Today is the VE day aka Victory in Europe day. It has been 75 years since Nazis surrendered marking the end of the world war II which is so far the biggest and deadliest war humanity faced. Other than the infamous Auschwitz, Hiroshima and Nagasaki incidents there are untold stories of history buried in the sands of time. This is a tribute to the unsung heroes of the second world war.
In 1940 Germany invaded Netherlands and Freddie Oversteegen was only 14 years old. Freddie and her sister Truus grew up in Haarlem with their mother who was a communist. She taught her children the importance of fighting against injustice and she didn't hesitate to help the Jewish refugees. Once Netherlands was invaded she started distributing anti Nazi newspapers and pamphlets to which the daughters also helped.The sisters were then recruited by a local dutch resistance commander in Haarlem. Their duty was to sabotage bridges and railway lines.| Hannie Schaft |
Later the two sisters joined with a law student (she dropped out from the university because she refused to sign a pledge of loyalty to Germany) named Hannie Schaft became a female underground squad that assassinated Nazis. Three girls applied makeup and bright red lipsticks and went to bars where Nazi soldiers used to hang out and lured them to death. Romantic walks on woods ended up with bullets in their heads. Girls mostly relied on the male members of the resistance for these killings, but they did not hesitate to use their guns either. Truus Oversteegen once witnessed a Nazi killing an infant by hitting into a wall, in front of his father and sister. She shot the Nazi and killed him. She mentioned about this incident saying "That wasn’t an assignment,But I don’t regret it . . . We were dealing with cancerous tumors in our society that you had to cut out like a surgeon.”
Hannie was captured by Nazis on March, 1945 and executed on 17th April 1945. She was awarded a posthumous medal of freedom by Dwight Eisenhower after the war. The sisters dealt with trauma of the killing spree and losing their friend just 18 days before Netherlands liberation. They were awarded the mobilization war cross by the dutch prime minister in 2014. Both women died at the age 92; Truus in 2016 and Freddie in 2018.
At a time where women in resistance were only used for spying and code breaking these trio took a step ahead as female assassins. The author of the book "Seducing and killing Nazis", Sophie Polderman states these women never saw themselves as heroines. But in an era where killing the enemy is the only option to save your own, I say the courage and bravery of these women need to be heard more.
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