it’s been two years, but i think that an icon like her deserves to be known about by more people.
her name was freddie oversteegen and she, at the age of fourteen, along with her older sister truus who was 16 and their friend johanna “hannie” schaft who was 19, was a part of the netherlands most famous all female resistance cell which was dedicated to fighting the nazis and dutch traitors.
among other things, they are known to have blown up bridges and railroads, smuggled jewish children from concentration camps and, as the tweet mentions, seducing nazis and then shooting them with guns that they had hidden in their bike baskets. freddie is quoted as having said that they “had to do it.” and that it was a “necessary evil, killing those who betrayed good people.”
though freddie and her sister truus were both lucky and survived the war, hannie schaft wasn’t. at the age of 24, hannie was caught and around three weeks later was executed by nazis, only 18 days before the netherlands were eventually liberated. she was shot with one only wounding her, and, before the final shot, hannie is quoted as having told the executioners: ik schiet beter, which translates to“i shoot better.”
though she didn’t survive, hannie is recognized as a national icon and a face of the dutch resistance, with her story even being retold in a movie from 1981 called “the girl with the red hair.” along with this, truus also founded the national hannie schaft foundation in 1992, on which freddie served as a board member.
freddie, at the time of her death, was 92 years old and the last surviving member of the resistance cell, with truus having died two years earlier at the age of 92.
though these women and all that they did played an important part in the dutch resistance, they are often overlooked in history outside of the netherlands. it’s important that they are remembered and that their work to save people isn’t forgotten. it’s incredible what they did, especially given how young they were, and they deserve more recognition than what they’ve gotten.
Restoration of a Vermeer’s painting-new in history (8/?)
In a recent restoration of a Vermeer masterpiece, an image of Cupido was restored. While it was already longer know that an image of Cupido was painted over, recent research proved it wasn’t painted over by Vermeer, but in a later stage. This recent restoration now shows the painting as it was intended by Vermeer. (x)
Johannes Vermeer (1632-1675) was a Dutch Baroque painter during Holland’s Golden Age.
The Dutch Raid on the Medway at the mouth of the River Thames where the Dutch navy destroyed fifteen of the Royal Navy’s last remaining ships during the Second Anglo-Dutch war of 1667. The daring raid remains England’s greatest naval disaster to date and lead to a quick end to the war with a Dutch dictated peace treaty. The HMS Royal Charles was towed back to the Netherlands as a trophy and its coat of arms is still on display in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam to this day
A Fluyt or Fleute, Fluite, Fluit, Fliete, called Vliete was a Dutch ship from the 16th century. This pure merchant ship, which was built strictly according to economic aspects, renounced almost all elements and components used for representation or military purposes in favour of favourable manufacturing costs. But it was the second type of ship next to the cog that spread in the Mediterranean area. She had only little or no decorated superstructures at bow and stern. In contrast to the carousels and galleons usual at that time, a continuous middle deck was dispensed with in favour of the loading capacity. Thus the Fleute was at that time one of the few ship types which could not be converted to a military or buccaneer ship due to the lack of a usable cannon deck.
The most conspicuous visible feature of the Fleute was its unconventional design with a bulbous hold with a round stern and a narrow deck due to the strongly inward curved ribs: a shape which was achieved exclusively by adapting the merchant ship to Danish customs regulations. The Danes calculated the customs duty for the important passage of the trade route into the Baltic Sea according to the size of the deck area.
From a technical point of view, however, the Fleute developed independently from smaller coastal vessels, which were constantly enlarged, primarily from the Dutch Bojer. The Fleute was thus a completely new type of ship, Dutch in origin, which, unlike most of the ships of its time, was not a further development of the galleon. The Fleute had a comparatively low draught, adapted to the shallow Dutch ports. Looking at the cross-section of the ship’s hull, it is almost round up to the base of the concave side walls of the superstructure. Nevertheless, this ship type had unusually high masts in relation to its overall size. The yards were shorter in comparison to a galleon and the sails were thus noticeably narrower and higher. On the two foremasts the Fleute carried two square sails, on the aft mast one square and one latin sail and on the bowsprit a blind woman. Later the fleute got a third square sail and the bowsprit an upper blind. This made the fleute much easier to sail than a galleon. Because you just needed 8- 20 Men.
Towards the stern the deck rose, as was usual for many types of ships at that time. The stern was completed with a stern superstructure, which was only equipped with a narrow mirror wall above the waterline. In terms of construction, however, the superstructures were much more strongly integrated into the hull structure than the block-like castles of the caravels or galleons. In fact, it was a very slim ship for its time. This impression was probably reinforced by the high masts and the narrow sails. Over time, the basis for calculating customs duties was changed and the decks of the Fleuten were subsequently broadened. This type of ship was replaced by the Galiot in the 18th Century, a ship with a flat keel that was suitable for coastal shipping.
Back to watching Raiders of the Lost Art on @curiositystream
This episode is about the Many Faces of Rembrandt. Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (July 15, 1606 - October 4, 1669) was a Dutch Golden Age painter, printmaker and draughtsman and a true master in his craft.
It is believed that he completed 80 self-portraits that reflected what he looked like throughout his life from youth to old age.
Meeting of the States of Holland and West Friesland (Staten van Holland en West-Friesland), 1625 The States of Holland and West Frisia (Dutch: Staten van Holland en West-Friesland) were the representation of the two Estates (standen) (Nobility and Commons) to the court of the Count of Holland. After the United Provinces were formed — and there no longer was a count, but only his “lieutenant” (the stadtholder) - they continued to function as the government of the County of Holland.
