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Freddie Oversteegen was born on September 6, 1925. Freddie grew up in the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands with a single working mother and an older sister. She was a teenager around the time of the Holocaust and World War II. Freddie was a resistance fighter in the Holocaust.

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Freddie Oversteegen, Truus Oversteegen, and Hannie Schaft were friends/family that worked together.

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Freddie Oversteegen was recruited for the Dutch Resistance along with her sister in 1941. She became one of their armed assassins around the age of 16. She also seduced people to bait them to be killed. Since Freddie and her sister were only teenagers, officials were less likely to suspect them to be working for the resistance. In 1943, they joined forces with their new best friend Hannie Schaft. Freddie, Truus, and Hannie worked together to form a sabotage and assassination cell. Aside from this, she aided Jews by smuggling them out from the country or helping them escape concentration camps.

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Freddie and Truus Oversteegen at the hospital where they first met Hannie Schaft

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THE RESISTANCE- Freddie and Truus Oversteegen

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THE RESISTANCE- Freddie and Truus Oversteegen

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

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Freddie and Truus Oversteegen with their half-brother Robbie

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After the war, Freddie and her sister Truus were dealing with the trauma of killing people. They also lost their best friend Hannie three weeks before the war ended. Freddie coped by "getting married and having babies," Many Nazis or Dutch collaborators were killed by Freddie, but she also helped save many Jews.

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Freddie and Truus Oversteegen with Sophie Poldermans at the 2003 Hannie Schaft Commeration ceremony

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The Netherlands failed to properly recognize many of Freddie's achievements, but in 2014 she received national recognition for her service. She was given the War Mobilization Cross (Mobilisatie-Oorlogskruis).

Freddie Oversteegen died on September 5, 2018; the day before her birthday.

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Learn more about Freddie (and Truus) Oversteegen

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Learn more about Freddie (and Truus) Oversteegen

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Freddie and Truus Oversteegen were just 14 and 16 years old when the Nazis invaded their hometown of Haarlem. Determined to do their part, the sisters joined the Dutch Resistance and began bombing trains, smuggling out Jewish children, and running refugee safehouses. But their most dangerous work by far was also the most unlikely for two young girls to ever take on: assassinating Nazi officers in broad daylight.

With our guest Sophie Poldermans, author of Seducing and Killing Nazis, discover this astounding true story of courage, camaraderie, and the fight to stay human in inhuman times.

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Sophie Poldermans is the author of the New York Post & Amazon best seller Seducing and Killing Nazis. Hannie, Truus and Freddie: Dutch Resistance Heroines of WWII (USA, 2019). She personally knew Truus and Freddie Oversteegen for 20 years and worked closely with them for over a decade as a board member of the National Hannie Schaft Foundation. Poldermans is the founder of "Sophie's Women of War," shedding light on women leaders in times of conflict, and a Dutch women's rights advocate, author, public speaker, lecturer and consultant on women and war, human rights-related issues from a legal, historical and sociological perspective and women's leadership. She has degrees in Dutch and International Human Rights and International Criminal Law (University of Amsterdam); Peace and Conflict Studies (UC Berkeley, USA); Human Rights and Democratization (EIUC, Venice, Italy; Vienna, Austria) and Women's Leadership (Yale School of Management). She has work experience as a lecturer in Conflict Resolution and International Human Rights and Criminal Law at several (international) universities.

Music featured in this episode included

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THE RESISTANCE Truus and Freddie Oversteegen - What'shername

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Freddie and Truus Oversteegen were just 14 and 16 years old when the Nazis invaded their hometown of Haarlem. Determined to do their part, the sisters joined the Dutch Resistance and began bombing trains, smuggling out Jewish children, and running refugee safehouses.