There were many people during the Second World War that did incredibly acts to resist the
evils of the Nazis and the Germans.
Millions of people found themselves living under German occupation, and lots joined the
local resistance groups such as the Partisans who would carry out deadly sabotage operations
and executions of captured German soldiers and officers.
The resistance in certain areas was very successful, for example in France the French Resistance
helped to free the country and liberate it alongside the Allied forces.
But specifically there were many women who played an important role in this.
Some women were recruited for British SOE, special operations executive and were used
as links between the British War Ministry and the Resistance, however if captured they
were usually executed.
The Soviets used women in combat also, and there were many female partisans for example
Lepa Radic who was executed in front of a large crowd for firing at the Germans whilst
she was trying to rescue other Partisans on the battlefield.
But there was a couple of Dutch sisters who along with another girl named Hanna Schaft
were a constant thorn in the sides of the Germans, and despite being teenagers during
the war, they were deadly and were known for their luring of enemy soldiers into woods
when they were then executed.
Join us today as we look at the incredible story of Truss Oversteegen and Freddie Oversteegen,
the sisters that slaughtered German soldiers.
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The Oversteegen sisters were Truss and Freddie Oversteegen.
Truss was the elder sister, and she was born in 1923, and Freddie was born in 1925.
The family lived on a barge together, and they were dutch.
They lived onboard this barge and before the war began, they started to harbour people
from Lithuania inside of the hold of their ship to protect them.
But their parents would divorce and they were raised by their mother, and as young girls
they had to share a bed as their mum wanted to force them into sibling bonding.
They moved into a flat, and there were other beds but these were often taken up with Jewish
refugees that their mother was housing during the 1930s.
The girls grew up as communists in the village of Schoten in North Holland, years before
World War 2 broke out.
But when Hitler came to power, Freddie was just 7 and Truss was 9, when he began to attack
the Jews and persecute them.
Their mother instilled the need for compassion and aid towards those in need, and the girls
to begin with would make dolls for children who were the victims of the Spanish Civil
War, and they would get used to sharing their homes for those who were fleeing during the
day their leader visited the Oversteegen residents, to see if their mother would allow her two
daughters to join the resistance.
At the time of this, Freddie was just 14 and Truus was 16.
However the three were happy to help in anyway, but before they carried out any act their
mother told them to ‘always stay human.’
With this, they were now part of the Resistance, and were part of the acts of sabotage and
even killing that they did.
By being innocent young women, the two Oversteegen sisters could pass through the Nazis control
without raising suspicion.
But they started to be couriers of weapons for the resistance, and they also began to
steal identity papers so that jewish people could obtain false papers and then these could
help them to flee to safety.
Their acts undoubtedly saved lives, and they were then tasked with going a step further,
and burning down a warehouse which was being used by the Nazis.
They managed to flirt with the guards who were there and distracted them, and they then
succeeded in burning the building down.
But as they became more involved in the resistance, the girls were taught how to shoot in an underground
potato shed, and they practiced.
It was said that, ’Truss drove the bicycle and Freddie sat on the back and was shooting,
because they were girls, nobody noticed them.’
Their acts weren’t just defiance, they were dangerous and if the Nazi or Dutch police
caught the girls, then chances are they would have been killed.
But the fact they girls were young and they looked even younger, the officials were less
likely to suspect them.
The Haarlem resistance group commander who spotted them clearly knew they were talented.
no-one came around at that time.
Freddie also said of this that, ‘I didn’t want to see that.
They later told us they had taken all of his clothes so you couldn’t tell who he was.
I think he might be still there.’
It’s believed that the Oversteegen girls repeated this a number of times, and that
they lured soldiers into the woods with the promise of a romantic encounter, and then
these were killed.
They were known for killing with their own hands, but this made the soldiers who drank
in the local bars their prey, and they killed a number.
For the sisters, killing Germans and high ranking people was a cruel part of the job
they were sent to do to help rid the Netherlands of the Nazis.
After some killings, it’s believed they had the urge to help the dying, but they ultimately
realised it ws necessary.
They continued to try and smuggle children to safety, but some would be killing by bombs
falling from the sky, and this would also haunt the girls.
But in 1943, the sisters were joined by a 22 year old law student named Hannie Schaft.
The trio were incredibly close, and they worked together on their sabotage missions.
The three continued to target Nazi officers for the next two years.
Schaft became known as ‘The Girl wit the Red Hair,’ and she became part of the Nazi’s
most wanted list for her assassinations.
Schaft and Truus Oversteegen were planning to kill NSB Haarlem Policeman Nep Krist on
the 25th October 1944, however other resistance members beat them two it.
But on the 1st March 1945, NSB police officer Willem Zirkzee was executed by Hannie Schaft
and Truus Oversteegen, and then 2 weeks later they tried to kill but wounded a man who was
a hairdresser who worked for the SD as an informant.
Within the week, Hannie would be arrested and a month later she would be executed.
But the two Oversteegen girls were greatly upset by Shaft’s execution as she would
not return from a mission and they treated her as a sister.
Truus did try to break her out of prison but was too late, as she disguised herself as
a German nurse and was to accompany her for an examination, but Schaft had already been
executed at this time.
But they remained part of the resistance, and as the war came to an end they had been
responsible for the deaths of many German soldiers and SS officers and other collaborators.
They were crafty, and sly but were brilliant in their actions against evil.
Following the war the pair struggled to cope with the trauma of the war and the horror
of some of the killings, but Truus became a painted and sculptor and they both had children
and a family.
The pair recieved a number of awards after the end of the war, but they were remembered
as the two sisters who were deadly.
The actions of Truss and Freddie Oversteegen were savage and lethal in the face of their
enemies, and they were a key part in the killings and executions of many important nazi collaborators.
What was amazing was that there was little suspicion that pointed towards the girls being
involved or being captured or investigated by the Gestapo, and for years they had been
blowing up bridges, railway tracks and luring soldiers to their deaths.
They were a key part of the dutch resistance, and their incredible stories deserve to be
told.
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