I am always in awe of the brave men and women who risked their lives to save the lives of strangers—the Unsung Heroes of World War II. Kees Zwaans was such a hero.
Kees Zwaans was a notable figure in the Dutch resistance during World War II. The Dutch resistance was a diverse movement that included various groups and individuals who actively opposed the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. These efforts ranged from non-violent resistance, such as hiding Jews and producing underground newspapers, to armed resistance, which involved sabotage and attacks on German forces and collaborators.
Kees and his wife Lieske joined the resistance at the beginning of the war. Their inland supply ship quickly became a secret refuge for Jews and refugees and shot down British pilots and Dutch boys who did not want to work for the Germans.
In the forecastle, Kees and Lieske set up the first living space for people in hiding. On the foredeck, there was a toilet cubicle with a rotating toilet bowl. When the pot was tilted, the floor would rise, and you would see a wooden staircase leading to the hiding place. There was a second room in the stern.
At the busiest moment, there were 23 people on the ship at the same time, 14 in the forecastle and 9 in the stern. All had to wait on board until hiding places were found throughout the country. It worked.
Kees, Lieske, and other members of the resistance were constantly trying to obtain food vouchers to feed everyone. Not only did the couple arrange shelter, safety, and food, but there was also spiritual support if needed. An encouraging word, a good joke, crying together about the heavy burden of war, after a conversation with Kees, we were able to cope again, say former guests of De Zwaan.
“They had only one goal: to save as many people as possible from the clutches of the Nazi monster. Unique resistance heroes who tried to help everything and everyone. Many owe their lives to them,” says Nathan Wijnperle from Amsterdam.
The Jewish boy was in hiding with his parents and two sisters, Kees and Lieske. The young sisters Manda and Rosalie were the first of the Wijnperle family to live on De Zwaan. Kees and Lieske treated them like their own children. Thanks to good contacts with the pastor, they were able to go to school and live reasonably ordinary lives.
After some time, father Manus, mother Elsa Silbernberg and brother Nathan also found shelter on the Zwaan. The family had not seen the little ones for a year and a half.
From their hiding place, they could see the girls leaving for school every day. Occasionally, the two were allowed to visit their parents. They didn’t really understand who those people who hid in the Swan’s belly were and thought that Kees and Lieske were their parents.
Kees immediately made it clear to them that things were different: “No, darlings, we are now your father and mother, but soon when the war is over, you will go back home to your own parents, brother and sister.”
Crashed pilots who were in hiding on the Zwaan had to get back to England via Belgium, France, and Spain. Kees accompanied them to Belgium. By bike. Of course, this required practice. “And so you could repeatedly see Kees on the dike giving cycling lessons to a pilot.”
“After the pilot had left, Kees asked us if we wanted to listen to Radio Oranje. Strange messages came through, such as—Farmer Pieters’ horse is no longer lame. That meant that a pilot had arrived safely in England. We then had a party again.
If there was danger, the people in hiding were warned with knocking signals. Under the table in the hiding room, there was a cloth over a hatch. Below that was a cold, stuffy room that was always covered in a layer of oil and dirt. Hell was called space.
For safety reasons, a different knock signal was used every month. When there was a knock, the people in hiding had enough sense to flee to “hell,” as the secret space under the forecastle was called.
Things went wrong in the summer of 1944. A man who pretended to be persecuted turned out to be a traitor. A raid took place two days later. At that time, nine people were still hiding on board, including the Wijnperle family. The sisters Manda and Rosalie had just come from school when the Germans arrived.
A neighbor stopped them: “Disappear into the city; the Germans are on the boat!” The girls were terrified that their relatives were found. But that didn’t happen because they jumped into “hell.” For a day, they sat up to their knees in oil in the dark, cold, stuffy room. The Germans returned a few times but found nothing.
After the raids, it was no longer safe on the Zwaan—not for people in hiding but also for Kees and Lieske. In September 1944, the people in hiding were moved elsewhere, and Kees and Lieske cycled to Kees’ birthplace, Oosterhout, 30 kilometers away, to go into hiding.
After the liberation of the South, Kees worked for the Americans and for the Military Authority. He was tasked with tracking down bad Dutch people.
On March 12, 1945, Kees crashed his motorcycle into an American army truck. He was seriously injured. The following day, aged 33, he died of his injuries in the hospital in Sittard.
Kees’s ship, De Zwaan (The Swan), was renamed Freya. It is now used for day trips. Kees’s niece, Jeanne, is one of the people involved in the current configuration of the ship.
I had not heard of this hero before; he saved so many people.
Sources
https://nos.nl/bevrijdingsjaar/bericht/2326941
‘Helden zijn het, Kees en Lieske’
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History of Sorts 
One thing about these hereoa that we overlook because we know with the benefits of history> They had no idea how long the war would last nor if the Germans would win.many allies soldiers with many years of risks and punishment and deprivastins. and fear,would go on through 1952/ Heros despite doing the revealed and obvious moral and good things. That traitor’s name should be discovered and fully shamed.
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