The Extraordinary Courage and Sacrifice of Dutch Resistance Fighter Hannie Schaft

The Extraordinary Courage and Sacrifice of Dutch Resistance Fighter Hannie Schaft

Today I want to talk about a young Dutch woman whose courage in World War Two was extraordinary. Her name was Hannie Schaft, but she became known as “the girl with the red hair.” Her story is not only about resistance and danger but also about conviction, friendship, and the terrible price that some were forced to pay in order to oppose the German occupation.

Hannie Schaft was born Jannetje Johanna Schaft on the 16th of September 1920 in Haarlem in the Netherlands. She was Dutch and grew up in a family where politics was openly discussed. Her father was a teacher with socialist sympathies, and this must have influenced Hannie’s strong sense of justice. The death of her older sister when she was a child made her parents even more protective of her.

In 1938, Hannie began to study law at the University of Amsterdam. She hoped one day to become a lawyer and to defend human rights. While there, she formed close friendships with Jewish students, including Sonja Frenk and Philine Polak. When the Second World War and the German occupation was forced on the Netherlands in 1940, the persecution of the Jewish people became impossible to ignore. Hannie watched the discrimination and fear growing around her, and it deeply affected her.

At first, her resistance work involved small and discreet acts of courage. She helped Jewish people to obtain false identity papers and helped friends in hiding. In 1943, when Dutch students were ordered to sign a declaration of loyalty to the occupation authorities, Hannie refused. And like many others, she lost the right to continue studying.

This seems to have given her the resolve to get more involved. Hannie joined the Dutch resistance group known as the Raad van Verzet, or Council of Resistance, which had links to the Dutch Communist movement. There she worked with sisters Truus and Freddie Oversteegen. Hannie carried weapons, transported unauthorised and illegal newspapers and documents, sabotaged targets, and took part in attacks against the German occupiers and Dutch collaborators. She became brilliant at disguise, she eventually dyed her famous red hair black and wore glasses to avoid detection.

The work she did was dangerous. She did not accept every mission and reportedly refused one plan that involved kidnapping children because she was worried that innocent lives would be put at risk.

On the 21st of March 1945, only weeks before the end of the war in Europe, Hannie was arrested at a checkpoint while carrying underground material. She suffered harsh interrogation and solitary confinement but it appears she did not betray her fellow resistance members.

On the 17th of April 1945, just three weeks before the German surrender in the Netherlands, Hannie Schaft was executed by shooting in the dunes near Bloemendaal. She was only twenty-four years old.

After the war, the Netherlands honoured her sacrifice. She received the Dutch Cross of Resistance, the Resistance Memorial Cross, and the American Medal of Freedom awarded by General Eisenhower. She was also recognised as Righteous Among the Nations for helping Jewish people survive persecution. In November 1945, her state funeral was attended by members of the Dutch royal family, and she became a symbol of Dutch resistance during the Second World War.

I wonder how much courage it must have taken for someone so young to risk everything for people she believed deserved justice and freedom.

 Could we have shown the same bravery in her place?