The Life of Freddie Oversteegen
The daring acts of a young girl in Nazi Germany
The most unusual of heroes can have the biggest impact. On Sept. 5, Dutch resistance fighter Freddie Oversteegen, unfortunately, passed away in a nursing home just one day before her 93rd birthday. Freddie Oversteegen isn’t a very well-known name, but her role in World War II made a huge impact. Her capabilities involved luring unassuming Nazi soldiers to their deaths in dark alleys using the art of seduction.
Born on September 6th, 1925, Freddie Oversteegen was raised by her single communist mother in a village that is now part of the Dutch city of Haarlem. She spent some of her childhood making dolls for children caught up in the Spanish Civil War. Eventually, she began distributing anti-Nazi posters and pamphlets until one day when everything changed. When she was 14, a mysterious gentleman asked her mother to allow Freddie and her sister, Truus, to enlist in the Dutch resistance movement. Their mother agreed, allowing the girls to receive military training to fight the bigger fight. Their training consisted of learning how to shoot and march in the depths of the woods.
In a 2016 interview, Oversteegen said “[she] remember(s) how people were taken from their homes. The Germans were banging on doors with the butts of their rifles — that made so much noise, you’d hear it in the entire neighborhood. And they would always yell — it was very frightening.”
The role of women in the Dutch resistance was often thought to be minimal. It was often cited as a man’s war, due to men's role on the frontline and the backline. Whenever women were mentioned in the resistance, the description was often limited to handing out pamphlets or newspapers to spread the cause.
Oversteegen and her sister were rare exceptions, however. According to a fellow resistance fighter, Oversteegen was the first woman to shoot a “Nazi traitor.” In some of the most daring acts of resistance ever, Freddie and her sister would frequent bars that Nazi men liked to gather in. The sisters would seduce the Nazis, persuading them to go on a stroll together. When the men were comfortable enough the two would come into contact with another member of the resistance, who would pretend to admonish them for traveling so far out. When the group turned to go back the resistance fighter would shoot the men dead.
After the deed was done, other resistance fighters would begin preparing a grave. They would then strip the men naked and throw them in the hole. Freddie would warn her comrades that the burial was not something that anyone, especially girls, needed to see. They were also given many other assignments, such as transporting Jews to hiding spots, blowing up railways and planting a communist flag at the headquarters of the National Socialist Movement.
Although Oversteegen performed dangerous acts for good, she found no pleasure in what she was doing. “We had to do it,” she said when asked by an interviewer. She continued by saying “It was a necessary evil, killing those who betrayed the good people.” When asked how many people she had killed or helped kill, she answered with reluctance by saying: “One should not ask a soldier any of that.”
After the conclusion of the war, Freddie, unfortunately, had to deal with the trauma of killing people and losing her best friend Hannie, in the process. Freddie, in an interview in 2016, stated that getting married and having babies was a misguided attempt at coping. But the experience of war still caused her insomnia. Her sister went on to create sculptures, and later spoke and wrote about their time in the resistance.
Both Freddie and her sister died at the age of 92, but the legacy of their acts will never be forgotten in the slightest. Their valiant efforts during the resistance helped save many lives and shaped the result of World War II.
Braylin Horton is a junior at Morehouse College. He is a CTEMs (Cinema, Television, Emerging Media Studies) major with a minor in Journalism. He strives to become a screenwriter.
