The true story of the role of women in the Dutch resistance (first published by The Historical Fiction Society)

It’s unusual to read novels about women who took an active role in the resistance in World War 2, especially Dutch women. So I was intrigued to discover the stories of three Dutch teenage girls, aged between fourteen and nineteen, who became key members of the resistance and banded together to take terrifying direct action against the Nazis and their collaborators.

These three young Dutch women were smart, political and fearless. Whether it was sheltering Jews, political dissidents and men who refused to obey the order to work in German bomb factories, or blowing up bridges and railways, setting fire to military facilities or carrying out assassinations of known Nazi conspirators, the breath-taking courage they demonstrated was unprecedented, for this was highly unusual behaviour for women, let alone teenagers.

Women in wartime were expected to keep the home fires burning and let the men get on with the fighting. And yet, these three – as well as many other female Dutch resistance fighters whose stories have never been told – were prepared to give their lives for what they believed was right, which was to defend their country from the enemy.

My book, The Girl with the Red Hair, is based on the true story of Hannie Schaft, the most famous of the three women, who continues to hold a special place in the hearts of the Dutch population. A true freedom fighter, Hannie Schaft put her life on the line in order to protect Jews and other innocent people from the Nazis. To the Dutch, Hannie Schaft was an icon of resistance during World War 2 and around the country there are schools and streets named after her. After the war, the Hannie Schaft Foundation was created in her memory. Each year on the last Sunday in November a day of remembrance takes place in her home-town or Haarlem, commemorating her life and work.

At the start of the war, Hannie Schaft was a Law student at the University of Amsterdam and her studies were disrupted by the German occupation of the Netherlands. On May 14th 1940 the Germans launched a shock bomb attack on Rotterdam that almost entirely destroyed the city centre, leaving hundreds dead, and many thousands homeless. Within hours of the attack, all roads out of Rotterdam were packed with people desperately trying to flee the burning city. It was a devastating blow to the Dutch people, who had always believed their country would be safe from war, because Germany had always been their ally. During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, The Netherlands had remained neutral with respect to Germany and avoided conflict during the First World War. But after the devastating bombing of Rotterdam, all hope that the Netherlands would be able to hold out evaporated and the country officially signed an unconditional surrender, which marked the beginning of five years of war, hardship and suffering.

When war broke out Hannie was living in a student house in the centre of Amsterdam, which she shared with two good Jewish friends. Initially, life carried on as normal before the Nazis took over and there wasn’t much of an armed presence on the streets. All this changed by early 1941, when the occupied Dutch government demanded that all Jews must report and be registered by the Bureau of Public Records. It soon became apparent that this was in preparation of the creation of a Jewish ghetto in Amsterdam.

Amsterdam became a hostile place for the 80,000 Jews, who represented three-quarters of the Netherlands’ Jewish population

When it became clear that her friends’ lives were under threat, Hannie felt compelled to help them by taking them away from Amsterdam to go into hiding at her parents’ home in Haarlem. It could only be a temporary solution. Hannie heard about a local resistance group and joined up, initially stealing identity cards at the local swimming pool and passing them on to a friend who made counterfeit cards for Jews. Not only was she able to help her Jewish friends in this way, but she soon got a taste for other more dangerous assignments.

Hannie learnt how to use a gun and became one of Haarlem’s best resistance operatives, who hunted down Nazi officers and known collaborators. Whether she was assassinating Nazis by shooting them while cycling her bicycle alongside them, or helping to find safe hiding places for Jews, transporting weapons and top-secret information in her saddle bags, Hannie was prepared to take on any assignment in her quest for justice.

It was Hannie’s great misfortune to be arrested only weeks before the end of the war. She had picked up a stack of illegal newspapers with the intention of distributing them around Amsterdam, when she was stopped at a German checkpoint. Previously, she had always managed to talk her way out of being searched, but not on this occasion. The newspapers were discovered and she was escorted to nearby Wehrmacht barracks. She was waiting to discover what would happen to her, when she picked up her bag and the pistol she’d hidden in a secret flap fell out onto the ground. Her jailors were immediately alerted and realised they had a person of particular interest in their grasp.

Despite being badly treated and continually interrogated in prison, Hannie refused to talk and she never divulged the names of her resistance comrades. Some weeks earlier, she had dyed her vivid red hair black and was confident no one would recognise her. But the ruse failed when a shrewd interrogator observed the red roots of her hair which had grown out.

Even though the war was almost at an end, Hannie wasn’t spared: the Germans wanted their revenge against the girl with the red hair who had so often evaded their attempts to catch her.

The events leading to her execution are well documented. One cold spring morning, Hannie was taken from her cell to a waiting car by two German soldiers holding machine guns. Chillingly, a third had brought a shovel. When they reached a particular spot on the deserted windswept dunes, Hannie was marched to a point where one of the soldiers took aim and fired. But his first shot only grazed her ear. She reportedly turned to her executioner and shouted, “Idiot! I was a better shot!” The second bullet hit her in the back of the head and killed her.

It has been a humbling experience writing about Hannie Schaft, brave selfless Dutch resistance fighter. Even though my book is fiction, I hope I have been able to do justice to this incredible inspiring woman whose legacy lives on in the hearts of so many Dutch people today.

Find out more about my new novel, the second in The Dutch Girl series, called The Girl with the Red Hair.

Published by Bookouture, March 20th 2024