C.J.A. Plak

Amsterdam 7 Jan 1904 – after 1971

About: Dove Jan's wife, who with him hid Jews, airmen and paratroopers at their poultry farm by Assel, Murphy and Walsh among them for a week in October 1944. Her own account of those years, a letter to her sister, was printed in New York in September 1945.

Unit or role: Her husband's partner in the hiding. A questionnaire for the Americans of 25 July 1945, unsigned and marked "Kruimel" by hand at the top, says "v. Oldenbarneveldt and his wife collected and sheltered several times crashed pilots" (the form); ◐ the mark is taken here to be Dr Kruimel's.

Where: Kootwijk 2 (the questionnaire of 17 July 1945 filled in for her husband), at Assel ("Assel (near Blokpost 74)" on the form marked "Kruimel"), in Apeldoorn municipality (where the register and the births were recorded, below); before that Zaandam, Rotterdam, Overschie and Schiedam (below).

Evidence: ✓ her letter in Knickerbocker Weekly, 24 September 1945, pp. 36–37; ✓ Walsh's MI9 report; ✓ the form marked "Kruimel" and the questionnaire filled in for her husband (US National Archives); ✓ civil records and population registers, among them the Schiedam death register, deeds 200 and 201 of 1935.

Cornelia Johanna Adriana Plak was born at Amsterdam on 7 January 1904, the daughter of Johannes Adrianus Plak and Maria Magdalena van Munster (the marriage record of 1934, which spells the father "Johanens"; the birth date from the Rotterdam family card). ◐ Zaandam's population register for 1871–1905 has one entry listing Johannes Adrianus Plak, born at Gouda on 5 January 1871, Maria Magdalena van Munster, born at Nijmegen on 23 June 1871, Cornelia Johanna Adriana Plak, born at Amsterdam on 7 January 1904, and a Wilhelmina Adriana Plak, born at Zaandam on 14 December 1905, with one other person; the index gives no relationships and no dates of arrival or leaving (the index entry, Gemeentearchief Zaanstad; the scan not seen). Amsterdam's population register and Rotterdam's family cards each have an entry for her too, index only (the folder).

◐ In May 1922 Voorwaarts, a Rotterdam daily, listed "C. J. A. Plak" among the pupils of the Handels-Instituut "Groote" in the Aert van Nesstraat who had passed the examination as "kantoor-stenograaf Nederlandsch" (office stenographer, Dutch) (Voorwaarts, 11 May 1922, checked on the page image). The notice gives initials only, so it is her by the initials alone; her own Rotterdam card entries (851-373) are index entries without dates, and the dated addresses on the couple's joint card (851-353) begin in October 1927, so nothing yet puts her in Rotterdam in 1922. She was 18 if it is her.

Marriage, and the stillborn sons. She married Johan Anne Cornelis van Oldenbarneveld genaamd Tullingh, Dove Jan, at Rotterdam on 17 October 1934, when she was 30 and he 39; the index notes the groom as living at Overschie and the bride as last living at Schiedam (the marriage record). His first marriage had been dissolved by the Rotterdam court that July (Staatscourant, 30 August 1934). Overschie's register has her joining him at Kleiweg 187 from Rotterdam on 17 October 1934, and the couple moving on to Slotboomstraat 51, Rotterdam, on 3 January 1935 (the cards, with a transcript, Stadsarchief Rotterdam 494-03 inv. 1351, card 4505; read on viewer images).

✓ Two consecutive deeds of 13 May 1935 in the Schiedam register of deaths, nos. 200 and 201, each record a child of the male sex born on 10 May 1935 to "Plak, Cornelia Johanna Adriana, zonder beroep" and her husband, "van Oldenbarneveld genaamd Tullingh, Johan Anne Cornelis, kantoorbediende" (office clerk), "beiden wonende alhier" (both living here), and each declared lifeless: the first born at ten o'clock in the morning, the second some minutes after ten. The deeds do not use the word twins. Both were declared by Willem van den Boogert, a gravedigger of 41 (deed 200 and deed 201, transcribed from the scans by eye; scan 200, scan 201; Schiedam municipal archive). Deed 200 gives the place as "bij Nolet Straat nummer een" (at Noletstraat 1), read on the scan; deed 201 repeats the address.

To Kootwijk. A second Overschie card has the couple at Burgemeester Wijnaendtslaan 68 (a letter after the number not read with certainty) and leaving on 2 October 1936 for Broersvest 72, Schiedam (card 4506, in the transcript). ◐ In July 1937 the Apeldoorn register recorded "J. A. van Oldenbarneveld genaamd Tullingh, van Canada naar Kootwijk 2" (from Canada to Kootwijk 2); it does not name her (Nieuwe Apeldoornsche Courant, 20 July 1937, OCR only). ◐ The Apeldoorn population register for 1927–1939 has "Cornelia J.A. Plak", born at Amsterdam on 7 January 1904, and "Johan A.C. Tullingh", born at Arnhem on 29 April 1895, on one entry with two other people born in 1895 and 1897, whose link to the couple the index does not give (the index entry, CODA Apeldoorn; the scan not seen). Their three sons' births were registered at Apeldoorn, the municipality Assel and Kootwijk lie in, in August 1937, January 1940 and September 1942 (Nieuwe Apeldoornsche Courant). They may be living, and are not named here.

In September 1945 the New York magazine Knickerbocker Weekly printed, under the heading "...IK KAN NIET BLIJ ZIJN, NU DE OORLOG VOORBIJ IS..." (I cannot be glad, now the war is over), a letter signed "Cor van Oldenbarneveld-Plak". The editors wrote that a reader had passed it to them, that it was written to the writer's sister living in New Jersey, and that it was in their view the most realistic account of the Dutch underground to reach them (the letter, pp. 36–37; the passages used here checked on p. 36 and p. 37). The letter is undated, and she calls her husband "John". What follows is her account.

• The Jews in the house. They did not hand in their hens or their eggs. "Wij hebben hier ruim een jaar zes Joden permanent in huis gehad" (we had six Jews living in the house for more than a year), and others for a few weeks while addresses were found for them; the six were all alive when she wrote, and of the rest probably none.
• The first search.
  • The household and their guests had paid together for a secret cellar with a way out into the garden. Through a mistake by one of the Jews in hiding ("een hunner"), she wrote, the SD got wind of something and searched the house one evening. She places the cellar next, and the date: "Het was op 11 October nu drie jaar geleden" (it was on 11 October, three years ago now).
  • Warned over the railway's service telephone that a car had been at Assel asking for them, the people went into the cellar; four SD men searched for hours and found nothing, but took John to Arnhem at half past eleven that night.
  • He was held four weeks and released for lack of evidence, while she found other addresses for the Jews.
• Airmen and paratroopers. "Daarna kregen wij Amerikanen en parachutisten in huis. John bracht ze des nachts gewapend weg, één keer ben ik meegeweest." (After that we had Americans and paratroopers in the house. John took them away at night, armed; once I went with him.) She has him doing the radio broadcasts to England, then becoming a courier and the chief courier for Gelderland, Utrecht, North and South Holland, away for days, "terwijl we daarenboven nog Engelschen in huis hadden" (while we had Englishmen in the house besides).
• Five from Amersfoort. In the September days, five people who had jumped from a train taking prisoners from the Amersfoort camp to Germany spent a few days in the house, and were given addresses.

The raid of May 1944. A second search came "door verraad" (through betrayal); she names no one. Four men went straight to the room with the cellar and found the first hatch:

There were Americans in that cellar, so we were not keen. John was calm, but I was nervous, because if they caught those Americans John would certainly be shot and everything confiscated, and of course they would have arrested me too.

Dutch originalEr zaten Amerikanen in die kelder, dus wij voelden daar niet veel voor. John was kalm, maar ik was nerveus, want grepen ze die Amerikanen dan zou John onherroepelijk doodgeschoten worden en, alles verbeurd verklaard, en natuurlijk hadden ze mij ook gearresteerd.

— Cor van Oldenbarneveld-Plak · letter to her sister · Knickerbocker Weekly, 24 September 1945, p. 36 · the letter

By her account John fetched them an axe for the second hatch, then pulled off his clogs, struck one of the Germans and ran into the woods; they shot after him and missed. The Germans then questioned her, and by the time they reached the cellar the Americans seemed to have gone too. "John is daarna ruim een jaar van huis geweest. Ze stelden op zijn hoofd een grooten prijs." (John was away from home for more than a year after that. They put a large price on his head.) (p. 36) The other accounts of this raid are under "Where the sources disagree".

The railway. In what her letter calls "dien zomer" (that summer), the railway line was blown up several times, the preparations made in their house, with the dynamite lying about it. When the bombing of the line began it went on all winter and came closer: every house along the line was flattened, Assel was evacuated (in brackets in the print), "de groote boerderij in brand geschoten" (the big farm set on fire), and the children grew very frightened; their own house and barns, though damaged, stayed standing (p. 37). Earlier in the letter (p. 36, col. 2, after the sentence on John's commander being killed with bayonets) she wrote: "Er is zooveel verschrikkelijks gebeurd, dat ik zelfs niet blij kan zijn, nu de oorlog voorbij is." (So much that is terrible has happened that I cannot even be glad, now the war is over.) (p. 36)

Her letter names none of the men they hid. Sam Walsh's report to MI9 describes the household that took him and Murphy in, in the Kootwijk area:

He was very deaf, married, with three sons aged 3, 5 and 6 approx. His wife also spoke good English. We stayed here one week during which time we were very well fed and cared for.

— MI9 · Pte S. P. Walsh · report of 7 March 1945 · the report

Walsh writes that the house, fairly close to the Apeldoorn–Amersfoort railway line, "was not considered very safe, so our friend arranged with the Underground to find new billets", and that they moved to Garderen after dark on 14 October (Walsh). Her husband's list for the Americans has them as "Murphy Kelly Schotland and a friend of his", six days in October (typed "45"), passed to "Dr. Eskens N.Milligen (Alex)", ◐ Dirk Eskes (his list, p. 4); ⚠︎ Pieter Hoekstra's list has Hoekstra himself taking them on, so the two forms disagree on who moved them (Kootwijk: Dove Jan). The form marked "Kruimel", filled in for the Americans on the couple:

Often under very difficult circumstances v. Oldenbarneveldt and his wife collected and sheltered several times crashed pilots. He was not very well off, but he always helped disinterested. He deserves a financial reward and a decoration because of his bravity when his house, in which 4 pilots were sheltered, was surrounded by the Gestapo.

— US National Archives · RG 498, helper file of Johan v. Oldenbarneveldt · questionnaire of 25 July 1945, marked "Kruimel" · the transcript

On the questionnaire of 17 July 1945 filled in for her husband (signed R. van Ginkel) she is his next of kin, "C.J.A. Plak (wife)" (p. 5). ◐ In August 1949 a local paper found him running the Pension-Restaurant "Berkendel" near Kootwijk, "die de hele dag met zijn vrouw druk doende is in zijn bedrijf" (busy in his business all day with his wife) (Nieuwe Apeldoornsche Courant, 10 August 1949, OCR only). ◐ On 8 July 1971 the Zutphen court placed him, of Bathmen, cared for at Het Groot Graffel in Zutphen, under guardianship, and appointed her, also of Bathmen, his guardian (curatrice) (De Telegraaf, 17 July 1971, OCR only, the print worn). He died at Warnsveld on 6 June 1972; the index of his death record lists her as his "(ex-)partner", the index's one label for a wife living or dead (the index entry). No record of her own death has been found.

• The boys' ages.
  • Walsh: "three sons aged 3, 5 and 6 approx." in October 1944 (Walsh).
  • The birth notices: three sons registered in August 1937, January 1940 and September 1942, so about 7, 4 and 2 that October (Nieuwe Apeldoornsche Courant).
  • The questionnaire of 17 July 1945, filled in for her husband and signed R. van Ginkel: five children, aged 24, 8, 7, 5 and 2; the eldest, ◐ from his first marriage, was born in 1921 (p. 5; the folder). His own form of May 1946 has four, aged "9-5" (p. 3). ⚠︎ A child aged 8 in July 1945 is in no birth notice found; the notices fit the ages 7, 5 and 2.
• The raid of May 1944.
  • Her letter: May 1944, Americans in the cellar, her husband escaping alone into the woods, she questioned in the house, the Americans gone by the time the cellar was opened (above).
  • Heintje, whom Noordman calls Maria Westerwoudt's daughter (p. 140): about the end of May, by day, "Hij, zijn familie en de vliegers wisten te ontsnappen" (he, his family and the airmen got away), with a Jewish family whose fate the speaker did not know; Noordman has Glisynski and Mallard leaving by the back door as the Germans came in the front (Noordman, pp. 139–140).
  • The form marked "Kruimel": the house was "surrounded by the Gestapo" with four pilots inside (the form). Her husband's form of May 1946 says the SD searched the house twice (p. 3), as her letter does.
  • Nelly Eskes, who took in one of the Americans, wrote that Johan van Oldenbarneveldt had lodged Walter Mallard "till the sixth of June, it was dangerous there then" (her file, p. 7).
  • ◐ Not settled: whether she and the children got away or stayed, and how many airmen were there.
• How long he was away.
  • ⚠︎ Her letter has him away from home "ruim een jaar" (more than a year) after May 1944; she wrote after the liberation, so the count may run to summer 1945.
  • Walsh has Murphy and Walsh a week at the farm in October 1944 with their host at home, and his own list has Prince and "Jack Lynx" (Jack Lynch) there in "Nov. Dec." (Walsh; his list).
  • Her "five from Amersfoort" are dated only "in de Septemberdagen", with no year; his letter, as Dove Jan records, has five train escapers at the end of October 1944, and whether they are the same five is not stated either way.
• The first search. ◐ Her letter dates it "11 October, three years ago now"; written in 1945, that is 11 October 1942, but the letter carries no date (the letter).
• Where she lived in May 1935. The Schiedam deeds have both parents "wonende alhier", at Schiedam, on 13 May 1935; the Rotterdam card has the couple leaving Slotboomstraat for Overschie on 26 April 1935, and the second Overschie card has them leaving for Schiedam only on 2 October 1936, its year of arrival read as '35 or '36 (the deeds; the cards). ◐ Not settled; the cards were read on viewer screenshots.

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