9. Teenage Girls’ First Step Into the Resistance
It was against the above backdrop that the Dutch Resistance approached Truus and Freddie Oversteegen’s mother. They 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. After all, who would suspect a pair of teenage girls of membership in the armed underground? Their mother consented, and the sisters eagerly accepted the invitation and joined the antifascist fight. They became the first women in their cell, which was later joined by an even more famous Dutch Resistance heroine, Hannie Schaft.
When they joined the Dutch Resistance, the teenaged Truus and Freddie Oversteegen started off small. They distributed leaflets and illegal newspapers, and offered assistance to fugitives from the Nazi. However, things changed in the aftermath of the brutal Nazi crackdown in 1941, in retaliation for the massive Dutch workers’ strike to protest the deportation of Jews. German brutality further radicalized Truus, and spurred her and her sister to join an armed fighter cell that engaged in direct resistance action against the Nazis.
