The Oversteegen Sisters’ Resistance Work
Upon joining the Dutch Resistance, the teenaged Truus and Freddie Oversteegen started off small, by distributing leaflets and illegal newspapers, and offering assistance to fugitives from the Nazi. However, things changed in the aftermath of the brutal Nazi crackdown in 1941, in retaliation for the massive Dutch workers’ strike to protest the deportation of Jews. German brutality further radicalized Truus, and spurred her and her sister to join an armed partisan fighter cell that engaged in direct action against the Nazis.
After receiving military training and learning how to operate a firearm, Truus’ early assignments included flirting with and seducing German soldiers, and leading them into the woods where they would be killed by her comrades. As Freddie described it decades later: “[Truus] was like: ‘Want to go for a stroll?’ And of course he wanted to. Then they ran into someone — which was made to seem a coincidence, but he was one of ours — and that friend said to Truus: ‘Girl, you know you’re not supposed to be here.’ They apologised, turned around, and walked away. And then shots were fired, so that man never knew what hit him. They had already dug the hole, but we weren’t allowed to be there for that part“.
Before long, Truus was putting her weapons training to good use, and shooting Germans herself. Along with her sister, she also rigged up bridges and railroad tracks with explosives for destruction. The Oversteegen girls also helped smuggle Jewish children out of the country, carried out daring missions to help some of them escape from detention centres en route to extermination centres, and even sprang some from concentration camps.
In 1943, a new member was added to their resistance cell, Hannie Schaft. A conscientious young woman with conspicuous red hair, Hannie attended the University of Amsterdam’s law school in hopes of becoming a human rights lawyer. Unfortunately, Nazi occupied Europe was a poor environment for studying or practicing human rights law. In law school, she became friends with Jewish students, which opened her eyes to the mistreatment of Jews by the occupiers. When the authorities issued a decree, requiring law students to sign a declaration of allegiance to the German occupation, Hannie refused, and was kicked out of law school. She promptly joined the resistance.
Like the Oversteegen sisters, with whom she became fast friends – particularly Truus – Hannie began her underground career with small assignments. The resistance started her off with courier work, and tasked her with stealing identity papers to help Jews – including her Jewish friends – escape the ever tightening Nazi noose. However, she wanted to do heavier lifting, and convinced the Resistance Council to train her in weapons. Before long, with the assistance of the Oversteegen sisters, she was carrying out attacks against German occupiers, Dutch Nazis, traitors, and collaborators. Hannie also learned how to speak German fluently, and got involved with German officials and soldiers, seducing information out of them and passing it on to the resistance.
Hannie’s conscientiousness, however, prevented her from unquestioning obedience and accepting all tasks given her by the resistance. Among the assignments she turned down was the kidnapping of a Nazi official’s children. If things went wrong, the children would have had to be killed to keep them from identifying the resistance members with whom they had come in contact, and killing children was a step too far for Hannie.