21. Joining the Fight
The Oversteegen sisters lived in dire poverty after their parents divorced, and the hardships and shortages resulting from life under Nazi occupation made things worse. Living with their mother, they managed to get by. Their mother also managed to continue the family’s tradition of harbouring fugitives from oppression, by hiding a Jewish couple in their apartment during the war. As Freddie recalled years later, that confused her at first, because the Jewish couple were capitalists, while the Oversteegens were communists.
Around that time, the Dutch Resistance approached the Oversteegen girls’ mother, and asked if she would allow her daughters to join the Council of Resistance – a resistance organization that had close ties to the Communist Party of the Netherlands. Their mother consented, and the teenage sisters eagerly accepted the invitation and joined the resistance. They became the first women in their cell.
