Estimated studying time: 11 minutes
Jannetje Johanna Schaft was born on 16 September 1920, in Haarlem, a metropolis in northern Netherlands. As a toddler, she glided by Jo. Her mom was a religious Mennonite, whereas her father taught college. When the little woman was seven, her older sister Anna succumbed to diphtheria. Her dad and mom have been exceptionally protecting of her in consequence.
Jo’s father was a member of the Social Democratic Staff’ Social gathering, and politics was a typical subject of dialog across the residence. When she got here of age, Jo enrolled in regulation college desiring to change into a human rights lawyer. Whereas learning regulation she developed friendships with a number of Jewish college students. Within the late 1930’s with persecution of the Jews on the rise throughout Europe, Jo felt energized to assist them.
The World Goes to Hell
The Germans seized the Netherlands in 1940 as a part of the overarching Operation Fall Gelb (Case Yellow). Thus started a brutal occupation that stretched till the nation was lastly liberated by the Allies in 1945. For 5 lengthy years, the Germans in addition to their Dutch collaborators tirelessly battled resistance forces. Jannetje Johanna Schaft discovered herself proper in the midst of all of that chaos.
In 1943, the Germans demanded that college college students signal a declaration of allegiance to the Nazis. Jo refused, as did roughly 80% of her fellow college students. She was subsequently ejected from college earlier than commencement. Jo then moved again in together with her dad and mom in Haarlem. Nevertheless, she introduced two of her Jewish college pals alongside together with her and hid them from the hated occupiers.
The Legislation Scholar Goes to Conflict
Now with just a little time on her palms, Jo sought out the Resistance. As soon as established, she was given the codename Hannie. She turned recognized for her fiery crimson locks.
Hannie began out small, stealing ID playing cards for her Jewish pals and dealing as a courier. Nevertheless, in brief order she developed a proclivity for moist work. Hannie’s true calling was sabotage and assassination. A lot of people talked about killing Nazis. Hannie Schaft truly did one thing about it.
Her weapon of selection was a Browning M1922 pistol in .380ACP. Trim, dependable, and concealable, the FN M1922 noticed widespread distribution each throughout the Underground and as a service pistol amongst Nazi forces. Hannie Schaft put hers to exceptionally good use.
You By no means Overlook Your First
Hannie’s introduction to the darkish, shadowy world of focused assassination was exceptional. After coaching in primary weapons upkeep and marksmanship, she was assigned her first stay hit–the focused killing of a neighborhood villain rumored to be an SD officer. As a part of a two-person hit crew together with a fellow Resistance operative named Cor Rusman, Hannie made her strategy to the goal. When the time was proper, she introduced her handgun, leveled it on the man, and squeezed the set off. Subsequent got here a sickening click on. The weapon was unloaded.
The SD man then calmly launched himself as Frans van der Wiel, the commander of the native Resistance cell. Hannie had handed her check. Whereas she had clearly demonstrated her dedication and willingness, she was livid about having been put via it. Nevertheless, she was now cleared for area ops.
Schaft Had Many Superpowers
Over time, Schaft discovered to talk German fluently. She cultivated relationships with Nazi troopers in order to get nearer to her targets. She and her younger feminine pals would placed on vivid crimson lipstick and frequent native watering holes seeking to choose up German troopers. They’d feign drunkenness after which invite the lads out into the woods for just a little off-the-books enjoyable earlier than reducing them down and stashing the our bodies. Being a horny lady is like having a superpower. Hannie Schaft used hers to kill Nazis.
Time has muted the extent of her operational historical past. No one had time to maintain detailed information. Nevertheless, her private tally was nonetheless spectacular. She was ultimately noticed on the website of considered one of her hits and reported to the authorities. Nobody knew her id, however her look was distinctive. The Nazis subsequently positioned, “The Woman with the Pink Hair” on their most-wanted checklist.
No Scarcity of Enterprise
On 21 June 1944, Hannie and a fellow Resistance shooter named Jan Bonekamp undertook the focused killing of a Dutch police officer collaborator named Willem Ragut. Hannie shot the person within the again together with her .380ACP Browning. Nevertheless, Ragut returned hearth, putting Bonekamp within the intestine earlier than succumbing to his wounds.
Bonekamp’s damage was deadly, however he survived lengthy sufficient to make it to the native hospital. There he inadvertently recognized Hannie to Nazi sympathizer nurses after they claimed to be with the Resistance. The Nazis have been unable to find Schaft, however they arrested her dad and mom and dispatched them to the Herzogenbusch focus camp close to Den Bosch. The trauma of those occasions pushed Hannie underground for a time. Miraculously, her dad and mom have been safely launched after two months.
Schaft and Her Subsequent Stage Killing
From this level ahead, Hannie dyed her hair black and tried to watch out. She helped plan the killing of a collaborator policeman named Pretend Krist in October of 1944. On 1 March 1945, Hannie and Truus Oversteegen killed one other Nazi policeman named Willem Zirkzee.
Two weeks later they wounded Ko Langendijk, a neighborhood hairdresser who labored as an informant for the German SD. Langendijk survived each this assault and the struggle solely to be sentenced to life in jail for supporting the Nazis in the course of the occupation. Nevertheless, by now Hannie Schaft was creating a well-earned repute.
Disaster
Hannie Schaft was arrested at a German checkpoint on 21 March 1945, for illicitly distributing an unlawful communist newspaper referred to as de Waarheid (“The Reality”). In actuality, the paper was simply her cowl. She was truly actively shifting secret messages for the Resistance. The newspaper factor was incriminating, however was not the type of infraction the Germans routinely simply flat-out killed you over. Hannie was remanded to a German-run jail in Amsterdam for interrogation and torture.
Hannie efficiently resisted her captors’ efforts to extract info. Nevertheless, over time her hair inevitably grew out. When the Germans acknowledged her crimson roots they knew that they had lastly captured the grasp murderer Hannie Schaft. Although the struggle was simply weeks from ending, the Nazis determined that Schaft should die.
Hannie Schaft: Defiant to the Finish
On 17 April 1945, two Dutch Nazis named Mattheus Schmitz and Maarten Kuiper transported Hannie to the dunes of Overveen close to Bloemendaal on the direct orders of Willy Lages. Lages headed up the SD in Amsterdam throughout WW2 and was a correct monster. The younger firebrand Resistance fighter was solely 24 years previous on the time. The 2 turncoat Dutchmen compelled Hannie to kneel, and Schmitz shot her at the back of the top at near-contact vary. What occurred subsequent made Hannie Schaft a legend.
Lots of the compact service pistols utilized by the Germans and their minions have been pathetic little .32-caliber pocket weapons. On this case, the spherical deflected off of Hannie’s cranium. She then purportedly turned to her executioners and mentioned, “Ik schiet beter!” This interprets to, “I shoot higher!” Kuiper then stepped ahead and killed the girl with a burst of fireplace from his submachine gun.
The Aftermath
There isn’t a document of Mattheus Schmitt ever having been prosecuted after the struggle. Nevertheless, Maarten Kuiper and Willy Lages have been each introduced up on expenses for struggle crimes. Kuiper was sentenced to demise and executed in 1948. Lages was equally sentenced. Nevertheless, in a profoundly controversial transfer, the Dutch Queen Juliana refused to signal his demise warrant. His sentence was commuted to life in 1952.
Lages was ultimately freed in 1966 resulting from poor well being. His launch sparked widespread public protests. Lages ultimately returned to Germany the place he died of pure causes in 1971.
Ruminations
The Bloemendaal dunes the place Hannie Schaft died was the placement of numerous German executions in the course of the struggle. As soon as the mud settled, Dutch authorities exhumed the our bodies buried there. They discovered 421 males and one lady–Hannie Schaft. She was re-interred with honors at a ceremony attended by the Dutch Queen and her husband.
Hannie Schaft’s repute waxed and waned via the years. Queen Juliana unveiled a big bronze commemorative statue in her honor within the Kenau Park in Haarlem close to the place she was born. She was posthumously awarded the Dutch Cross of Resistance in addition to the Medal of Freedom by Common Eisenhower. Nevertheless, she was additionally an avowed communist. Throughout the Chilly Conflict, veneration by the Dutch communist social gathering took the shine off of her exploits.
Hannie Schaft Legacy
Tens of hundreds of Dutch communists visited Hannie’s grave till 1951, when such celebrations have been forbidden. One occasion needed to be damaged up by a number of hundred riot police backed up by 4 tanks. It was a bizarre time.
Finally, with the Chilly Conflict received and communism in decline within the Netherlands, curiosity in Hannie Schaft’s exploits was kindled anew. Books and films about her life adopted. There may be now an annual occasion staged in Haarlem in her honor. The final Sunday of every November is put aside as a day of remembrance within the Netherlands for Hannie’s life, work, and martyrdom.
In contrast to film depictions, killing at shut quarters is reliably arduous. It requires resolve, nerve, technical talent, the correct instruments, and no small quantity of uncooked unfiltered hate. Hannie Schaft had all of those in abundance. In her temporary life and gory demise, we see resistance personified. At a time when she might have merely stood apart and let the struggle move her by, Hannie took up arms and killed Nazis. She was a patriot of the best order.
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