(Ridderkerk, 1914)

Member of the 1st Company DNB

For five years ‘Kleine Cees’ saw his wife and children only sporadically

Cent Liefhebber was born on 23 June 1914 in Ridderkerk. In December 1934, he was called up for military service with the 3rd Infantry Regiment in Bergen op Zoom, after which he went on indefinite leave in 1935 with the rank of sergeant. Because there was ‘no living to be made’ in his uncle’s bakery in Rotterdam, he voluntarily enlisted on 1 December 1937 and was again assigned to the 3rd Infantry Regiment.

The Invasion and Departure for Aalten

In May 1940, during the invasion by Nazi Germany, he came under enemy fire while crossing the Maas at Goidschalxoord. He was subsequently detained by the Germans in the Hoekse Waard. After his release, he obtained a position as an assistant customs officer at the customs office in Aalten at the end of July 1940. On 1 November 1940, he married Jannie Flach from Ridderkerk. They lived at Haartsestraat 52 in Aalten, where their four children were born: Hanny and Ria during the war, and Netty and Hans after the liberation.

Smuggling Paths and Pilot Escape Lines

Together with his colleagues and the Marechaussee, he was tasked with preventing smuggling at the border. Later in the war, he was temporarily transferred to Wernhout, Brabant. One of his colleagues there was Gerrit Kleisen, who, together with a Belgian customs officer, had set up an escape line for people including Allied pilots. The pilots were taken across the border and were able to return to England via Belgium and France. Liefhebber advised Kleisen that – as soon as he encountered trouble – he should travel to Liefhebber’s wife in Aalten. Shortly thereafter, the Sicherheitsdienst (SD) were searching for Kleisen, who quickly reported to Mrs Liefhebber in Aalten. In May 1943, Kleisen went into hiding with the Brusse family at the Brakensteeg in Lintelo.

In Hiding and the Knokploeg

In May 1943, Cent Liefhebber had to report as a former soldier following a summons from the occupier. He refused to do so and went into hiding alternately with Hendrik and Sientje Bongen at ‘De Riete’ and Chrisje Westerveld at ‘De Vlijt’, two neighbouring farms in the hamlet of Dale.

Under the pseudonym ‘Kleine Cees’, he took part in actions by the Aalten Knokploeg (Assault Group). From the autumn of 1944, he also joined the Netherlands Forces of the Interior (NBS), which in April 1945 was incorporated into the Dutch National Battalion (DNB). There he held the rank of sergeant major in the first company.

Mine clearance and family life

Subsequently, he joined the Dutch army and worked for the Mine Clearance Service. He attended a course for this and was deployed until February 1948 in clearing mines in the Betuwe region.

In the years between 1943 and 1948, Liefhebber was able to spend very limited time with his family due to his work and the resistance. During that period until the liberation, Jannie and her four children were dependent on food and clothing provided by the resistance and neighbours. When he was called up for service in the former Dutch East Indies in 1948, his wife exclaimed: “If you do that, Cent, you needn’t bother coming back.”

On 8 February 1945, their house was damaged as a result of an English aerial bomb, in which Jannie Liefhebber was injured in the face by glass shards. From 1948, Liefhebber worked as a weapons instructor at the Infantry School in Harderwijk. The contacts between the Liefhebber family and both Aalten families remained for many years after the war.

A Modest Memory

The children of Cent and Jannie Liefhebber remember their father as a friendly and cheerful person, focused on church and society. He did not pass on any hatred for Germans to his children. The loss of fellow resistance fighters had certainly left scars on him, which meant he spoke little about the war years. However, unlike with their mother, this did not develop into a (temporary) trauma.

Cent Liefhebber passed away on 17 December 1993 in Harderwijk.

Cent Liefhebber