For readers who enjoy reading World War II nonfiction like me, “Three Ordinary Girls” by Tim Brady is an excellent read. The story revolves around three heroic female teenagers who participated in the Dutch resistance when the German invasion of the Netherlands began in 1940.
At first, the Nazi occupation looked like it would be primarily administrative, but a member of the Nationalist Socialist Party became the new commissioner chosen by the Reich. In less than four months after the occupation, the Germans began to institute their anti-Jewish measures. At this point, Jewish civil servants were dismissed from their jobs.
By 1941, Amsterdam had become the city of unrest in the Netherlands. The Reich was making plans to create a ghetto, and signs were placed in windows of businesses that said Jews were not allowed.
Deportations of the Jews began in 1942. More than six thousand Jews were shipped to transit camps. At this time, the Frank family (“The Diary of Anne Frank”) began hiding behind Otto Frank’s office building.
When the deportations began, Hannie Schaft and two sisters, Truus and Freddie Oversteegen became part of the resistance and worked ferrying Jewish children to safe places, often by bicycles. At great risk to their own lives, they made sure to get the children safely to their destinations. They also sheltered political dissidents, Dutch resisters, and sabotaged bridges and railways.
An example of bravery was when Truus, disguised as a German Red Cross nurse accompanied a group of supposedly ill and infectious children to a home in Dordrecht. The children were 3-14 years old. There was a scare when Truus escorts had to leave the train and follow the SD (Secret Service) or risk exposure. Truus was left alone with the children. She shared with them who she was and with whom she was working. She told them to play along with being ill and contagious. This is just one part of the whole story. Once they were at their destination, she had to guide the children through a minefield to a boat waiting for them. The children had to crawl, single file, through the minefield with Truus leading them.
As the war continued, there were even more heroic efforts. Freddie, Hannie, and Truus traveled on assignments between Leiden and The Hague. They disguised themselves as German girls and flirted with the soldiers of the Wehrmacht to learn about the V-2 missile movements in the area. The V-2 missile was a top-secret weapon developed by Wernher von Braun. This was the first long-range guided missile. Truus and Freddie were sent to find out where the Germans might be deploying them.
In this review, I’ve highlighted only a few of the brave and inspiring events in this book. Unfortunately, Hannie was captured and arrested, but she never gave the Nazis any information of the names of her comrades, hideouts, or safe houses. Truus tried to visit her, but she was told Hannie was no longer there. Hannie was executed with two shots to the back of her head.
In April 2014, Truus and Freddie were honored in a ceremony led by Prime Minister Mark Rutte with the War Mobilization Cross that honored their work in World War II. In 2015, on the seventieth anniversary of Hannie’s reburial, Truus and Freddie attended the memorial honoring Hannie at the Grote Kerek (Protestant church) in Haarlem.
The stories of these teenaged girls are just one example of the bravery and courage of many people during World War II. The fact that they were Jewish is even more astounding; their courage was more than extraordinary.