Freddie Oversteegen

Freddie Nanda Dekker-Oversteegen (6 September 1925 – 5 September 2018) was a Dutch communist resistance member during the occupation of the Netherlands in World War II.

Freddie Dekker-Oversteegen

Early life

Freddie Oversteegen was born 6 September 1925 in the village of Schoten, Netherlands.[1] She had an older sister, Truus Menger-Oversteegen.[2] She and her family lived on a barge. Before the war, the Oversteegen family harbored people from Lithuania in the hold of their ship, hidden.[3] After the divorce of her parents, Oversteegen was raised by her mother, who taught her communist principles.[2] She moved from the barge to a small apartment.[3] Oversteegen's mother would later remarry and give birth to her half-brother. The family lived in poverty.[2]

World War II

During the war, the Oversteegen family hid a Jewish couple in their home.[3] Freddie Oversteegen and her older sister Truus began handing out anti-Nazi pamphlets, which attracted the notice of Haarlem Council of Resistance commander Frans van der Wiel. With their mother's permission, the girls joined the Council of Resistance, which brought them into a coordinated effort.[2] Freddie was fourteen years old at the time.[3][4]

Oversteegen, her sister, and friend Hannie Schaft worked to sabotage the Nazi military presence in the Netherlands.[5] They used dynamite to disable bridges and railroad tracks.[6] Additionally, they aided Jewish children by smuggling them out of the country or helping them escape concentration camps.[2]

The Oversteegens and Schaft also killed German soldiers, with Freddie being the first of the girls to kill a soldier by shooting them while riding her bicycle.[1][5] They also lured soldiers to the woods under the pretense of a romantic overture and then killed them.[1][5] Oversteegen would approach the soldiers in taverns and bars and ask them to "go for a stroll" in the forest.[2][5]

Post-war

Oversteegen served as a board member on the National Hannie Schaft Foundation, which was established by her sister, Truus.[2] In 2014, Freddie and Truus were awarded the Mobilisation War Cross (Mobilisatie-Oorlogskruis) by Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte for their acts of resistance during the war.[1][7] There is also a street named after her in Haarlem.[8]

Oversteegen experienced a series of heart attacks towards the end of her life. She died on 5 September 2018 in a nursing home in Driehuis, one day before her ninety-third birthday.[1][2]

Personal life

Freddie Oversteegen married Jan Dekker. They had three children.[2]

References
  1. Roberts, Sam (25 September 2018). "Freddie Oversteegen, Gritty Dutch Resistance Fighter, Dies at 92". The New York Times. Retrieved 10 March 2019.
  2. Smith, Harrison. "Freddie Oversteegen, Dutch resistance fighter who killed Nazis through seduction, dies at 92". The Washington Post. Retrieved 16 September 2018.
  3. Spanjer, Noor (11 May 2016). "This 90-Year-Old Lady Seduced and Killed Nazis as a Teenager". Vice. Retrieved 16 September 2018.
  4. Matt Killeen (March 2018). Orphan Monster Spy. Penguin Young Readers Group. pp. 412–. ISBN 978-0-451-47873-3.
  5. Rossen, Jake (6 February 2020). "The Teenage Girl Gang That Seduced and Killed Nazis". www.mentalfloss.com.
  6. Kathryn Atwood (1 March 2011). Women Heroes of World War II: 26 Stories of Espionage, Sabotage, Resistance, and Rescue. Chicago Review Press. pp. 105–. ISBN 978-1-56976-852-5.
  7. "Resistance sisters honoured almost 70 years after the end of WWII". DutchNews.nl. DutchNews. 15 April 2014. Retrieved 16 September 2018.
  8. Buchheim, E.; Futselaar, R., eds. (2014). Under Fire: Women and World War II: Yearbook of Women’s History/Jaarboek voor Vrouwengeschiedenis 34. Uitgeverij Verloren. p. 147. ISBN 9789087044756.
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