When Nazi Germany invaded the Netherlands on May 10, 1940, the country was quickly overwhelmed. Heavy aerial bombardment of Rotterdam destroyed the city’s historic center, and Dutch forces surrendered by May 15. Soon after, the occupation government introduced anti-Jewish laws designed to exclude Jewish people from society.
Systematic deportations of Dutch Jews to death camps began in July 1942. Many Dutch citizens could not bear to watch what was happening to their country and its people. Among those who joined the resistance was a young woman who would become the Nazis’ most wanted woman in the Netherlands: Hannie Schaft.
Schaft was born as Jannetje Johanna Schaft on December 16, 1920, in Haarlem. She had an older sister, Annie, who died from diphtheria at age seven. Because of that loss, her parents raised Hannie with great caution and kept a close eye on her.
Hannie developed a political consciousness at a young age. Her father, Pieter Schaft, was an active supporter of the Social Democratic Workers’ Party and shared his leftist views openly at the dinner table. Guided by her socialist parents, she developed a strong sense of social justice and a deep hatred of fascism.
At home she was open and talkative, but at school she remained quiet. Her bright red hair made her a target for teasing and mockery.
In 1938, after high school in Haarlem, Hannie began studying at the University of Amsterdam, hoping to become a human rights lawyer. During her studies, she became close friends with Jewish students Sonja Frank and Philine Polak. These friendships made her feel strongly about the actions being taken against Jews.
World War II began on September 1, 1939, when Nazi Germany invaded Poland. Even in the early stages of the war, Hannie’s resistant spirit began to show. Through the Red Cross, she sent food and other supplies to imprisoned Polish soldiers.
After the German invasion of the Netherlands, a civil administration was installed under SS auspices. Arthur Seyss-Inquart was appointed Reich commissioner. Among his first steps was a series of laws imposing economic discrimination against Jews.
In January 1941, German authorities required all Jews to register themselves. The Germans claimed this was for their own safety, but the real purpose was to enable future deportations. A total of 159,806 people were registered, including about 25,000 Jewish refugees from the German Reich.
Around this time, Hannie founded a debate group called Gamma, where critiques of the Nazi occupation and anti-Semitism were frequent topics. She also wrote articles in the university paper criticizing the segregation of Jewish students and teachers.
On February 22 and 23, 1941, German forces raided the Jewish quarter in Amsterdam. They arrested and deported more than 400 Jewish men to the Buchenwald and Mauthausen concentration camps. In response, the Dutch people organized the February Strike, a two-day general strike that began on February 25, 1941. German officials brutally suppressed it.
The Nazi policy hardened after the strike. Jews were segregated from the general Dutch population, and 15,000 were incarcerated in forced labor camps. Jews were ordered to concentrate in Amsterdam, and foreign and stateless Jews were sent to the Westerbork transit camp.
Signs reading “Forbidden for Jews” appeared on cafes, swimming pools, sports fields, museums, zoos, libraries, theaters, markets, and many other public places. Jews had to hand over their valuables, and their businesses were confiscated. Regulations forcing Jews to wear a yellow Star of David were announced on April 29, 1942.
Deportations of Jews from the Netherlands began in July 1942. Over two years, the Germans and their Dutch collaborators deported about 107,000 Jews, mostly to Auschwitz and Sobibor, where they were murdered. Only 5,200 survived. Another 25,000 to 30,000 Jews went into hiding with the help of the Dutch underground, and two-thirds of those survived.
In 1943, university students were required to sign a declaration of allegiance to the occupation authorities. Hannie refused, like about 80 other students, and could not continue her studies. In the summer of 1943, she moved back in with her parents and brought her Jewish friends Sonja and Philine with her. She obtained fake IDs for them to evade Nazi checkpoints.
After leaving university, Hannie joined the Council of Resistance, a movement with close ties to the Communist Party of the Netherlands. There she met two sisters, Truus and Freddie Oversteegen, who became her close friends. The three formed a famous trio in the Dutch resistance, feared by German occupiers and Dutch Nazi collaborators alike.
Hannie served as the intellectual member of the group. Truus emerged as the decisive and practical leader, and Freddie was known as the fierce one who mapped out their missions. Armed resistance was extremely dangerous, and many fighters were arrested and executed.
Hannie wanted to work with weapons rather than act as a courier. She was responsible for sabotage and assassinations. It is unclear exactly how many attacks can be attributed to her, but it is believed there were at least six.
Before confronting her targets, she would put on makeup, including lipstick and mascara, and style her hair. She once explained her reasoning to Truus: “I’ll die clean and beautiful.”
Hannie and the Oversteegen sisters gathered vital information, provided Jewish children with safe houses, stole identification papers, and bombed railways. Hannie spoke fluent German, and with Truus and Freddie, she became involved with German soldiers. They would seduce high-ranking Nazi officers, lure them into the woods, and kill them.
Hannie was also involved in killing or wounding a baker known for betraying people, a hairdresser who worked for the Nazi intelligence agency, and a Nazi police officer named Willem Zirkzee. Soon she became known as “the girl with the red hair” and was placed on the Nazis’ most wanted list. Adolf Hitler had personally ordered her capture.
Hannie and the Oversteegen sisters targeted mostly Nazi officers but also Dutch collaborators who gave the Nazis details about Jewish and dissident families. However, they refused to target the children of high-ranking Nazis. When resistance commanders asked them to kidnap the three children of Reich commissioner Seyss-Inquart, they refused, arguing that resistance fighters do not kill children.
Hannie also worked closely with Jan Bonekamp, one of the founders of the resistance, whom she admired greatly. Bonekamp was charismatic, fearless, and good-looking, and the two were rumored to have had a romantic relationship.
On June 21, 1944, Hannie and Jan carried out an assassination on Willem Bragt, a police officer and collaborator. Hannie fired first and hit Bragt in the back, but Bonekamp was shot in the stomach before Bragt died. The two resistance fighters fled in different directions. Hannie managed to get away, but the fatally wounded Bonekamp was arrested and taken to the hospital.
While in the hospital, Bonekamp unintentionally gave Hannie’s name and address to Dutch Nazi nurses who were pretending to be resistance workers. He died from his injuries soon after. A week later, Nazis raided Hannie’s parents’ house and sent her parents to a Dutch concentration camp.
Overwhelmed with grief, Hannie nearly turned herself in, but resistance members ordered her to stay with the Oversteegens until she calmed down. She temporarily stopped working for the resistance due to distress and grief over Bonekamp’s death.
When her parents were released several months later, she decided to return to the resistance. She disguised herself by dyeing her hair black and wearing wireframe glasses. She once again contributed to assassinations and sabotage, as well as courier work, the transportation of illegal weapons, and the dissemination of illegal newspapers.
Her dedication was short-lived. On March 21, 1945, Hannie was caught during a police patrol while in possession of two resistance-friendly newspapers and a pistol. She was arrested and brought to a prison in Amsterdam, where she was tortured and interrogated.
When forced to wash her hair, the Nazis knew they had finally found the red-haired assassin they had been searching for over two years. Although there was an agreement between the occupier and the Dutch resistance to stop executions near the end of the war, the Nazis decided to kill her anyway.
Hannie was executed by Nazi officials Maarten Kuiper and Matthias Schmitz only three weeks before the liberation. She was shot in the dunes of Overveen near Bloemendaal. The first bullet struck her in the head but only wounded her. While still standing, she said her final words, allegedly: “I shoot better.” A second bullet, fired by Kuiper, killed her.
Hannie Schaft was only 24 years old when she died on April 17, 1945. The Netherlands was liberated from Nazi occupation only 18 days later, on May 5, 1945. The dunes where she was killed became a mass grave for over 400 Dutch resistance fighters, including Hannie herself.
On November 27, 1945, Hannie was reburied in a state funeral at the Dutch Honorary Cemetery Bloemendaal. Members of the Dutch government and royal family attended, including Queen Wilhelmina, who called Hannie the symbol of resistance.
Following her death, Hannie became known as one of the bravest resistance fighters of World War II, both in the Netherlands and abroad. Supreme Allied Commander Dwight Eisenhower awarded her a posthumous Medal of Freedom.
Her legacy suffered during the Cold War because of her communist ties. More recently, however, in 2020, Deputy Prime Minister Kajsa Ollongren honored her for the 100-year celebration of her birthday. Ollongren said Hannie fought for liberty and a society in which everyone has the right to participate. Her life teaches us that we must not look away from the fight against evil.