Women Who Inspire Me - Freddie Oversteegen

I've always been a bit of a rebel at heart and that was especially true when I was a teenager.  I stood up for what I believed in, even when it scared me to do it.  I stood up for myself when I left home early and was legally emancipated at the age of 16, following that I got my first apartment.  It was an ugly studio on the 3rd floor of an old brick apartment building, but it was mine and I loved it.  

So I'm always fascinated with learning about other brave teens stood up for what they believed in.  Freddie Oversteegen was a just a young girl when she joined the Dutch Resistance during World War II.  During the war, her mother hid a Jewish couple in their home, while Freddie and her sister began distributing anti-Nazi material.  It was during this time that Freddie was asked to join the Resistance.  She was 14 at the time.   They taught her to shoot and Freddie along with her sister, killed Nazis after seducing them and luring them into the woods.   She, along with her sister and another friend, would also shoot Nazis while riding their bikes. 

Her age (and her braids) played into her success as no one suspected a girl of her age to be involved in such things.   Which was good, because if they had been caught, they would have been killed.  While they were suspected in many killings, Freddie or her sister never revealed the details of how many Nazis they assassinated.  

That said, I don't intend to romanticize her work.  Freddie and her sister survived the war, but carried emotional scars for the rest of their lives.  They did what they had to do to save others.  

Freddie inspires me because she was motivated to fight injustice after witnessing Nazi atrocities against innocent people.  Her resolve to do the right thing took exceptional strength and bravery, at the cost of her own youth.  

Until next time,