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QuickWrite #1: First They Came for the Jews

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QuickWrite #1: First They Came for the Jews

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The lesson that Martin Niemoller is trying to teach his readers about how to stand up for others. If people never speak out for things happening to others because of different traits or behaviors that we do not carry, what is to stop them from saying nothing when people turn on the traits that we do carry. It takes a village but in order for it to work, everyone has to lend their support. The more that people stand up, the harder it is to knock them all down. In Niemoller's poem, he teaches his readers to stick up for the people around you.

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Freddie and Truus Oversteegen were upstanders during the Holocaust. During that period of time, the Oversteegen sisters banded together with other resisters to fight back, “...Freddie and Truus learned to shoot Nazis too, and the sisters began to go on assassination missions by themselves,” (History.com). Through this quotation, it is clearly demomnstarted that Fredde and Truus Oversteegen resisted against the Holocaust. As thousands of Jews were being wronfully persecuted, the two sisters stood up for their people and what they believed in. Risking their lives on a daily, Freddie and Truus took out Nazis and people that were a threat to their missions, never stopping in what they though was right.Through the lives and actions of Freddie and Truus Oversteegen, society learns how to resist against things that one knows is not right. The Oversteegen sisters, Freddie and Truus, resisted against the Holocaust.

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History
CrimeReads
Time Magazine

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Anne's choice to save the Star of David was an act of her own resistance. After Peter burns his star, he turns to Anne expecting the same, she explains, "It's funny, I can't throw mine away. . .after all, it is the Star of David, isn't it?" (458). Anne's words show how not to let society (and others) waver a person's views. Even after having been branded by Nazis as something not human or less than the average person, Anne refuses to see the Star of David as an insult. The Star of David is a huge part of Jewish religion and to disrespect the label is also disrespecting her beliefs. People will always opress to ones around them and try to make them lesser than who they really are but society should never let that affect them. Anne teaches the world to stay true to oneself and not the image of what others create for them. The way Anne chose to save her Star of David was her own act of resistance.

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THE RESISTANCE Truus and Freddie Oversteegen: What'sHerName Podcast Episode 64

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Truus and Freddie Oversteegen: Sisters & Resistance Fighters

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Like most sisters, Truus and Freddie Oversteegen did not always get along. Truus, as the older of the two, was more assertive and dictatorial, and felt she was entitled to boss Freddie around. Fred…

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Freddie Oversteegen was only 14 when she joined the Dutch resistance during World War II, and only a couple of years older when she became one of its armed assassins. Together with her sister-and later, a young woman named Hannie Schaft-the trio lured, ambushed and killed German Nazis and their Dutch collaborators.

Sabotage and Assassination Missions against Nazis and Collaborators

Freddie and her sister Truus, who was two years older, grew up in the city of Haarlem with a single, working-class mother. Their mother considered herself a communist and taught her daughters the importance of fighting injustice. When Europe was on the brink of war in 1939, she took Jewish refugees into their homes.

Through their mother's example, Freddie and Truus "learned that if you have to help somebody, like refugees, you have to make sacrifices for yourself," says Jeroen Pliester, chair of the National Hannie Schaft Foundation. "I think that was one of the main drivers for them, the high moral principle and preparedness of their mother to act when it really matters."

The Roles of Women in the Dutch Resistance

In May 1940, Nazis invaded the Netherlands, beginning an occupation that lasted until the end of the war. In response, the girls joined their mother in distributing anti-Nazi newspapers and pamphlets for the resistance.

"We also glued warnings across German posters in the street calling men to work in Germany," Freddie later recalled in interviews she and her sister did with anthropologist Ellis Jonker, collected in the book Under Fire: Women and World War II. "And then we'd hurry off, on our bikes."

These acts weren't just subversive, they were also dangerous. If the Nazis or Dutch police caught the sisters, they might have killed them. However, the fact that they were both young girls-and Freddie looked even younger when she wore braids-meant that officials were less likely to suspect them of working for the resistance. This might be one of the reasons why, in 1941, a commander with the Haarlem Resistance Group visited their house to ask their mother if he could recruit Freddie and Truus.

Their mother consented and the sisters' agreed to join. "Only later did he tell us what we'd actually have to do: sabotage bridges and railway lines," Truus told Jonker. "'And learn to shoot, to shoot Nazis,' he added. I remember my sister saying: 'Well, that's something I've never done before!'"

In at least one instance, Truus seduced an SS officer into the woods so that someone from the resistance could shoot him. As the commander who recruited them had said, Freddie and Truus learned to shoot Nazis too, and the sisters began to go on assassination missions by themselves. Later on, they focused on killing Dutch collaborators who arrested or endangered Jewish refugees and resistance members.

"They were unusual, these girls," says Bas von Benda-Beckmann, a former researcher at the Netherlands' Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies. "There were a lot of women involved in the resistance in the Netherlands but not so much in the way these girls were. There are not that many examples of women who actually shot collaborators themselves."

On these missions, Freddie was especially good at following a target or keeping a lookout during missions since she looked so young and unsuspecting. Both sisters were shot to kill, but they never revealed how many Nazis and Dutch collaborators they assassinated. According to Pliester, Freddie would tell people who asked that she and her sister were soldiers, and soldiers don't say.

Consequently, we don't have too many details about how their "liquidations," as they called them, played out. Benda-Beckmann says that sometimes they would follow a target to his house to kill him or ambush them on their bikes.

Their other duties in the Haarlem Resistance Group included "bringing Jewish [refugees] to a new hiding place, working in the emergency hospital in Enschede... [and] blowing up the railway line between Ijmuiden and Haarlem," writes Jonker. In 1943, they joined forces with another young woman, Hannie Schaft.

Hannie was a former university student who dropped out because she refused to sign a pledge of loyalty to Germany. Together, the three young women formed a sabotage and assassination cell. Hannie became their best friend, and the sisters were devastated when Nazis arrested and killed her in 1945, just three weeks before the war ended in Europe. According to lore, Hannie's last words were, "I'm a better shot," after initially only being wounded by her executioner.

The Aftermath of World War II for the Oversteegen Sisters

After the war, the sisters dealt with the trauma of killing people and losing their best friend. Truus created sculptures and later spoke and wrote about their time in the resistance. Freddie coped "by getting married and having babies," as she told VICE Netherlands in 2016. But the experience of war still caused her insomnia. In another interview, Freddie recalled seeing a person she'd shot fall to the ground and having the human impulse to want to help him.

"We did not feel it suited us," Truss told Jonker of their assassinations. "It never suits anybody, unless they are real criminals."

Both women died at age 92-Truus in 2016, and Freddie on September 5, 2018, one day before she turned 93. Throughout much of their long lives, the Netherlands failed to properly recognize the women's achievements and sidelined them as communists. In 2014, they finally received national recognition for their service to their country by receiving the Mobilisatie-Oorlogskruis, or "War Mobilization Cross."

HISTORY Vault: World War II

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This Teenager Killed Nazis With Her Sister During WWII | HISTORY

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Freddie and Truus Oversteegen sometimes ambushed Nazi officers from their bicycles-and never revealed how many they had assassinated.

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Freddie and Truus Oversteegen were sisters, Truus being the oldest, and Freddie being the youngest. Even at an early age, these two girls were out protesting for the lives of Jews, educating people on what was happening, and fighting for what was right. The sisters would plant newspapers in strangers' bags containing slogans their mother pasted. The girls would paste over german announcements around the city, once even putting up a huge banner. The Oversteegen sisters never fell short of knowing what was right. Eventually, the two girls were sought out by a commander of the Haarlem Resistance Group to recruit them. The sister ended up joining his group and taking on bigger tasks than hanging up banners. The girls became friends with a fellow resister named Hannie Schaft from these assignments who eventually passed after getting caught by Nazi soldiers. Truus and Freddie learned to shoot and blow up trains to sabotage said Nazis, overtime going on these missions solo. The Oversteegen sisters saved hundreds of lives endangered by the Hitler's army. They left the world peacefully only a couple of years ago, but they left the message of teaching us to fight for what we love.

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Hannie Schaft became best friends with the Oversteegen sisters when she joined their team and became an avid part of their missions. Hannie was a strong-tempered woman, the trio took out Nazis with wit and courage. When Hannie was eventually captured, she was sentenced to be shot to death. The Nazis initially missed their first shot, leaving her alive, her last words being, "I could shoot better."

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Truus Oversteegen was more of a boy than a girl. From the outfits she wore, to her loud boyish personality. Truus, being the older sister, had way more of an assertive and confident lead on plans. When asked, Truus agreed to be able to kill when asked, but with the objective that the people she was killing were already murderers. Truus and her sister [Freddie] became an incredibly valuable part of the resistance team. Truus Oversteegen passed away in 2016 at the age of 92 of old age.

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Freddie was often described as the more feminine sister in their duo. Although delicate in her looks, Freddie was the first one to agree to assassinate Nazis. Freddie never really aged look-wise as she got older so she could pass off as a young girl, she used this advantage to lure in men from bars and streets before someone else shot them from behind. Freddie died at 92 in 2018 of natural causes, two years after her older sister, Truus. Freddie Oversteegen may not be here with us physically anymore, but we will forever remember the great sacrifices she made during the Holocaust.