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A Ballerina Who Stabbed an SS Guard With a Stiletto and Other Historic Rebels

Khalid Elhassan August 10, 2020 34 min

6. Sacrifice and Survival

Dyeing her hair black to hide her identity, Hannie Schaft continued her resistance work, until she was arrested at a checkpoint while distributing an illegal newspaper. After a series of brutal interrogations and tortures, she was executed on April 17^th, 1945, just weeks before the war ended. Reportedly, her killers’ first fusillade only wounded her, so she taunted them “I shoot better than you“, before they managed to finish her off.

The Oversteegens and other left-wing resistance cells suspected that they had been betrayed by right-wing resistance members, who were backwards during the fighting, but came forward at the hour of liberation to claim the lion’s share of the credit. Notwithstanding the setbacks, daily dangers, and mistrust, Truus and Freddie Oversteegen courageously soldiered on and kept up the fight. They evaded capture despite sizeable rewards that were placed on their heads.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.