Freddie Oversteegen

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Freddie Dekker-Oversteegen (left) with her sister Truus Menger-Oversteegen and the Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte (2014)

Freddie Nanda Dekker-Oversteegen (born September 6, 1925 in Schoten (today: Gemeente / district of Haarlem ), North Holland province , Netherlands ; † September 5, 2018 in Driehuis (district of Velsen ), North Holland province, Netherlands) was a Dutch communist Resistance fighter. After the German Wehrmacht invaded and occupied the Netherlands in May 1940 , they carried out militant actions against the German occupation forces together with their two years older sister Truus and the famous Dutch resistance fighter Hannie Schaft in order to liberate their Dutch homeland at the risk of their lives . Freddie Oversteegen distributed illegal newspapers, helped hide Jews - especially children -, homosexuals and politically persecuted people, smuggled them out of the Netherlands or enabled them to escape from concentration camps . She became a member of the Dutch resistance organization " Raad van Verzet " (in het Koninkrijk der Nederlanden) (RVV), which was founded at the end of April 1943. She transported weapons, spied on German military facilities, provided courier services and carried out acts of sabotage . Together with her sister Truus and Hannie Schaft, she formed an effective resistance trio that killed Dutch collaborators and members of the German occupation apparatus. In later recognition, Freddie Obersteegen and her sister Truus were awarded the “Mobilisatie-Oorlogskruis” by the Dutch government in 2014.

Life

Early years

Freddie Oversteegen was born on September 6, 1925 in the small community of Schoten (now part of Haarlem) as the daughter of Trijntje van der Molen and Jacob Wilhelm Oversteegen. Freddie and her sister Truus, two years older than her, lived with their parents on a houseboat in Schoten. When the parents separated in 1933, the mother, Freddie and Truus moved into a small apartment. The mother raised the two girls alone. Trijntje van der Molen later remarried and Freddie's step-brother Robbie was born. Trijntje van der Molen, worker and communist, had a keen sense of justice and conveyed to both daughters that it was right and important to defend oneself against injustice. Although the small family was poor and lived in very cramped and difficult conditions, immediately after 1933 they took in people who had fled Germany from the Nazi terror, mostly politically persecuted - communists and socialists - but also Jews. In retrospect, Freddie Oversteegen remembered that a woman with a sixteen-year-old son, whose husband was in a concentration camp in Nazi Germany, was taken in and hidden by her mother. Following the example of their mother, Freddie and her sister Truus understood that one had to act when it was necessary, even if it was associated with danger. Freddie and Truus were initially members of the AJC (Arbeiders Jeugd Centrale) , a socialist youth movement established by the Sociaal-Democratische Arbeiderspartij (SDAP) and the Nederlands Verbond van Vakverenigingen (NVV) (a social democratic union). When the AJC found out that the mother of the two sisters was a communist, they showed the door and Freddie and Truus joined the NJC (Nederlandse Jeugd Federatie) , a communist youth group.

In resistance

After the Netherlands was occupied by the troops of the Nazi regime in May 1940, the entire family resisted. The mother wrote leaflets directed against the German occupation regime and calls for resistance. The daughters Freddie and Truus helped her with the production and distribution. For example, they pasted over posters with which Dutch people were to be recruited to work in Germany with warnings about these activities: “For every Dutch person who works in Germany, a German will go to the front!” In 1941, on the occasion of the February strike, they pasted posters with the Calling "Staakt !!! Staakt !!! Staakt !!!" ("Strike !!! Strike !!! Strike !!!") All of these actions were subversive and dangerous. Had the Nazi thugs or the Dutch police working with the German occupiers succeeded in arresting Trijs van der Molen and the daughters, they would have been threatened with concentration camps or death.

The actions drew the attention of the leader of the Haarlem resistance group, a sub-group of the larger Raad van Verzet (in het Koninkrijk der Nederlanden) (RVV), Frans van der Wiel , established in 1943 . Van der Wiel realized what possibilities there would be if he could win Freddie and Truss for the resistance. Freddie was 14 years old at the time, Truus 16 years old. Such young girls would hardly be suspected by the persecutors of working for the resistance. So he talked to the mother and her two daughters. With their mother's consent, the girls agreed to work in the resistance and joined the Haarlem resistance group or the higher-level RVV.

Truus Oversteegen, Freddie's sister, remembered: Only later did he [Frans van der Wiel] tell us what we'd actually have to do: Sabotage bridges and railway lines. We told him we'd like to do that. Then the commander added 'And learn to shoot - to shoot Nazis,' I remember my sister saying, 'Well, that's something I've never done before!' ("Only later did he [Frans van der Wiel] tell us what we should do [now]: blow up bridges and railroad tracks. We told him we would like to do that. Then the commander added: 'And Learn to shoot - shoot Nazis. 'I still remember my sister [Freddie] saying:' Mh, I've never done anything like that! '")

A resistance group of seven formed, to which Freddie and Truus Oversteegen were the only girls. “We were young and suitable for the resistance. We weren't married, we didn't have children. We had nothing to lose but our own lives. We were often afraid, but considered the actions necessary. ”Soon the German occupation forces and their helpers were looking intensively for the two girls. In order to avoid being captured, Freddie and Truus Oversteegen worked temporarily in an emergency hospital in Enschede , Twente in 1943 , living underground, with constantly changing addresses and apartments. After Hannie Schaft, who had joined the Haarlem resistance group or RVV in 1943 and initially worked with Jan Bonekamp (1914–1944), contacted Freddie and Truus in Enschede on behalf of the RVV, the three young women formed a largely independent resistance cell . A pistol was part of their standard equipment. They distributed illegal newspapers, helped Jews, especially Jewish children, homosexuals and the politically persecuted, to hide from the Nazi henchmen, to smuggle them out of the Netherlands or to escape from concentration camps. They transported weapons to other members of the resistance, carried out acts of sabotage, blew up bridges and railway tracks that were important for the occupiers with dynamite, set fire to important military production facilities, and collected information about military installations, bunkers and minefields. And they liquidated German occupiers by driving past on bicycles, or by luring the target person from bars and pubs into nearby forests with amorous promises, where they were then shot by other resistance fighters or by themselves. Dutch Nazi collaborators and traitors within their own ranks were also the target of their attacks.

The three girls got increasingly caught in a spiral of increasingly tougher action, which by no means left them emotionally without a trace. Having weapons with you [only] was something completely different from [actually] shooting people. But Freddie Oversteegen did not regret what she did: “I had no sympathy. You didn't shoot a human being, you shot your enemy, someone who had betrayed other people. ”As an old lady, she said in an interview:“ Yes, I pulled the trigger myself and saw her fall. And what is going on in us at such a moment? You want to help them get up again. [...] But it had to be done. It was the necessary evil. ”When Freddie Oversteegen was asked how many enemies she had killed, she replied: One should not ask a soldier any of that. ("You shouldn't ask a soldier something like that.")

post war period

The post-war period was not easy for Freddie Oversteegen. The so-called Cold War began and McCarthyism gained the upper hand. The "red danger" loomed and communist resistance fighters fell so out of favor as a result of this development that the Dutch government, which behaved strictly anti-communist, tried to suppress the memory of Hannie Schaft's death in 1951. In the face of this hysteria, it was enough that Freddie Oversteegen had been a member of the communist youth organization NJC (Nederlandse Jeugdfederatie) to sideline them and spread the cloak of oblivion over their merits. Freddie Oversteegen soon felt outcast in her own country, for which she had given her life again and again. It responded by completely turning away from politics and privatizing. She married the engineer Jan Dekker, took care of her household and raised her three children.

In contrast to her sister Truus, who married a colleague from the resistance and spoke openly about her experiences, Freddie Oversteegen closed himself off and had great difficulties talking about what happened at the time.

It was not until a film about Hannie Schaft in 1981 ( Het meisje met het rode haar - The girl with red hair - with Renée Soutendijk in the role of Hannie Schaft) that Freddie and Truus Oversteegen were brought back into the public eye and national memory called back. In spite of all this, it was not until 2014 that the two were officially recognized by the Dutch government and were awarded the Mobilisatie-Oorlogskruis (War Mobilization Cross) . An act of historical justice ("An act of historical justice") called it the then Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte .

Towards the end of her life, Freddie Oversteegen was ready to talk to the two documentary filmmakers Thijs Zeeman and Manon Hoornstra about their experiences during the Second World War. This made the documentary Twee zussen in verzet ( Two Sisters in Resistance ) from 2016 possible. In 2018 the youth novel Het meisje met de vlechtjes was published: gebaseerd op het waargebeurde verhaal van Nederlands jongste verzetsmeisje . by Wilma Geldof, based on her personal conversations with Freddie Oversteegen.

literature

  • Eveline Buchheim, Ralf Futselaar (eds.): Under Fire: Women and World War II. Yearbook of Women's History / Jaarboek voor Vrouwengeschiedenis 34. Amsterdam / Hilversum 2014; Here pp. 141–153: Ellis Jonker: Freddi and Truus, Sisters in Arms.
  • Tanja von Fransecky: They wanted to kill me, for that they had to have me first: Help for persecuted Jews in the German-occupied Netherlands 1940–1945. Lukas Publishing House. Berlin 2016, ISBN 978-3-86732-256-0 ; here pp. 248–267: The militant trio from Haarlem: Hannie Schaft, Truus and Freddie Oversteegen.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Noordhollandsarchief: VN - Vrij Nederland September 19, 1981: Interview with Freddie Oversteegen
  2. ↑ Youtube: Verzets Resistance Museum: Verre Verwanten - radio Verzetsmuseum (interview)
  3. ↑ Youtube: Verzets Resistance Museum: Freddie Oversteegen (1925)
  4. ↑ Verzets Resistance Museum: Drie avoid in verzet.
  5. ↑ Der Spiegel (Print) No. 41 (October 6, 2018): P. 133: Obituaries: Freddie Oversteegen.
  6. ↑ Noordhollandsarchief: Truus Menger-Oversteegen (1923–2016)
  7. ↑ a b Oversteegen, Truus (1923-2016) . In: Digitaal Vrouwenlexicon van Nederland , 2017 (Dutch)
  8. ^ Noordhollandsarchief: VN - Vrij Nederland September 19, 1981: Interview with Freddie Oversteegen
  9. ↑ New York Times , September 25, 2018: Freddie Oversteegen, Gritty Dutch Resistance Fighter, Dies at 92. (Quote after the book: "Under Fire: Women and World War II")
  10. ↑ Vice, May 11, 2016: This 90-Year-Old Lady Seduced and Killed Nazis as a Teenager. (Interview)
  11. ↑ History (History stories) September 19, 2018: This Teenager Killed Nazis With Her Sister During WWII.
  12. ↑ Noordhollandsarchief: Truus Menger-Oversteegen (1923–2016)
  13. ^ Noordhollandsarchief: VN - Vrij Nederland September 19, 1981: Interview with Freddie Oversteegen
  14. ^ Noordhollandsarchief: VN - Vrij Nederland September 19, 1981: Interview with Freddie Oversteegen
  15. ↑ History (History stories) September 19, 2018: This Teenager Killed Nazis With Her Sister During WWII.
  16. ↑ Verzets Resistance Museum: Drie avoid in verzet. Here: In verzet.
  17. ↑ NDTV September 17, 2018: Dutch Resistance Fighter, Who Killed Nazis By Seducing Them, Dies At 92.
  18. ↑ Verzets Resistance Museum: Drie avoid in verzet. Here: three avoid in actie.
  19. ↑ New York Times, September 25, 2018: Freddie Oversteegen, Gritty Dutch Resistance Fighter, Dies at 92. (Quoted from the book: Under Fire: Women and World War II. )
  20. ↑ Verzets Resistance Museum: Drie avoid in verzet. Here: three avoid in actie.
  21. ↑ New York Times, September 25, 2018: Freddie Oversteegen, Gritty Dutch Resistance Fighter, Dies at 92. (Quoted from the book: Under Fire: Women and World War II. )
  22. ↑ Verzets Resistance Museum: Drie avoid in verzet. Here: De antmoeting. (Text and photos)
  23. ^ National Hannie Schaft Foundation: Het levensverhaal van Hannie Schaft. Here: Truus en Freddy Oversteegen.
  24. ↑ The Guardian, September 23, 2018: 'Her war never stopped': the Dutch teenager who resisted the Nazis.
  25. ↑ Verzets Resistance Museum: Drie avoid in verzet. Here: three avoid in actie.
  26. ↑ Der Spiegel (Print) No. 41 (October 6, 2018): P. 133: Obituaries: Freddie Oversteegen.
  27. ↑ New York Times, September 25, 2018: Freddie Oversteegen, Gritty Dutch Resistance Fighter, Dies at 92. (Quoted from the book: Under Fire: Women and World War II. )
  28. ↑ NDTV September 17, 2018: Dutch Resistance Fighter, Who Killed Nazis By Seducing Them, Dies At 92.
  29. ↑ NDTV September 17, 2018: Dutch Resistance Fighter, Who Killed Nazis By Seducing Them, Dies At 92. @
  30. ↑ The Guardian, September 23, 2018: 'Her war never stopped': the Dutch teenager who resisted the Nazis.
  31. ↑ The Guardian, September 23, 2018: 'Her war never stopped': the Dutch teenager who resisted the Nazis.
  32. ↑ Imdb: The girl with the red hair (film)
  33. ↑ The Guardian, September 23, 2018: 'Her war never stopped': the Dutch teenager who resisted the Nazis.
  34. ↑ History (History stories) September 19, 2018: This Teenager Killed Nazis With Her Sister During WWII.
  35. ↑ Max May 3, 2016: MAX 2Doc: Twee zussen in verzet.
  36. ↑ The Guardian, September 23, 2018: 'Her war never stopped': the Dutch teenager who resisted the Nazis.
  37. ↑ Wilma Geldof: Het meisje met de vlechtjes: gebaseerd op het waargebeurde verhaal van Nederlands jongste verzetsmeisje . Luitingh Sijthoff, Amsterdam 2018, ISBN 978-9-02458-159-7 (Dutch); Talking is treason. Based on the true story of Freddie Oversteegen . Translated from the Dutch by Verena Kiefer . Gerstenberg Publishing House. Hildesheim 2020, ISBN 978-3-83696-045-8
  38. ↑ Ute Wegmann: Wilma Geldof: "Talking is treason". Never become like the enemy In: Deutschlandfunk from April 25, 2020. Accessed on July 18, 2020
personal data
SURNAME Oversteegen, Freddie
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Dekker-Oversteegen, Freddie Nanda (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Dutch communist resistance fighter against National Socialism
DATE OF BIRTH September 6, 1925
PLACE OF BIRTH Schoten (today: Gemeente / district of Haarlem ), Province of North Holland , Netherlands
DATE OF DEATH 5th September 2018
Place of death Driehuis (district of Velsen ), North Holland province, Netherlands