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What was the Dutch Resistance? The Dutch Resistance was an organization that went against the Nazi party. The Dutch Resistance would offer help to Jewish people that were the target of Nazi Germany. They would help Jews escape as well as offer additional items that may help them. The Dutch Resistance also dealt with sabotaging the party and traitors of the resistance.

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Hannie Schaft was a dutch resister. Her alligiance to the Dutch Resistance began as she had a lot of Jewish friends and so she very clearly went against the Nazi party.

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Hannie Schaft was born on September 16, 1920 in Haarlem, Netherlands.

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Hannie Schaft

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Hannie Schaft was actually a cover up name to keep her real identity hidden. In actuality, her real name was Jannetje Johanna (Jo) Schaft.

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100 women salute 100 years Hannie Schaft, Dutch WW II female armed Resistance icon

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One of the trio's most famous events was when they they seduced an SS Nazi officer into a forest. Once he was lured in, other Dutch Resistance members shot him.

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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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Hannie Schaft was involved with the illegal distribution of the resistance newsletters as well as stealing ID cards to give to Jewish people. Not only did she take part in that, but she would also later carry out attacks against Germans and traitors and ultimately sabotaged a lot of their plans.

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Hannie Schaft made it onto the Nazi's most wanted list. However, the Germans did not know her real name, so they labeled her as "The girl with red hair."

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"I could shoot better." - Hannie Schaft

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Hannie Schaft would usually team up with the  Oversteegen sisters. The three formed a trio and would lure in German Nazis as well as Dutch traitors.

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Hannie Schaft as well as the rest of the trio of the Oversteegen sisters were also famous for their method of seducing Nazi officers and isolating them so that they would be killed by other resistance members.

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The Germans and Dutch authorities had formed an agreement that stated that the Germans would stop executing their captured people. However, this agreement was ignored once the Germans had caught and detained Hannie Schaft for illegal possessions as well as possession of a pistol.   She and other prisoners were lead to the sand dunes of  Bloemendaal. Hannie was shot on the head, but did not die immeditely. She was famous for her last words. As she looked up at the Germans who had shot her, she said, "I could shoot better." She died at twenty fours years old on April 17, 1945.

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After the war was over, Hannie's remains were the only female resistor's out of 422 people in total. All the other remains were those of men. They were found in the sand dunes where they had been killed.

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Interview with one of Hannie Schaft's companions, Freddie Oversteegen

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Because of Hannie Schaft's brave efforts during the war, many other people were inspired by her to also fight back. Not only that, but because of the things that she did, she caused many Jews to escape danger as well as damage a lot of Nazi plans. Many years later she is still remembered as one of the bravest women during WWII and she is celebrated for her acts.

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International Fellowship of Christians and Jews

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The Fellowship | December 20, 2017

The Girl with the Red Hair

Hannie Schaft

Life: September 16, 1920 - April 17, 1945

Why you should know her: Hannie Schaft was a member of the Dutch resistance during WWII whose acts of courage ranged from providing stolen ID cards for Jews to acts of sabotage against the Nazis.

Born in the Dutch city of Haarlem, Hannie Schaft was raised by her Mennonite Christian mother and a father who was active in social justice. Hannie studied law in Amsterdam, where she made Jewish friends. However, once the Nazis occupied the Netherlands, they required students to sign a declaration of allegiance. Hannie refused to sign such an oath to the Nazis, and in turn was kicked out of the university and forced to return home to her parents.

It was then that Hannie began a life of resistance against the Nazis. She started by stealing ID cards and providing them to Jewish people (including her college friends). But Hannie's acts of resistance soon grew more dangerous. Not wanting to settle as being just a courier, Hannie learned to speak fluent German and started carrying out acts of sabotage and assassinations of Nazi officials and collaborators.

Hannie had a conscience, even in her fight against the Nazis. She was asked to kidnap the children of a Nazi official, but refused, knowing that the children might have to be killed and feeling that would be too close to the Nazis' own acts of terror and murder.

The Nazis did not know this enemy woman's name, but placed "the girl with the red hair" on their most wanted list.

When a fellow resistance fighter accidentally gave Hannie's name to a Nazi nurse in disguise, the Nazis arrested Hannie's parents and sent them to a concentration camp. This forced Hannie to stop her resistance work until her parents were released.

But Hannie would not be stopped for good. She dyed her red hair black and began to resist the Nazis again.

Hannie was arrested in her hometown on March 21, 1945. After interrogation, torture, and solitary confinement would not force her to talk, Hannie was identified by the red roots of her hair. She was executed just three weeks before the end of the war. Defiant to the end, Hannie was only wounded by the first shot and said to her executioner, "I shoot better than you," before the coup de grace was delivered.

In the Netherlands, many schools and streets are named for this courageous woman, and the last Sunday in November is used to remember her life and work. So, too, was Hannie Schaft recognized by Israel and the Jewish people for her selflessness, named Righteous Among the Nations very early on in 1967.

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The Fellowship | December 20, 2017 Hannie Schaft Life: September 16, 1920 - April 17, 1945 Why you should know her: Hannie Schaft was a member of the Dutch resistance during WWII whose acts of courage ranged from providing stolen ID cards for Jews to acts of sabotage against the Nazis.