Hannie schaft biography of williams

Member of the Dutch resistance during World War II who protected Jews, gathered vital reconnaissance information, assassinated Germans and Dutch collaborators, and was executed in the last days of the war. Name variations: Johanna Jannetje Schaft; "Johanna Elderkamp." Born Jannetje Johanna Schaft in Haarlem, the Netherlands, on September 16, 1920; executed on April 17, 1945; daughter of Pieter Schaft (a teacher) and Aafje Talea (Vrijer) Schaft; was a law student in Amsterdam at the time of the German occupation of the Netherlands, in May 1940; never married; no children.

Became an active member of a Communist resistance cell in Haarlem, hiding and assisting Jews who were being rounded up for "resettlement" to the death camps of the East (1941); with Freddie and Truus Oversteegen, carried out assassinations and became known to the German forces as the "red-haired girl" (1942–43); encouraged student solidarity that led to closing down of the Dutch un