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Freddie and Truus oversteegen lived in the Dutch city of Haarlem with their single mother, who was defiant from the beginning of German rule. She considered herself and communist and would hide Jews in her house as well as, encouraging Freddie and Truus in handing out anti Nazi pamphlets and signs in their town. This caught the attention of Haarlem Council of Resistance commander Frans van der Wiel. So at 14 and 16 years old, with their mothers approval, they joined the resistance group.

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The Gutsy Teenage Oversteegen Sisters Killed Nazis During WWII

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On September 5th, 2018, Freddie Oversteegen, a Dutch Resistance heroine of World War II, died in her nineties of a heart attack. She had been preceded into the Great Beyond two years earlier, in 2016, by her older sister, Truus, another resistance heroine in the fight against the Nazis. As part of t…

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The sisters were very unique to the resistance because they were some of the only women that were sent on missions and shot. They worked to assassinate Nazi soldiers and Polish associates. They were unsuspecting because they were so young, and Freddie even used braids to appear younger. A technique they had was luring the men into the forest to execute them

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Aside from the obvious impact of saving countless lives, the girls were a symbol for women that they could be apart of the war and empowered people to take action from the very beginning.

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Hannie schaft joined the duo when she was 21, after she refused to sign a German loyalty pledge and joined the movement. The became their own sabotage and assassination group.

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Hannie was brought to a prison in Amsterdam and after interrogation, torture, and solitary confinement, Schaft was identified by the roots of her red hair by her former colleague Anna Wijnhoff. She was executed by Dutch Nazi officials on 17 April 1945.

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Hannie Schaft was know as the girl with red hair and was one of many most wanted. Hannie was an assassin that planted weapons and killed many nazi officers. Hannie and the Oversteengen sisters Transported weapons in bicycle baskets and  Executed nazi forces together. 

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Hannie Schaft was know as the girl with red hair and was one of many most wanted. Hannie was an assassin that planted weapons and killed many nazi officers. Hannie and the Oversteengen sisters Transported weapons in bicycle baskets and  Executed nazi forces together. 

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Book based on the Oversteegen sisters and hannie schaft

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Book based on the Oversteegen sisters and hannie schaft

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When asked how many people she had killed or helped kill, she objected “One should not ask a soldier any of that.”

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When asked how many people she had killed or helped kill, she objected “One should not ask a soldier any of that.”

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The Oversteegen sisters being awarded the mobilization war cross by a prime minister.

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 “It was a necessary evil, killing those who betrayed the good people.” -freddie

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 “It was a necessary evil, killing those who betrayed the good people.” -freddie

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This is what AI came up with when I typed in Freddie and Truus Oversteegen.

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After the war, the sisters dealt with the trauma of killing people. They never said how many they did kill. Truus died in 2016 and Freddie in 2018

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freddie

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After the war Truus spoke out on the topics of war, anti-semitism, and tolerance. Truus and Freddie also established the Hannie Schaft Foundation, which is dedicated to raising awareness regarding the dangers of extremism and racism.

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One of Hannie Schafts famous quotes is “ I shoot better!” Hannie shaft says this when she was shot at for resisting. the first shot was aimed at her head but it had only grazed her temple.

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One of Hannie Schafts famous quotes is “ I shoot better!” Hannie shaft says this when she was shot at for resisting. the first shot was aimed at her head but it had only grazed her temple.

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Truus Oversteegen in WWII

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hannie

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14 January 2020|World War Two

The Secret World of Spies

We sift through the subterfuge and secrecy of the people who risked their lives to change the world.

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The teenage Dutch girls who seduced and killed Nazis - BBC Reel

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During World War Two, the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands turned three teenage girls into fierce resistance fighters. Truus Oversteegen, Freddie Oversteegen and Hannie Schaft have been remembered for their technique of luring collaborators into the forest for them to be executed.

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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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The Oakland ballet made an abstract short performance demonstrating the women's roles in the war.

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Event Summary

Based on the lives of Hannie Schaft, Truus Oversteegen, and Freddie Oversteegen, In Plain Sight is a dance film that tells the story of these courageous young women during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. Working for the Dutch resistance the young women served as courriers, distributed illegal newspapers, transported weapons, commited sabotage, and carried out assassinations all while hiding in plain sight. Produced by Oakland Ballet and choreographed by Samantha Bell.

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Based on the lives of Hannie Schaft, Truus Oversteegen, and Freddie Oversteegen, In Plain Sight is a dance film that tells the story of these courageous young women during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. Working for the Dutch resistance the young women served as courriers, distributed illegal newspapers, transported weapons, commited sabotage, and carried out assassinations all while hiding in plain sight.

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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.

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

A full transcript of this episode is available here.

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.

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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.