Zegert van der Vlist

Lange Ruige Weide 22 Dec 1884 – Ermelo 21 Jun 1965

Z. van der Vlist of Elspeet, US helper file 286698812 (his file, p. 2)

About: The man of the house at Hierderweg 132, Elspeet (◐ Kijkuit), whose family lived beside Murphy and five others hidden in 1944. His invasion guilder carried the six men's signatures; sent to Wassenaar about November 1945, it had not come back by January 1947.

Unit or role: Forest labourer (boscharbeider) in the civil records of 1936 to 1946; in 1912 and 1913 a municipal constable (gemeenteveldwachter) at Putten. A "forester's family" in Joop Migchelsen's statement. Helper, Grade 5 on the British and American lists.

Where: Born at Lange Ruige Weide; at Putten when he married in 1911; from 1921 or earlier at Hulshorst, and in 1944–47 at Hierderweg 132, Elspeet (◐ the "Leusenhorst" woods between Elspeet and Hulshorst of his questionnaire; ◐ by our reading, which no source states, the Leuvenhorst estate near Hulshorst station, bordering the Leuvenumse Bos, of which an "ir. A. R. Jurriaanse" of The Hague was a partner in 1931: Het Volk, 24 September 1931; Mr Jurriaanse).

Evidence: ✓ his US helper file, pp. 1–14; ✓ Joop Migchelsen's statement, p. 3; ✓ the British index of Dutch helpers, page V/12; ✓ the American Grade 5 list, p. 169; civil records, index summaries (the folder).

He was born at Lange Ruige Weide on 22 December 1884, the son of Cornelis van der Vlist and Niesje Versloot (birth deed, index; the date is also in the Haastrecht population register and the Nunspeet burial register). The Haastrecht register for 1901–1922 has him as a veehouder (cattle farmer), with no dates of residence in its index (the record).

He married Maria Suzanna Adriana Scheerens, 21, born at Linschoten on 3 November 1889, the daughter of Jannis Scheerens and Wouterke van Beijnen, at Linschoten on 18 August 1911; he was 26 (the marriage, index; her birth). The Utrechtsche courant of 19 August 1911 printed it as "Z. van der Vlist te Putten en M. S. A. Scheerens" (the notice). ✓ She is the "Mevrouw M.v.d.Vlist - Scheerens, Hierdeweg 132, ELSPEET" of his helper file (p. 5), which, with the son's wedding of 2 October 1946 that her letter announces (see After) and the boscharbeider of the civil records, ties these civil records to the helper.

At Putten, where two of their children were born in May 1912 and August 1913, he was a gemeente veldwachter, a municipal constable (1912; 1913). A Rotterdam family card lists him and his wife, and a page of the Rotterdam population register lists him, his wife and those two children; the index gives no dates (card; register).

By 1919 the family was at Nunspeet, and by 1921 at Hulshorst, both in Ermelo's registers. They lost two children there: the son born in 1913 died at Nunspeet on 18 June 1919, aged five, and a daughter born at Hulshorst on 16 March 1921 died at Nunspeet on 25 December 1921, aged nine months; both records give him as a labourer (arbeider) (1919; birth 1921; death 1921). The Provinciale Overijsselsche en Zwolsche courant of 18 April 1930 reported that the Ermelo council had granted "een verzoek van Z. van der Vlist te Hulshorst, om een geldelijke tegemoetkoming in de kosten van vervoer van zijn kind naar de Geref. school te Nunspeet" (a request from Z. van der Vlist at Hulshorst for a contribution to the cost of taking his child to the Gereformeerd school at Nunspeet) (the report); the same paper of 3 April 1935 reported that it had granted "Zegert van der Vlist te Hulshorst" an allowance of 25 guilders a year under article 13 of the primary education act of 1920 (the report). When two of his daughters married at Ermelo, in 1936 and 1943, he was a boscharbeider, a forest labourer (1936; 1943).

Joop Migchelsen, whose group Noordman has keeping the men (Noordman, p. 292), described the house in his statement of 14 June (◐ 1945), in his American file:

Hierderweg 132 Hulshorst Post Elspeet: a double house; in one half a forester's family was living named v.d. Vlist, the other half was put at my disposal by Mr. van der Elst, Cliostraat in Amsterdam to enable me to carry out my underground work. In this house the pilots we[re] sheltered.

— Joop Migchelsen, statement of 14 June (◐ 1945), in his American file (his file, p. 3)

Van der Vlist wrote from "Hierderweg 132" in 1946 (his letter, p. 14) and from "Hierdeweg 132" in 1947 (p. 10). Migchelsen's question 3 lists six men, Branford, Hardy, Haller, Walsh, Murphy and Banwell, and his question 5 says the pilots were sheltered in the double house; question 4 has Branford arriving on "18th Sept. 1944" and "the others about 1st October", and all six "Delivered 'en bloc' on 11th Nov. 1944" to the farmer Bos at Staverden (his file, p. 3). ◐ That the double house is Kijkuit is our reading: Migchelsen does not name Kijkuit; Hardy's report has only "a house in the woods" (Sheet 2, 610145) and "BRUMMAGER's house in LEUVENUM", with Eric Blok in it (Hardy); Noordman names the forester's house Kijkuit in the Leuvenumse Bos, ties it to Migchelsen's group and to Hardy's "Eric", but does not name Van der Vlist (Noordman, pp. 278, 292, 302–303). In Liesbeth Verweij's memory, as Noordman prints it, Kijkuit was "een boswachterswoning van de heer Jurriaanse" (a forester's house of Mr Jurriaanse) (Noordman, p. 303).

Murphy came there with Hardy and Walsh on the night of 26 October 1944, walked over from Sterrehoveke at Elspeet by Dirk van Eysinga and Liesbeth Verweij; Bernard Haller and James Branford were already there, Tex Banwell joined them on 29 October, and the six left for Harskamp around midnight on 6 November (Hardy; Noordman, pp. 293, 302–303). The rest of their stay is told on Kijkuit and Harskamp.

The questionnaire made out for him, dated 5 December 1945, is typed "Compiled from informations received from Brit. Embassy", and gives his address as "'Leusenhorst' woods, between Elspeet and Hulshorst" (p. 2). The table brackets six men together, Thomas Murphy and Samuel Walsh of the Parachute Regiment, James Hardy of the R.A.M.C., John Haller of the Glider Pilot Regiment, James Branford of the R.A.F. and "Iex" [Tex] Banwell. Under Neergeschoten (shot down) it has "1944" and "between Elspeet and Hulshorst", and under Verborgen (hidden) "1944" and "6 or 7 weeks" (p. 3). Under remarks: "Does not want compensation but would like some sort of document showing what he did." (p. 2).

The Americans' card, dated 22 February 1946, gives him grade 5 and the same six, "Provided housing, food and clothing for allied personnel for6 [sic] or 7 weeks in 1944" (p. 4); the folder cover has "Grade 5" over a struck-out figure (p. 1). He is on the Americans' list of Grade 5 certificates twice, as number 4449, "Van der VLIST, Z.", at Leusenhorst, and number 4450, "v.d. VLIST, Z.", at Hierderweg 132, both at Elspeet (◐ one man under his two addresses) (the list, p. 169), and on the British index of Dutch helpers as certificate 9774, "van der VLIST Z.", "'Leusenhorst', ELSPEET", grade 5 (page V/12; read from the image).

In a letter of September 1946 asking the Americans for help getting bicycles or tyres, he wrote, "De piloten joden en onderduikers zaten hier erg rustig en vrij" (the pilots, Jews and people in hiding stayed here very quietly and freely), and that he and his wife lived far out and were too old to walk the distances (p. 14).

On 17 September 1946 he wrote to the American office in The Hague, "mede namens mijn echtgenoote" (for his wife too), to thank it for the certificate sent "namens de President der Vereenigde Staten en het Amerikaansche volk" (on behalf of the President of the United States and the American people), which was made out to "E. v.d. Vlist" instead of Z., and to ask after "een invasiegulden met zes handteekeningen van de piloten die hier vertoefden" (an invasion guilder with six signatures of the pilots who stayed here), sent to Wassenaar about November 1945 by a "Heer v. Hattem [?] wonende te Elspeet, Nunspeeterweg", who had already written about it and had no answer (his letter, pp. 13–14). On 23 September the office asked him to send the certificate back for correction, told him it had passed the guilder to the British bureau I.S.9, "welk Bureau voor de verdere afwikkeling zal zorgdragen" (which will see to the rest), and offered him a used army bicycle to collect from the office (the reply, p. 11).

His wife wrote to the office on the day before the wedding her undated letter names, ◐ so on 1 October 1946 (the year from the office's reply of 8 October 1946), to thank it for "het prachtige cadeau mij gister geschonken" (the splendid present given me yesterday), and sent a bag of wedding sweets, because her eldest son "gaat morgen 2 Oct. trouwen" (is to marry tomorrow, 2 October), while the youngest was a volunteer soldier on Java (her letter, p. 7); the son married at Harderwijk on 2 October 1946, his father given as boscharbeider (the marriage, index). The office thanked her on 8 October 1946 (p. 5).

On 3 January 1947 he wrote again: he had returned the certificate in September and heard nothing, and of the guilder he had had "zelfs geen taal of teeken" (not even a word or a sign):

Also the invasion guilder with the signatures of the six pilots who were with us I have still not had back … The signatures were: Sam Watsch, James Hardy, James Branford, K D Banwell, Thomas Murphy, B.J.F. Haller

Dutch originalOok de invasie gulden met handteekeningen der zes bij ons geweest zijnde piloten heb ik nog niet terug ontvangen … De handteekeningen waren. Sam Watsch [sic, for Walsh], James Hardy, James Branford, K D Banwell, Thomas Murphy, B.J.F. Haller

— Z. van der Vlist to the American office, Elspeet, 3 January 1947 · US National Archives, RG 498 · his helper file, p. 9

The office answered on 6 January 1947 that his letter of 17 September had been answered on 23 September, and that the certificate to be altered had not yet come back from the headquarters in Paris (the reply, p. 8). It is the last letter in the file by date. The Airborne Museum's note is catalogued with five of the same names and "Edward C. Bradford" where this letter has James Branford (⚠︎, see Edward Bradford); ◐ whether it is his guilder is not settled (A banknote the six signed; the catalogue entry).

He died at Ermelo on 21 June 1965, aged 80 and zonder beroep (without occupation) (death, index), and was buried at the Nunspeet cemetery on the Eperweg on 26 June 1965 (burial register, index). His wife was buried in the same cemetery on 3 April 1974 (burial register, index).

• How long the six were there. ⚠︎ The questionnaire and card in his file have "6 or 7 weeks" (p. 3; p. 4). Migchelsen's dates, about 1 October to 11 November, come to about six weeks; Hardy's have Murphy there from 26 October to 6 November, with Haller and Hardy first brought there on 12 October, and Hardy away from the house from 19 to 26 October (Migchelsen, p. 3; Hardy).
• When they left. Hardy has the six taken off at midnight on 6 November, for Harskamp, by Derek and Loew, and Noordman adds that Dick Kragt picked them up early on 7 November, so those two differ on who collected them, not on the night; Migchelsen has them delivered "en bloc" on 11 November to the farmer Bos at Staverden (Hardy; Noordman, p. 281; Migchelsen, p. 3). This page uses Hardy's date for Murphy.
• His initial. The American card has "van derVLIST, E" and the certificate was made out to "E. v.d. Vlist" (his letter of 1946), which he asked to have corrected to Z.; in his letter of 1947 he reads the same certificate as "K [?] v.d. Vlist" (p. 4; p. 13; p. 9); the folder is labelled "V.d. VLIST, Z.E" (p. 1). His civil records give one forename, Zegert.
• Forester or forest labourer. Migchelsen calls his a "forester's family" and Noordman calls Kijkuit a boswachterswoning (forester's house); the civil records of 1936, 1943 and 1946 call him a boscharbeider (forest labourer) (Migchelsen, p. 3; 1936; 1943; 1946). ◐ Verweij's "of Mr Jurriaanse" may name a different forester.
• Whose house it was. ⚠︎ Migchelsen has the men's half put at his disposal by "Mr. van der Elst" of Amsterdam (his file, p. 3; Mr van der Elst); Verweij's memory in Noordman has Kijkuit as "een boswachterswoning van de heer Jurriaanse" (a forester's house of Mr Jurriaanse); neither says who owned it (Noordman, p. 303).

Everyone, A to Z