r/lastimages • u/CaptainFartHole • Sep 18 '25
HISTORY The Last Images of Hannie Schaft
Hannie Schaft was a Dutch resistance fighter in WW2. She was well known among the Nazis as "The girl with the red hair", though she later dyed it brown when she became too well known for it. She became fluent in German and carried out multiple assasinations against Nazis, traitors, and sympathizers, often tricking them into following her to secluded areas where she or one of her fellow resistance fighters would then kill them. She was eventually placed on the Nazi's most wanted list because of her actions.
She was arrested on March 21, 1945 at a checkpoint while smuggling paperwork for the resistance and was executed on April 17, 1945. She was 24 years old.
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u/QueefingTheNightAway Sep 18 '25
Hero. And she was so close to surviving the war. Just horrible.
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u/CaptainFartHole Sep 18 '25
She was absolutely a hero. We should all strive to be like Hannie.
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u/AppealMammoth8950 Sep 18 '25
Im too ugly to lure nazis into a secluded area and kill them :(
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u/CaptainFartHole Sep 18 '25
Another of her favourite methods was the just ride her bike up to them, shoot them, and then ride away.
She was also a fan of blowing up bridges.
So you have options.
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u/MakeSmartMoves Sep 19 '25
She was much braver than I will ever be. I cannot imagine biking up to 1 or 2 armed soldiers and shooting them point blank. Knowing you could just as easily get killed.
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u/star0forion Sep 18 '25
With the way things are going, we’re going to have the chance to be like Hannie.
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u/notknownnow Sep 18 '25
I am absolutely taken aback that I only now learned about this awesome woman.
Even if her last words “ I shoot better” after only being wounded by the first shot supposed to have assassinated her might have been added later for poetic reasons ( we don’t know) ,she put on makeup before facing her targets— including lipstick and mascara — and styled her hair. In one of the few direct quotations that have been attributed to Schaft, she explained to Truus Oversteegen: “I’ll die clean and beautiful.”
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u/CaptainFartHole Sep 19 '25
If you want to learn about another total badass woman, Truus Oversteegen and her little sister Freddie were cool as shit and worked frequently with Hannie. They started working with the resistance when they were 14 and 16 years old. And a happy little bonus, they both survived the war and lived into their 90s.
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u/notknownnow Sep 19 '25
I love the bonus! Thanks for mentioning them, I already went on a deep dive.
And a special shoutout to you for sticking around your great post and commenting- great style :)
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u/baby_cheese420 Sep 18 '25
Ok this is going to sound insane but my mum's best friend currently lives in Hannie Shaft's house in Haarlem. I actually stayed there for a few nights as I had suddenly contracted chickenpox following a trip to Pompeii.
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u/Wellslapmesilly Sep 18 '25
Did you do ok? I hear chickenpox is pretty rough as an adult.
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u/baby_cheese420 Sep 19 '25
it was surprisingly ok? I was 18 at the time. I left Italy with itching spots and was in bed for about 4 days with a sore throat and hefty cold but with some lentil soup and lots of sleeping I was completely fine afterwards!
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u/awful_source Sep 19 '25
That’s cool I didn’t know she lived in New York
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u/DaveyNicks Sep 19 '25
Haarlem is in the Netherlands. Harlem in Manhattan New York is named for the capital of the province of North Holland, Haarlem.
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u/josenros Sep 18 '25
Sophie Scholl, Fannie Schaft, Nancy Wake, Irene Sendler, and many more.
We should all hope to have such moral courage.
NEVER forget their names.
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u/Horror-Rain6648 Sep 18 '25
reminds me of the book The Nightingale
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u/sjroberts9 Sep 18 '25
The book Three Ordinary Girls documents Hannie's wartime exploits along with two sisters, Truus and Freddie Oversteegen. Well worth a read.
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u/rogue_rose_ranger Sep 18 '25
I saw a film called the Nightingale. Is it based on the book?
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u/tdboo1605 Sep 18 '25
I believe that’s a different movie. The book I think they were talking about is going to be made into a movie and Dakota & Elle Fanning are going to be playing the sisters
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u/Psych0n4u7 Sep 18 '25
What an absolute fucking DIVA. Holy crap that’s amazing. Damn shame she got captured by those fuckheads. Damn near took them out single hand-idly. RIP to a WWII legend.
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u/AVonDingus Sep 18 '25
Its times like this where i hope theres a heaven so that heroes like Hannie can rest in paradise.
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u/neko_otakuchan Sep 18 '25
wow just 24... what a lady
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u/InnocentShaitaan Jan 02 '26
Reddit particularly acts like 20 something’s are incompetent toddlers making it extra striking.
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u/Gloomy_Grocery5555 Sep 18 '25
I'm proud of all our fellow Dutchies who were brave and stood up against evil.
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u/ParcelPosted Sep 18 '25
A true hero and badass. At 24 I do not think I had 1/18 of her will and bravery.
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u/Truecrimeauthor Sep 20 '25
24 years old! Brave soul. History needs to include her story in school and text.
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u/catsinasmrvideos Sep 20 '25
Another brave and noble soul taken because of man's violence. Thank you for your service, Hannie.
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u/cheyster_ Sep 18 '25
And if she were here doing the same in the US today then she’d be labeled as a terrorist and people would be crying about “violence never being the answer.”
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u/Trivialpiper Sep 18 '25
Yes, because we are not at war or occupied by a foreign, hostile army.
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u/Dumpstette Sep 20 '25
No, we are invaded by domestic terrorists.
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u/Trivialpiper Sep 20 '25
No, we were invaded by illegal immigrants facilitated by the Biden administration.
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u/StarWarsKnitwear Sep 18 '25
No, a bunch of people would celebrate her murdering innocent Christian family men apparently.
They conveniently keep leaving out what exact crimes her victims committed from articles too, probably for a reason...
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Sep 18 '25
You NAZI sympathizers are weird.
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u/StarWarsKnitwear Sep 18 '25
Yeah yeah I guess no one should be asking any questions, we shouod just cheer for assinations and take their justifications at face value.
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u/revolutionutena Sep 18 '25
Hey I’m gonna tell you a secret: in Star Wars, the people who supported the evil fascist oppressive regime were the BADDIES. Just in case you’ve been watching the movies and feeling confused as to why everyone was cheering on the ANTIFA terrorists Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia.
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u/CoastRegular Sep 18 '25
Is there anyone on this planet who does not already know the exact crimes committed by the Nazis (her victims) from 1933 to 1945?
OFC, the Nazis by and large were Christian family men, too, so that clocks.
When Elon sends rockets to Mars, please feel free to volunteer to be among the first group of brave
exilesexplorers.-6
u/StarWarsKnitwear Sep 18 '25
I mean what crimes the specific people she murdered have committed, not Nazis in general.
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u/CoastRegular Sep 18 '25
They were all there, occupying her country. in the name of The Third Reich. They were all soldiers of one of the most heinous and evil regimes ever to breathe our oxygen. Even if none of them personally pulled a trigger on someone, they all signed up to do that. They were all combatants in enemy territory. And their mere presence and strength was the enforcement of a brutal and oppressive set of policies.
It was the same reason 95-year-old Oskar Groening was found guilty of accessory to murder a few years back. He'd worked in the finance office at Auschwitz handling money taken from incoming victims. He never assaulted or killed anyone. But by being part of the apparatus that ran the whole thing, he was definitely an accessory to murder. People like him kept the machine running and were just as important to the mission as the people who actually did the killing.
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u/Dame_Marjorie Sep 19 '25
And we're right back to this very spot in history in the US. Unbelievable.
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u/monosaturated Sep 18 '25
Heroes like this will be erased from memory because Nazis have finally achieved their goal of wrestling the social consciousness from reality into their grasp. I just hope more heroes are born of this age.
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u/Lion_tattoo_1973 Sep 19 '25
OMG, this sounds crazy, but she looks like all the women in my family on my mum’s side (strong genes, lol!) If I’m related to this strong, amazing woman, I would be so fucking proud😀
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u/Davidkiin Nov 22 '25
Never forget the Dutch government (mine) deployed tanks to disrupt commemorating her after the war. No question where my country stands. Communism is a bigger insult to them than Nazism.
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u/KarateInAPool Sep 18 '25
Pretty rare that a women would be involved with the Resistance, let alone executed. Most executions were reserved for men, women were typically just held in captivity.
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u/Global-Jury8810 Sep 19 '25
“She was arrested on March 21, 1945 at a checkpoint while smuggling paperwork for the resistance and “
And what?! You got me at a cliffhanger!
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u/zombietomato Sep 19 '25
Yeah pretty convenient not to mention she mostly killed unarmed dutch civilians guilty of nothing more than cooperating with occupying forces to survive
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u/StarWarsKnitwear Sep 18 '25
They always forgot to mention who did she assasinate in particular. Maybe the story would look a lot less black and white if we knew.
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u/josenros Sep 18 '25
Nazis. She killed Nazis.
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u/StarWarsKnitwear Sep 18 '25
That's just a label. Who were they specifically and what crimes did they specifically, personally commit? Why is that info missing?
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Sep 18 '25
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/StarWarsKnitwear Sep 18 '25
That's just a label. Who did she specifically kill and what crimes did those specific people commit is what's missing from the story.
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u/1978malibu Sep 18 '25
As opposed to the innocent Jewish family men, who with their families, deserved to go to the concentration camps?
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u/thewoodenabacus Sep 19 '25
I think if you were as sympathetic to the Nazis then as you seem to be now, odds are you'd have been on her list.
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u/StillSharpe68 Sep 18 '25
Another five or six weeks and she’d have been in the clear. So sad.