The 14-year-old assassin who lured Nazis and traitors to their deaths

Freddie Oversteegen was just 14 years old when she became an assassin for the Dutch resistance during the German occupation of the Netherlands.

The teenager would ask her victims if they would like to go for a “stroll” in the woods. The men would never return.

Freddie is credited with the deaths of multiple German soldiers and traitors during the war. How did a young girl manage to do this you may ask? She wore her hair in braids of course. Well, that among other things. 

The women of the Dutch Resistance: meet Freddie Oversteegen

Freddie belonged to a group of three young women who would sabotage and assassinate soldiers and traitors during the German occupation. The women were part of a small cell of seven which consisted of her sister, Truus, and Hannie Schaft, known as “The girl with red hair.”  

While all three women carried out acts of brave resistance against the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands, this article will focus on Freddie, the youngest of the three — and the first to kill. 

Communist background

Freddie was born in 1925 and initially lived on a barge with her family in Schoten. Freddie and Truus’ parents raised them to resist.

Her parents hid Lithuanian refugees in the hold of their ship before the beginning of World War II. The family would also later hide a Jewish couple in their home during the 1930s. 

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Once their parents divorced, Freddie and her sister were raised primarily by their mother, who taught them communist principles. Given the principles they were raised with, it’s no surprise that the sisters resisted the German occupation of the Netherlands. 

Work for the Dutch resistance 

When the war began, Freddie and Truus handed out anti-Nazi pamphlets on the streets — an act that caught the attention of Frans van der Wiel, the commander of the Haarlem Council of Resistance.

He came to the Oversteegen residence one day and asked whether the sisters would be willing to join. He hoped that their innocent looks would help the resistance.

Freddie was just 14 years old at this point. But with the permission of her mother, and the promise to “always stay human,” the sisters joined the Council of Resistance. 

Truus recalled in an interview for the book ‘Under Fire: Women and World War II’ that it was only after joining the resistance that Der Wiel revealed that he planned for the girls to sabotage bridges and railway lines. “We told him we’d like to do that,” Truus said.

The girls followed through: they blew up bridges and train tracks. But they also smuggled Jewish children out of the country and out of concentration camps.

A cycling assassin

However, this work was not the only thing that Der Wiel had in store for the two sisters. Truus recalled that he also told them they would need to “learn to shoot — to shoot Nazis.“

“I remember my sister saying, ‘Well, that’s something I’ve never done before!'” Freddie would be the first of the three women to carry this act out. 

Freddie was just a teenager when she first assassinated someone. In an interview with the BBC, her son speculates that her first victim was a Dutch woman who planned on handing over a list of Jewish people to the Germans.

She approached the woman in the park, asked her for her name — to see if she had the right target — and then shot her.

Freddie was quite small and wore her hair in two braids which made her look innocent and enabled her to get away easily. Her method of attack was often a drive-by. Truus would cycle a bike whilst Freddie sat on the back and shot.

“We always went by bike, never walked, that was too dangerous. I always made sure the coast was clear. That worked very well.”

Luring Nazis and collaborators to their deaths

As if the idea of a young girl conducting a cycle-by shooting isn’t shocking enough, Freddie and her sister are most famed for their second assassination technique — luring men, often German soldiers, to their deaths. 

Freddie would meet soldiers and collaborators in the taverns and ask them if they would like to go “for a stroll.” Upon accepting the offer, the targets would be led to the woods and shot in a surprise attack. 

When speaking in a television interview about her attacks, Freddie talked of the strange compulsion to help her victims up again “Yes, I’ve shot a gun myself, and I’ve seen them fall, and what is inside us at such a moment? You want to help them get up.”

Drawing the line

When asked about the attacks against soldiers and collaborators, Freddie described them as a “necessary evil.” However, the three women assassins did have to draw the line at one point. 

The resistance had asked the women to help take the children of a senior Nazi officer hostage. They planned to exchange the children for captured members of the Dutch resistance. But if the negotiations soured, they would have to kill them. 

READ MORE | Hannie Schaft: the Dutch spy who was executed by the Nazis

At this point, Freddie, Truus, and Hannie refused to carry out the mission. “We are no Hitlerites. Resistance fighters don’t murder children,” Freddie told one interviewer. 

Legacy

Once the war was over, Freddie remained the quieter of the two Oversteegen sisters. Truus became an artist and lectured about her time in the Dutch resistance. 

It was only in 2014 that Freddie was really recognised for her efforts during the resistance. Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte awarded her and Truus the Mobilisation War Cross.

Her son, Remy, described the moment as a highlight in his mother’s life. Streets in Haarlem were even named after Freddie and her sister. 

In an interview with VICE, Freddie said that once the war ended, she coped by “getting married and having babies.” However, her son, Remi, believes the war never stopped for his mother. In an interview with NH Nieuws, he claimed that “The war actually lasted 80 years for Freddie.”

Freddie expressed a similar sentiment herself when talking to VICE about conversations with her sister “we never had to say ‘remember when,’ because it was always at the top of our minds.”

Freddie Oversteegen passed away on December 5, 2018 — one day before her 93rd birthday. 

What do you think of this brave teenager? Tell us your thoughts in the comments below.

Feature Image: Ministerie van Defensie/Wikimedia Commons/CC1.0