 9); ◐ Toni is very probably the daughter Tonny of Ede's history. ⚠︎ "Capt Kay" was one of the names Dick Kragt worked under (Kragt's file, p. 6), but nothing in the letter says whether the captain who came with Coslett was Kragt. On 6 August 1945, on the Borsumij's paper from The Hague, Kauffeld wrote back "Dear Frank", asking for another copy of the letter to Veenhof and for Coslett's official address, "for the purpose of sending some cigars from England" (p. 10).

• ✓ The grading. A summary sheet of 20 October 1945 under Coslett's name has him giving "shelter, clothing and food to several pilots", naming Anderson and Glidie (p. 3); the folder is marked "Grade 5 Conf. 51 20/5/46" (p. 1). The British I.S.9 office proposed "KAUFFELD, A.E. Otterloscheweg 121, Ede" as Grade 5 on 14 May 1946, asking the American office to confirm (the list, p. 36), and the British index of Dutch helpers has him under certificate 14780, Grade 5 (the index, sheet K3; its README).
• ✓ Vouching for his neighbours.
  • On 31 May 1946 Lt Felix Bilgrey of the American office asked him to confirm that Van Vemde had worked with him; the copy is pencilled "Confirmed / Pete." (Van Vemde's file, p. 6).
  • On 11 June 1946, from Scheveningscheweg 56, The Hague, Kauffeld wrote to the office that Johan Bettink lived near him ("Bij mij in de buurt woont Johan Bettink") and had "een groot aantal parachutisten en piloten geholpen (verborgen, gevoed en getransporteerd)" (helped a great many paratroopers and pilots: hidden, fed and transported), and that "Ook bij mijn werk ten behoeve van geallieerd personeel Johan Bettink zeer daadwerkelijk" [sic: the verb is missing] (Johan Bettink [helped] very actively in my own work for Allied personnel too) (Bettink's file, p. 11, checked on the image).
  • The office wrote to Bettink two days later, citing Kauffeld (p. 9).

• ✓ Leaving the Borsumij. At an extraordinary shareholders' meeting reported on 13 February 1947 the Borneo Sumatra Handel Maatschappij granted its director A. E. Kauffeld "op zijn verzoek eervol ontslag" (an honourable discharge at his own request) (Het Parool, checked on the page image).
• ✓ Death. He died on 27 January 1972, aged 79 (NRC Handelsblad, the family notice, dated from Otterlo); the death is registered at Ede (index record). The firm B.V. v/h H. P. A. Kemperman of Amsterdam announced the death of "onze zeer gewaardeerde Directeur, de heer A. E. KAUFFELD" (our highly valued director); the cremation was announced for 1 February 1972 at Dieren (NRC Handelsblad, 29 January 1972, the family notice and the firm's quoted line checked on the page image).

• His first name. Antoine on his forms of 1945 (p. 3, p. 7); Antonie in the civil records and his death notice (index records).
• Where he lived. Ede on his own forms; Otterlo in Van Vemde's letter and the office's letter of 1946; the hamlet of Roekel in Ede's history and in Boeree. All three are within the municipality of Ede; "Den Roekel" was the address the Allied men knew (his forms).
• The paratroopers of September 1944. His table has Cpl R. Anderson of the 2nd Bn, Parachute Regiment, and "Glidle", 14 days (p. 8); the office's summary has "Cpl.R.ANDERSON RAF" and "Glidie" (p. 3); Van Vemde has three men for about three weeks (his letter). The doctor is "Dr. Beensma, Otterlo" in Kauffeld's form and Dr Beumer of Otterlo in Van Vemde's letter and form.
• Which men.
  • Ede's history has him arrested for helping the soldiers who hid in the wood on the 18th (p. 48), the words its p. 46 uses for the latecomers from the north Veluwe who never set out (◐ the same men).
  • Van Vemde has 10 to 12 men of the crossing sheltered at his hiding place, and 20 more, hidden elsewhere in the wood, fed for two days (his letter, p. 8).
  • Boeree p. 201 has Kauffeld ready to help on the morning after, just after the 24 "Elburgers" who arrived too late were put in the wood.
  • No source names Murphy's party among any of these.
• How many men he helped. After the crossing: "up to 30" on his form of 24 July 1945, and about 35 on the undated slip in his file; Van Vemde's letter has about 10 to 12 taken in and 20 fed for two days. All the men, September and November together: 34 on Bettink's card, about 35 on his form and in Van Vemde's letter, and "about thitty [sic]" in the office's note on Van Vemde's form.
• The search of his house. Boeree says it found nothing (p. 203); his own file says his house was plundered and his papers, with notes on the men he had helped, taken (p. 4, p. 7).
• When he went to Velp. 7 December 1944 in Sister Den Hartog's account (p. 188); after fourteen days in Ede's history (p. 49), which counted from the arrest on 24 November is about 8 December; "Even voor Kerstmis" in Boeree's other passage (p. 203). Only the last differs by weeks.
• His children's ages. 18, 27 and 29 on his form of 5 July 1945; 17, 28 and 30 on that of 24 July (p. 5, p. 7).

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