Studiegroep Luchtoorlog 1939-1945

Evaders


Evader chart: E0225
SGLO Date crash Aircraft
T3194 11-12-43 B-17 Flying Fortress
MilRank First Name(s) Name
2/Lt. Max Weinstein
Milregnr. Nationality Born
O-673435 American
Returned Y/N Evader Fate Date Captured/Liberated Place Captured/Liberated Escape Line
No EVD-POW 27 Jul 44 Antwerp, Belgium Groep André
Evader Story
						2/Lt. Max Weinstein was the bombardier of B-17 42-3488. After bailing out he landed near Drachtsercompagnie. Here, so he wrote on January 1st 1946 'a group of farmers came to my aid'. One of them was probably Wietze Kooistra, the son of Andries Kooistra (Hogeweg A102 in Opeinde). Kooistra helped Weinstein and handed him over to the local resistance. Gerard Haagen brought him - probably via the house of family Jan Mulder at Drachten (the parents of courier Tiny Mulder) - to the farm of Gerrit Aukes de Vries at Oudega (sm.) C51. He would remain here from 12 December until 21 December. On this date Weinstein moved, with the help of reverend Buitenbos and Gerard Haagen, to the farm of Reinder de Vries, his wife and four sons in Opeinde B92 (Legauke) 'at the outskirts of Drachten'. He joined here two other American airmen: 1/Lt. Thomas Robert Mc Galliard (E0199) and his own co-pilot, 2/Lt. Milo Aldrich Raim (E0224). Mc Galliard  would leave soon after. Weinstein and Raim would remain here  until 10 March 1944 when an emergency situation occurred. Courier Tiny Mulder had to evacuate in a hurry nine airmen (from a B-24 that had crash-landed nearby) from a hiding place which was about to be searched by the German Feldgendarmerie. She brought these airmen with the help of the sons of De Vries to their farm. They couldn't stay here for long though. That same night Mulder, a member of the KP and three sons of De Vries escorted the nine airmen in a four hour journey through fields and over ditches and crossed also a lake by boat to the houseboat of De Vrieze at Smallee or Boornbergum. Here Weinstein, Raum, an airman named Joe and an unknown airman, were picked up by H. Metzlar and handed over to Gerardus Haagen, who transported the four to the Sneek-Workum area. Here Weinstein ended up with Frans and Rika de Boer and their three daughters (of in total nine children) at the Stationsstraat in Workum. Weinstein: 'I stayed with them for four months. They are very poor people and shared their very meagre rations with me during all that time.' Probably at the beginning of July Weinstein was handed over to  helper A.C. (Mart) Mous (resistance name 'Tinus'). He escorted him on or around 4 July to Marten Kingma (Voorpport A 229 at Vollenhove). At his turn Kingma  transferred Weinstein to the house of Evert van der Linde at Moespot A39 in Vollenhove. He would remain here for four days. Then he returned into the hands of the Kingma family. According to the helper report of Marten Kingma he was now handed over either to 'Pieter van den Hurk in Meppel' or he went 'via Zwolle to Amsterdam'. As Weinstein came from the northern part of the Netherlands its more probable that he went to Zwolle.

On 10 July 1944 Weinstein arrived in the house of Hendrik van Cleeff at Stadhouderskade 57 in Amsterdam (in this period he probably also hid a few days with H. de Koning at Oud Reimstraat 40 in Zaandijk). Van Cleeff remembered shortly after the war the following: 'Max Weinstein 0-679415, USA came down near Opeinde on December 11th. 1943. Received him from Mr. J.J.J. van Kluyve, Notary, Vollenhove (O) on abt. July 10th 1944. On account of his very pronounced Jewish appearance I did not like him to send further for his and our own safety. He stayed in my room for 24 hours and further he remained at my underground-address for one week: I advised him to stay till the end of the war. However he insisted in going to England, provided him with papers and money and let him go his own way when on the Station-Square at Eindhoven. This is for my own responsibility: he did not want to go underground, as I had proposed [to] him.' Van Cleeff himself was arrested on 25 July and was liberated in concentration camp Sachsenhausen shortly before the end of the war. After Van Cleeff had escorted him from Amsterdam to Eindhoven, Weinstein was on his own. He probably walked south because on 13 July (possibly the same day after he arrived in Eindhoven) he approached Theodor Pieter Luyten at Eindhovenseweg 31 in Aalst (south of Eindhoven) while he was working in the garden in front of his house. Luyten: 'This airman passed our house, while I was working in the garden. A few seconds afterwards he came back, came into our garden and asked me if I spoke English. I answered yes. He then asked me whether there were many German troops between our village and the Belgian frontier. After this question I asked him to come in. He told me that he was an American 1st Lt., shot down on a flight to Germany. I asked him some questions as where he came from, [and] as what was his civvy job. In the meantime , my mother went to one of my friends, who was in the underground movement, and asked him to send a message to the leader. This fellow, L. Metzemaker [Leo G.C. Metzemaekers (Burgemeester van Dommelenlaan 18 at Aalst], came down to our place abt. half an hour later, and took further care of him. Metzemaker probably brought Weinstein to family R. Kuperus in Frederik Hendrikstraat 7 in Aalst. He would remain here for seven days. Around 20 July he moved on. Metzemaekers now arranged that Weinstein moved to family Jan Franken at Wilheminapark 36 in Tilburg (he possibly first went from Metzemaekers to Poeckel in Eindhoven). Probably Weinstein came now in the hands of the Groep André. He hid for four days in the house of Pieter Arie de Groot at D99 in Sprang-Capelle before crossing the Dutch-Belgian border with the help of members of Groep André. Weinstein evaded as far as Antwerp in Belgium. Here he ended up in the trap of false escape line 'KLM', set up by the German Sicherheitsdienst (SD) with help of V-mann (Vertrauensmann) Belgian traitor Rene van Muylem (executed 1948). Weinstein was arrested on 27 July 1944.
						
Source(s)
* Aaldert Pol, De bevrijding van het Nederlands Onderduikers Paradijs
* National Archives, Washington, Helper Files, NAID: 286702526 - NAID: 286650030 - NAID: 286649761 - NAID: 286697612 - NAID: 286673040 - NAID: 286645207 - NAID: 286674506 - NAID: 286647849 - NAID: 286675958 - NAID: 286702526 - NAID: 286666711 - NAID: 286668385 - NAID: 286646346 - NAID: 286688328 - NAID: 286674500 - NAID: 286656293