Alida Kornelia de Jong

Geslacht: Vrouw
Vader: Klaas de Jong
Moeder: Bernardine Antoinette Louise Calkoen
Geboren: 4 Juli 1915 Medan
Religie: Ned. Hervormd
Aantekeningen: Title and statement of responsibility area
Title proper
Cora Greenaway fonds
Level of description
Fonds
Repository
Nova Scotia Archives
Dates of creation area
Date(s)
1932-2009 (Creation)
Physical description area
Physical description
3.4 meters of textual and graphic materials (31 boxes).
Cora de Jong Greenaway, C.M., D.F.A., D.Hum.L., F.R.S.A., teacher, broadcaster, history researcher and author, was born in Medan, Indonesia 4 July 1915 to Klaas and Bernardine Antoinette Louise (Calkoen) de Jong. She was educated at universities in Europe until the German occupation of Holland in 1940, when she became active in the Dutch Resistance and subsequent liberation of Holland. On 7 July 1949 Cora de Jong married British Major William (Bill) Greenaway, MC, and together they immigrated to Canada and settled in Paradise, Nova Scotia. From 1956 to 1979 she worked for CBC Radio as a freelance broadcaster on cultural and heritage subjects. She was a founding member of the Heritage Trust of Nova Scotia in 1959. In 1963 she became a teacher and vice-principal of Dartmouth Academy private school in Dartmouth, NS until 1979. In 1960 she discovered the painted 19th century wall murals of the “Croscup Room” in Karsdale, NS, now preserved as part of the permanent collections of the National Gallery of Canada. Subsequently, Dr. Greenaway received funding from the Canada Council and became a full time researcher on historic interior decorative painting. She discovered and documented examples in private homes (including folk artist Maud Lewis), published several articles, curated an exhibit at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia (1986), and lectured nationally and internationally, from 1980 to the late 1990s. In 2011 she published the book Painted Dreams, the culmination of her life’s work on the subject. She received multiple awards, including the Order of Canada in 1996. As of 2015, Dr. Greenaway lives in The Hague, Netherlands.
Fonds consists of approximately 7800 images of painted murals, border designs, simulated marbling and other decorative elements on walls, floors, ceilings and doors in private homes and public buildings in Nova Scotia, with some examples from New Brunswick; correspondence with home owners, publishers and historical societies; research notes; manuscripts and published articles; and manuscript versions of her book Painted Dreams. Fonds also includes her CBC Radio scripts, videos of her 1993 and 1997 lectures on decorative painting and Maud Lewis, founding documents and early publications from the Heritage Trust of Nova Scotia, photographs and some correspondence of her childhood in Indonesia and the Netherlands; and photographs and news clippings about her husband Major Bill Greenaway, MC. The records document the unique 19th century decorative artworks Dr. Greenaway discovered and her role in the preservation of historic architecture in the province.
Immediate source of acquisition
Donated by Cora Greenaway in 2011.
Arrangement
There are several sets of research files on decorated homes compiled by Dr. Greenaway. Some are arranged by county, others by town or village. Minimal duplication between them.
Terms governing use, reproduction, and publication
Copyright owned by Nova Scotia Archives.
Finding aids
File list available .
Associated materials
Cora Greenaway’s book collection (63 titles) on local/community histories and architectural heritage are available from the Nova Scotia Archives Reference Library.
General note
For information on Dr. Greenaway’s life in Holland during Second World War, see the video recording of her interview with Rick Grant of CTV News (Vb1121) and biographical files in Box 001.
Physical description
Includes 2.13 m of textual records (22 boxes); 2,826 photographs; 2,836 negatives; 2,172 slides; 36 postcards; 20 transparencies; 4 photographic contact sheets; 11 VHS videocassettes, 4 watercolours; 2 data compact discs; 1 audio cassette; 1 map; 1 drawing.
Last Name: Greenaway
First Name: Cora
Maiden Name: Jong de
Date of Birth: 1916
Rescuer's fate: survived
Nationality: THE NETHERLANDS
Gender: Female
Place during the war: S Gravenhage, Zuidholland, The Netherlands
Rescue Place: Voorburg, Zuidholland, The Netherlands
Rescue mode: Illegal transfer
File number: File from the Collection of the Righteous Among the Nations Department (M.31.2/12012)
Erich Kohnke fled his native Germany in 1933 with his wife, when he was fired as a choir master because he was Jewish. He came to the Netherlands, and settled in The Hague, where he organized musical evenings in his home, mostly with other German artists who had also fled the Nazi regime. Some of these evenings were also attended by Cora de Jong, born 1916, a young music lover. Some years later, Erich divorced and remarried one Helene (Leni) Leyens. The couple settled in Hilversum, where In December 1940 their daughter Anneke was born.
After the invasion of Germany into the Netherlands in May 1940, the Kohnkes stayed put; however, with the increase in anti-Jewish measures that they recognized from their native Germany during the thirties, they decided to look for hiding places instead of reporting to ’work in the East’ especially with a two-year-old child. So, in the summer of 1942, with the beginning of the deportation orders, the Kohnkes contacted an underground group of mostly students for help in locating hiding addresses. It so happened that Cora, who had become active in such a group, was subsequently given an address to pick up a baby for relocating to a hiding address, not knowing who that would be. It turned out to be Anneke Kohnke, whose father she remembered from the musical evenings in The Hague. The separation from the child was extremely difficult for all. Repeatedly, Leni Kohnke asked Cora to have some more coffee in order for her child to stay a little longer before she would have to say goodbye. “They wanted me to stay as long as possible. Finally, I really had to go. I pressed the baby to my chest and left. It was the hardest thing I have ever had to do in my life”, recalled 90-year-old Cora in her testimony to Yad Vashem.
Cora took Anneke by train and local tram to Voorburg, a suburb of The Hague, where she was met by her contact person, Johannis Blacquière*. Anneke subsequently stayed with the Blacquières until the liberation of the town in May 1945.
Anneke’s parents were caught at their hiding place and deported. They were murdered in Auschwitz in September, 1943. After a temporary stay in an orphanage before returning to the Blacquières, contact was made with relatives in the United States who claimed her. In 1946, she moved to America and contact with Cora and the Blacquières was severed.
With the introduction of the internet, both Anneke (now, Thompson) as well as the Blacquière children independently started searching for each other. They found one another as well as Cora in 2007 and have been in touch ever since. Anneke went to see Cora, who was able to give Anneke some insight for the first time into the world of her own parents and the conditions under which she had to be separated from them, all missing pieces in the puzzle of her early life.
On February 6, 2011, Yad Vashem recognized Cora Greenaway-de Jong as Righteous Among the Nations.

Gezin 1

Huwelijkspartner: William Greenaway
Huwelijk: 7 Juli 1949 Den Haag ??