Hannie Schaft is definitely not overlooked, at least, not in the Netherlands. We have lots of stories about her life and streets named after her as well as a monument. She almost made it through the war, but was executed after being arrested.
There are many other Dutch resistance fighters whose stories will never be told, they're dead and there is nobody alive anymore that still remembers them or their significance. Many of them found their end in the dunes executed by the German occupiers of the country, giving their lives for doing what's right: to defend your country from an attacker, even after the country had formally capitulated. And there ware also many who resisted the Germans in much harder to conceal - but no less effective - ways, such as the factory workers that were conscripted from the able bodied to work in munition, vehicle or aircraft factories and who sabotaged the lines and the products. All this right under the noses of the German overseers.
I know a few such stories and am still quite impressed, even so many years after hearing them first, with the degree of risk that people were willing to take just to slow the machine a tiny little bit. Towards the end of the war even the slightest (perceived) infraction was enough to get a bullet to the neck and yet they continued doing it.
> There are many other Dutch resistance fighters whose stories will never be told, they're dead and there is nobody alive anymore that still remembers them or their significance.
I still have a letter signed by Eisenhower (as general of the army, not as president, and it's not hand-signed, at least I don't think so) thanking my great-grandmother, which I knew very well (she lived until 99 years old) for her "gallant service in assisting the escape of Allied soldiers from the enemy", the same as this one (but with the name of my great-grandmother):
I still, barely, know why: she and her daughters as well as my grandfather and great-uncle were part of the resistance and at some point they hid, for months, a british pilot that had been shot down. I think I still have a part of his parachute (parachute which they did hid too). My great-uncle was part of the belgian resistance "G group", blowing stuff as I understand it. After the war he became director of the national bank of Belgium (which I think was related to the help he gave the country during WWII).
Nobody of my family got shot but many of their friends did. My uncle got name after one of their friend who died to a nazi firing squad.
But I'm the last generation who got to listen to these people tell the tale themselves: when my daughter shall turn 26, WWII shall literally be a 100 years old event. What will that mean to her?
I'll try very hard to explain her how some people chose to do the right thing at the risk of their lives and that I'm handing to her precious items (the letter and a few other stuff) from another era, not to be entirely forgotten for there are certainly lessons of courage there.
Roughly the same situation here. Tons of stories, all of the tellers who experienced them first hand have died. My mom, who is now 80 has no memories of that era, she was too young to understand what was going on. The only one still left is one uncle of mine, who I visit regularly.
I think this is part of the reason why there is a cycle of war: because living memory dies off and then the horrors of war are no longer seen as clearly. On the plus side that allows old grudges against former enemies to be forgotten. Though, when clueless German tourists ask to be directed to the old center of Rotterdam they are still playing with fire (yes, it happens).
Your family did an amazing thing there. About five years ago I took a Canadian woman and her kids on a trip through France to locate the grave of their uncle. It took a few days to locate it and when we finally found it it really moved me: the grave looked as though it had been set a week ago, perfectly maintained, a fresh bunch of flowers on top of it from some unknown stranger. Really amazing.
They mean "overlooked by the New York Times obituary section", not overlooked by society in general. It's part of a series where they go back and write obituaries for people who didn't get one written at the time of their death.
I think they have their work cut out for them then, if they've managed to get as far as WWII resistance people from NL there's a couple of million more pages to be filled.
Really? You don't sympathise with people getting murdered by Nazi's whilst defending their homeland because of the actions of a colonial government? If you drew a venn diagram of the people fighting against the Nazi's and the people committing colonial atrocities there wouldn't be a great deal of overlap save the exiled government and the churches. Most of the resistance were communists and other anti-fascist groups, hardly banner waving imperialists.
Precisely. So many people are utterly clueless about that slice of history. My next door neighbor - coincidentally - was one of those born in a camp while his father worked on the Thai-Burma railroad. Between him and the likes of Hannie Schaft they'd set the OP right if they had a chance.
The Dutch committed many war crimes and have had a very hard time admitting to them, in part because that part of history wasn't exactly taught in school and in part because it also requires admitting that the reason we are such a rich country is because we were good at trading, but mostly because we were good at stealing and slavery.
I think it will take until the Royal family will finally be thrown out for the last of the (very efficient) propaganda machine to be shut down and then we can really deal with this. Likely the Oranjes will end up forfeiting their fortune as part of a reparations deal or something like that. It makes perfect sense, they personally, more than anybody else profited from these atrocities and they were the first ones to flee the country during the war.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannie_Schaft
There are many other Dutch resistance fighters whose stories will never be told, they're dead and there is nobody alive anymore that still remembers them or their significance. Many of them found their end in the dunes executed by the German occupiers of the country, giving their lives for doing what's right: to defend your country from an attacker, even after the country had formally capitulated. And there ware also many who resisted the Germans in much harder to conceal - but no less effective - ways, such as the factory workers that were conscripted from the able bodied to work in munition, vehicle or aircraft factories and who sabotaged the lines and the products. All this right under the noses of the German overseers.
I know a few such stories and am still quite impressed, even so many years after hearing them first, with the degree of risk that people were willing to take just to slow the machine a tiny little bit. Towards the end of the war even the slightest (perceived) infraction was enough to get a bullet to the neck and yet they continued doing it.