Mr and Mrs Cornelissen

About: The household at Rijnstraat 472, Amerongen, of Chris Cornelisse and his wife Elisabeth, "Mam" to the Allied men, which sheltered Bob Porter and Roger Schjelderup over Christmas 1944 until the crossing on which Murphy's party was caught, and other evaders until the liberation. Elisabeth Cornelisse-van Brink was born at Maurik in 1906.

Unit or role: Elisabeth: "Underground AMERONGEN", known as "Mam" (her questionnaire, p. 2); the Americans graded her 5 (p. 1). Chris: the R.V.V. and the K.P. (Chris Cornelisse).

Where: Rijnstraat B 472, Amerongen.

Evidence: ✓ Porter, pp. 136–138; ✓ Elisabeth Cornelisse-van Brink's helper file with the Americans, US National Archives 286644312 (questionnaire, account); ✓ Chris Cornelisse's file; ✓ her birth deed and the Maurik population registers (birth, 1900–1909, 1910–1939); Fowler, 1996.

✓ Elisabeth van Brenk was born at Maurik on 2 February 1906, the daughter of Cornelis Leendert van Brenk, 27, a labourer (arbeider), and Janna Maria Mazelina van Ewijk, who had no occupation (the birth deed, no. 11, Gelders Archief; index record only). Her 1945 questionnaire gives the same day and place (p. 2).

✓ The Maurik population register for 1900 to 1909 has her on line 4 of her father's household, relationship "id." (ditto the line above, "dochter", daughter), born 2 February 1906 at Maurik and entered the day she was born, with her parents (folio 155, Regionaal Archief Rivierenland; read on the scan). The register for 1910 to 1939 carries the household on, her father a "Steenfabriek arbeider" (brickworks labourer), with ten children born between 1904 and 1924, the tenth entered on line 14 in May 1924 (folio 85; the same household is also on folio 179 of the second part, which is written off to folio 85; the scan and the index record).

✓ On folio 85 she is on three lines, each struck through when she left, and the register gives where she went:

• line 4: left on 31 March 1922 for Zeist;
• line 12: entered 17 May 1922 from Zeist, and left on 31 July 1922 for Scherpenzeel;
• line 13: entered 3 November 1922 from Scherpenzeel, and left on 17 March 1923 for Amerongen.

The day columns are in a thin hand; read on the scan and again on the crops, 17 October 2026 (the transcript). The register records the move, not the reason, and where she lived from 1923 to 1926 is not recorded; on 7 July 1926 she married Christiaan Cornelisse at Maurik, aged 20, with no occupation (the marriage record, Gelders Archief; index only; Chris Cornelisse).

The Maurik population register 1910–1939, village, part 1, folio 85. Regionaal Archief Rivierenland, Tiel, archive 0812, inventory 1261 (the record; our copy, with the transcript).

In May 1945 she gave her husband, "Christiaan CORNELISSEN", 44, as her next of kin, one foster child, aged 18, and her movement as "Underground AMERONGEN"; the Allied men knew her as "Mam" (her questionnaire, p. 2). Her husband's work on the crossings is on Chris Cornelisse's page.

Their first guests on her list were the Canadian airmen Robert Gelfand, whose bomber had come down near Holten in June 1944, and his wireless operator Lawrence McElroy, brought "by Piet" about 10 October 1944; they stayed until 18 November, "when they went away for the RENKUM crossing-plan" (her account, p. 4).

Murphy was hidden in the same village over the same Christmas, with the Esvelds (Gerald, Mrs Esveld and Coen); no source names him in this house. ⚠︎ He may have been in it for a few hours on 23 December, but the sources do not identify the house Hardy was taken to. Hardy writes that he and Murphy reached Amerongen at about 16:30, and:

We were then taken to a house where I met Capt. SCHJELDERUP, Canadian Scottish, C.S.M. BERRY and a Pte, also Canadian Scottish. I stayed there until after dark when a young man came and took MURPHY and me to his father's house, also in AMERONGEN.

— Pte J. Hardy · MI9 report of January 1945 · Pegasus Archive

Schjelderup was put up at Cornelissen's that day, with Porter; Hardy does not name the house, and Porter has Berry in another house, so the house's identification as the Cornelissens' rests on Schjelderup alone, and against it stand the Canadians' own reports. Briere, a Canadian Scottish private, has himself and Berry staying at Amerongen "in a house with a man who had been in CANADA for five years, employed as a mechanic in ALBERTA" (Briere, p. 2); Porter has two of the seven Canadians taken to "the family Esveld" and Berry and Briere in another house (pp. 136, 138); and Berry's own report has him from 24 December "with another member of the garage", his Appendix A giving "FLIP", "Owner of garage" (Berry, p. 2; Appendix A; Flip Esveld). ⚠︎ Berry, whom Hardy met there, has himself at Groenekan until 24 December: "On 24 Dec we were moved to a place near the RHINE-AMERONGEN" (Berry, p. 2), a day after Hardy's visit; Briere has the two of them in Amerongen from 8 December to 1 January (Briere, p. 2). Hardy's third man, "a Pte, also Canadian Scottish", is not Porter, whom Briere calls "Sgt. Robert PORTER, R.C.A.F."; Briere himself was a Canadian Scottish private. The two reports do not agree on when Berry came, and the sources do not settle which house Hardy was taken to. Porter writes: "Roger and I were taken into the house of Cornelissen … their sixteen year old teenage daughter could speak a little. Her name was Nellie", and "Our hosts were farmers and had enough food put away to feed us" (Porter, pp. 136–137). The little Nellie could speak was English. Porter and Schjelderup had the big attic; a Jewish man and a Dutchman were hiding in the same house, and the Canadians taught the Jewish man cribbage (pp. 136–137). On Christmas Day the two sat in the front room playing cribbage and tried some carols, then went to see Wilf Berry and Marcel Briere, who were in another house with a Christmas tree for its little girl, and Gri, Harvey and Louis, and walked "back to Cornelissen's" (p. 138). Porter published a photograph of Mr and Mrs Cornelissen and one of Nellie, "only 16 at this time" (Porter, p. 137).

Mam's own account for the Americans has Porter brought "away from ZEIST by Dirk and Piet", about 18 December by the Dutch version, staying "at Chris and Mam's till 3 Jan, when he was taken to OPHEUSDEN by Chris", and Schjelderup coming, staying and going the same way (p. 4; p. 11). ◐ "Dirk and Piet" are very probably Adriaan Maljers, "Dirk van Langbroek", and Piet de Springer: Maljers wrote that he and Piet worked the line together, and that he took the seven Canadians from De Bilt to Cornelisse at Amerongen (Maljers's statement, p. 15). That was the crossing on which Porter and Murphy were both caught (Amerongen and the last night).

✓ The British helper index gives the Esvelds and the Cornelissens different streets; its Cornelissen entry is "CORNELISSEN, Christiaan", Rijnstraat 472, Amerongen, certificate 21071, grade 5 (the sheet, read on the image; What the British recorded afterwards). That is this household: Chris Cornelisse's own file gives the same address, his wife as Elisabeth Cornelisse-van Brink, and Porter and Schjelderup among his guests, "half Dec. 1944 till 3 Jan. 1945" (his list, p. 21).

◐ In Schjelderup's MI9 report. Schjelderup's MI9 report (transcript; the Kew original not seen) (Kew WO 208/3351/2349) has them in its Appendix A as "(2). 23 Dec 44 – 2 Jan 45. Mr. CORNELISSEN, AMERONGEN (Sheet 5, 4380). Food and shelter for Source and Sgt. PORTER." (the columns re-joined). In the text, "myself and three others" went by bicycle from the Rakers house to Amerongen at about 12:45, and he was put up "in the house of Mr. CORNELISSEN living at AMERONGEN" with Porter, and "The others were put up in nearby houses": "eleven men brought down in three days from the UTRECHT area". On 2 January "I was with CORNELISSEN and DERRICK" when they crossed the Rhine by ferry, which agrees with Maljers's "I went away last with Cornelisse, Captain Scheldrop and Phorter" ✓. It names only Mr Cornelissen: no wife, no daughter, no other guests (Schjelderup's page). The brackets and footnotes in the transcript are the transcriber's.

After Porter and Schjelderup they took in V. Brock Christie, a transport pilot shot down near Arnhem in September (✓ Valentine Brock Christie, a pilot officer of the RCAF flying Dakotas with No. 48 Squadron RAF: Kew's catalogue; TracesOfWar), and Carl A. Ellement, a Spitfire pilot who had force-landed at Voorthuizen, in the beginning of March 1945, for a fortnight, until Chris took them to Schalkwijk for a crossing. Gelfand and McElroy came back about 18 March: the Renkum crossing had failed, they had been prisoners at Amersfoort and had jumped from the train to Germany, and they stayed until the liberation, as did K. Buckley, an RAF gunner brought by "van ESVELD" about 25 March. Chris "was supported by Bob and Luuk with 500 guilders" and "fed the Tommies always out of his own store"; the household gave clothes to the men and lost two bicycles; Dr Hezeker gave medical help (her account, p. 4).

• ◐ B. A. (Flip) Esveld's table has Christie and Ellement go to this house: "to C. Cornelisse, Amerongen: 2 Canadians, Christie and Carl, and Jack (English detective)", and that he had "sheltered and nursed" them in a shelter in the woods before (Flip Esveld, p. 10; Berend Esveld).
  • Mam's account has Christie come "in the beginning of March from BARNEVELD, where he stayed with Dik", and the two stay for a fortnight, which does not mention Flip's shelter in the woods.
  • ✓ One man. Stearns's P/O Christie is Mam's V. Brock Christie:
    • Stearns's report has "P/O CHRISTIE, R.C.A.F." among the four a note of 22 February said could be sent out, who set out on bicycles with Stearns, Stoner and John Craven and spent seven days at Amerongen, "mostly spent in the wet, cold woods" (E&E 2870; the OCR).
    • Kew's catalogue has Pilot Officer Valentine Brock Christie, J87853, RCAF, born 13 January 1918, "Evasion: Northwest of Arnhem, Holland, 19 September 1944", in a file dated 17 March 1945 (WO 208/5407/33; WO 208/3352/2405; the group's entries).
    • Mam's "Caroston [?]", Alberta, is Cardston, which Cornelis den Boer of Zwijndrecht writes out: "Christie V. Broek R.C.A.F., Cardston, Alberta" (den Boer, p. 36). Pieter Visser's Sliedrecht list has "V. Brock Christie", P/O, RCAF, in one run with Stearns, Geary and Stoner (Visser, p. 29).
    • He was the pilot of Dakota KG428 of No. 48 Squadron, brought down near Deelen on 19 September 1944 (TracesOfWar; the Dutch loss register, via Back to Normandy).
  • ◐ The dates overlap, but do not match.
    • Stearns has the four at Amerongen for seven days, and on 10 March taken to "T'WAAL", where they stayed with a preacher (E&E 2870). Tull en 't Waal is the village on the Lek just west of Schalkwijk, which shared Schalkwijk's burgomaster until 1946 (Wikipedia), so ◐ Mam's "taken to SCHALKWIJK" is very probably the same move.
    • Mam has a fortnight, not a week. Geary, who crossed with Stearns, was with "Mr. ESVELD nr LEERSUM" from 3 to 10 March 1945, 7 days (E&E 2871, Appendix C, read on the image): Esveld's house, not this one, and his report does not name Christie.
    • ⚠︎ Harry Schoel's page has Christie with "C. Cornelissen, B372 Rijnstraat, Amerongen" from 26 February to 12 March 1945, and crossing the Biesbosch on 17 March; it names no source for the dates, and its 12 March is not Stearns's 10 March (Schoel, 2012). Stearns crossed on 14 March and names no one with him in the boat.
    • Ellement is not among Stearns's four, so nothing here dates his stay.
  • ⚠︎ Barneveld. Mam's "from BARNEVELD, where he stayed with Dik" does not fit the other records:
    • Reilly's card has Christie at Valkenhoef, Hoogland, "2 Jan till 1 Mar 45", and Van 't Klooster's form "Jan-May '45" (Reilly's card; Van 't Klooster).
    • ◐ His Barneveld stay, at Jan Oosterbroek's with Willig and Bonekat (Oosterbroek, p. 3), was in December 1944: Willig's report, for the same transport, has him at Oosterbroek's from 7 to 16 December (E&E 2976, PDF p. 8; Willig's page).
    • ◐ She writes the same of Gelfand and McElroy, who "came back to Chris via Dik in BARNEVELD" (her account), so she may mean Dik's line rather than the town; not settled.
  • "Jack (English detective)" is on neither her list nor Chris's, so ⚠︎ it is not known whether a third man came with them. ◐ By our inference he may be Jack Craven, who came south with Christie (Stearns); no source says so.
• ✓ Gerrit van de Zandschulp of Amerongen's Overberg, in his form of 31 October 1945, "supplied Chris Cornelisse too with food, eggs and milk because the Canadians were hiding here", and the Germans took most of his furniture in a razzia (his form, checked on the image). ◐ Which Canadians is not dated: Porter and Schjelderup at Christmas 1944, Gelfand and McElroy in the autumn and again from March, and Christie and Ellement in March (Flip Esveld's "2 Canadians"; Mam gives Christie an Alberta and Ellement an Ontario address) are all Canadians in this house.

In 1996 T. Robert Fowler, writing Schjelderup's story for Canadian Military History, had Schjelderup and Porter "hidden at the home of Chris Cornelisse, a member of the local Resistance", and listed among his sources "Correspondence with Mrs. Nely Achterberg (Cornelisse), Amerongen, May 1996" (Fowler). ◐ She is very probably Porter's Nellie.

• Nellie. Porter calls her the couple's daughter, sixteen at the time (Porter, p. 136); Mam's questionnaire of May 1945 has no children but a foster child of 18 (p. 2).
• "Farmers". Porter calls his hosts farmers (p. 136); neither of their files gives an occupation, and in 1945 Chris was hoping for a permanent post with the municipality (p. 11).
• Her maiden name. Her questionnaire has "van Brink"; the Maurik marriage record, her birth deed and the population registers all have an "e" for the "i" (Chris Cornelisse). ◐ The registers use the "e" throughout; her own forms and Chris's use the "i".
• The name. Porter and the British index have Cornelissen; the Americans struck the final "n" on every form and corrected his award to "Cornelisse" (Chris Cornelisse).
• When Porter and Schjelderup came and went. ◐ Schjelderup's Appendix A has "23 Dec 44 – 2 Jan 45" (the transcript); Hardy met him at Amerongen on the afternoon of 23 December, and the Rakers forms have him at Groenekan until 24 December (Rakers, p. 3).
  • Chris Cornelisse's list has "half Dec. 1944 till 3 Jan. 1945" (p. 21).
  • Mrs Cornelisse's account has Porter brought "about 18 December" and kept "till 3 Jan" (p. 4). The party left on 2 January, so "3 Jan" is a day late in both, and 18 December is earlier than any other source puts Porter at Amerongen.

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