Date of birth:

January 30th, 1897 (Putten, the Netherlands)

Date of death:

April 14th, 1945 (Leusden, the Netherlands)

Buried on:

Dutch War Graves General Cemetery Putten
Grave: 725.

Nationality:

Dutch

Cornelis Simon lived at A 101 Pipperischeweg in Putten. He was the son of laborer Jacob Simon (February 6, 1868 Putten – † March 28, 1943 Putten) and Fietje van de Wal (January 11, 1874 Putten –† December 11, 1946 Ermelo). Cornelis Simon was married on February 20, 1920 in Putten to Janneke Verberkmoes (June 4, 1900 Axel - † ?) He was a day laborer.
For unknown reasons, Cornelis ended up in the Polizeiliches Durchgangslager Amersfoort (PDA), prisoner number 3064. It is also unclear why he was locked up in the bunker of the PDA. He was among the inmates who escaped from the bunker in the evening of April 14, 1945. The German guards would remain in the camp for a couple of days only before retreating to The Hague.
Cornelis paid for the attempt at escape with his life. Interrogations contained in the records of commander Berg (SS-Hauptsturmführer Karl Peter Berg, April 18, 1907, Hennef am Rhein - † ?), preserved in the Centraal Archief Bijzondere Rechtspleging (CABR) in the Dutch National Archive, indicate that seven inmates escaped from the bunker that night. Two of them would have been caught again. While searching for the escaped prisoners, guard Feuerstein (SS-Unterscharführer Karl Weinand Feuerstein, a former sales traveler) observed movement in the grass near the firing range. The inmate begged him not to shoot. The guard took the prisoner to the Blockführer's guard room. His colleague Zorsch (SS-Unterscharführer Zorsch), acting as commander of the guard, grabbed one of the other men who had been on the run. Commander Berg also participated in the attempts to track down the escapees. He went to the area behind the bunker. When he heard shots in the forest, he went back to the bunker. Obviously, someone had spotted him as Berg suddenly saw a person hiding himself behind the near shelter. In his own words, he fired into the air immediately but the man, who turned out to be Cornelis Simon, continued running and tried to get away around the corner of the bunker. Berg ran after the fugitive and fired four of five rounds after which the man fell down. The German found him in a ditch where he obviously was trying to hide. To Berg's question whether he had been hit, he moaned he had been shot in the back several times. In the administration barracks, the camp commander ordered his deputy Kotälla (SS-Oberscharführer Joseph Johan Kotälla, (July 14, 1908 Bismarckhütte - † ?) to fetch the injured man and take him to the sick bay. Along with two other inmates, Berg proceeded to the particular spot. As he rounded the corner of the garage he saw guard Brahm (SS-Oberscharführer Edmund Brahm, (June 5, 1897 Mittenberg - † ?) fire two rounds in the direction of the ditch where the man was hiding. In the sick bay, camp physician Boerma declared Cornelis dead. The officer who had interrogated Berg, doubted whether Brahm was responsible for Cornelis' death. The officier suspected the commander of having shot Cornelis himself. He interrogated him harshly several times but Berg stuck to his story. The statements in the Berg files do not disclose what happened to the other four escapees. It can be near certain that two of them must have been Abraham Hofboer (December 29, 1925 Amsterdam), green grocer who entered the camp on January 29 1945, registered as prisoner 10425 and according to the records having been put to work on Deelen Air base and Willem Balder (November 12, 1926, Ouder Amstel) milkman who entered the camp on February 5, 1945, prisoner number 10637. In the April issue of the magazine In Beeld of Camp Amersfoort, more information was requested about the two. At the time, Leen Bogers wrote: 'if they would only have held out until April 19 they might well have walked out just like that! Around that time, security wouldn't have been that tight anymore'. A remarkable detail: one of the men was to be released the day after the ecape.
Buried in the (Old or New) Algemene Begraafplaats in Putten, lot 725.

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• - Cornelis Simon
  - Further: Nationaal Archief, Centraal Archief Bijzondere Rechtspleging, inventarisnummer 527 II, Karl Peter Berg; Leen Bogers, Ontsnapping uit de bunkercel, InBeeld, magazine Nationaal Monument Kamp Amersfoort, nr. 46, april 2017, pag. 9; Nationaal Monument Kamp Amersfoort, (voorlopige lijst) In Memoriam; voormalige site Genlias/site wiewaswie.nl (waaronder overlijdensakten 27/1946 gemeente Putten en 243/1945 gemeente Leusden).
  

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