Schaft, Jeannetje Joanna (hannie) (Resistance, Dutch)

On April 17, 1945, Hannie Schaft, "Girl with red hair," was executed. From the article:

"Schaft, Jeannetje Joanna (hannie) (Resistance, Dutch)
(19 2 0-1945)

Dutch resister executed by the Nazis. Jeannetje Joanna (Hannie) Schaft was born on September 16, 1920, in Haarlem, the Netherlands. Her parents were teachers and socialists. Schaft was studying law in Amsterdam when the Germans invaded on May 10, 1940. Her family’s political orientation had prepared her to actively oppose the Nazis. By 1942 Hannie was stealing identity papers from mailboxes and lockers in public places to provide false documentation for Jews. In 1943, when students were required to sign an oath of loyalty to the occupation regime, Hannie refused and had to leave the University of Am-terdam.

She became a member of the Haarlemse Raad van Verzet (RVV, Haarlem Resistance Council). With her friends, sisters Truus and Freddie Oversteegen, Hannie distributed underground newspapers, stole identity papers and weapons, wheedled information from German soldiers about coastal defenses, and placed Jewish children with people willing to hide them. Eventually, Hannie engaged in sabotage and the murder of Nazi agents and collaborators. In November 1943, Hannie and three others attempted to blow up a power station in the Velsen-Noord district of the northern Netherlands, but some of the explosives failed to detonate. There was some damage to the electrical system, but only part of the electric-powered rail system was affected.

To hide her identity, Hannie dyed her red hair black and wore glasses with plain lenses. Nevertheless, during a routine identity check on March 21, 1945, Hannie was caught with resistance newspapers in her bicycle case. Under intense interrogation she admitted killing a Dutch collaborator. On April 17, 1945, shortly before the end of the war, she was executed by the Nazis on the dunes near Haarlem, where hundreds of other Dutch resisters had been shot.

In 1981 a film was produced based on Theun de Vries’s book Het meisje met het rode haar (The Girl with Red Hair)."