3. This Heroine Joined the Resistance When She Was Sixteen
When the Nazis began deporting the Netherlands’ Jews, the country’s communists and socialists came together in February 1941, to lead a massive strike in protest. It was one of the few successful nationwide protests against the Germans, and it encouraged the rise of the Dutch resistance.
The widespread protests against the deportation of Jews led the Nazis to ramp up their repression and brutality, in order to cow the Dutch into obedience and toeing the line. The repression increased the alienation of the Dutch people, and drove them in increasing numbers into the arms of the budding resistance. Truus Menger-Oversteegen joined the Dutch Resistance when she was sixteen. She began by distributing leaflets and illegal newspapers, and offering assistance to fugitives seeking to save themselves from the occupiers.