Jannetje Johanna (Jo) Schaft (16 September 1920 – 17 April 1945) was a Dutch resistance fighter during World War II.

[1] From a young age, Schaft discussed politics and social justice with her family, which encouraged her to pursue law and become a human rights lawyer.

[1] During her law studies at the University of Amsterdam, which she started in 1938, she became friends with the Jewish students Sonja Frenk and Philine Polak.

When Schaft refused to sign the petition in support of the occupation forces, like 80% of the other students, she could not continue her studies and in the summer of 1943 she moved in with her parents again, taking Frenk and Polak with her who went into hiding.

[2] On 21 June 1944, Schaft and Jan Bonekamp, a friend in the resistance, carried out an assassination in Zaandam on Dutch police officer and collaborator Willem Ragut.

To force Schaft to confess, German authorities arrested her parents and sent them to the Herzogenbusch concentration camp near the city of Den Bosch.

[4] Upon recovery, Schaft dyed her hair black and wore glasses to hide her identity and returned to Resistance work.

On 1 March 1945, NSB police officer Willem Zirkzee was killed by Hannie Schaft and Truus Oversteegen, near the Krelagehuis on the Leidsevaart in Haarlem.

On 15 March they wounded Ko Langendijk, a hairdresser from IJmuiden who worked for the Sicherheitsdienst (SD), a Nazi intelligence agency.

He survived the attack and in 1948 he testified in Amsterdam for the benefit of his Velser girlfriend, the traitor Nelly Willy van der Meijden.

She was eventually arrested at a military checkpoint in Haarlem on 21 March 1945 while distributing the illegal communist newspaper de Waarheid ('The Truth'), which was a cover story.

During a post-war interrogation, Kuiper said he had been talking to Schaft when he suddenly heard a gunshot after which she cried out in pain and started shaking.

Members of the Dutch government and royal family attended, including Queen Wilhelmina, who called Schaft "the symbol of the Resistance".

In a decision which sparked public outcry, Lages was released from prison on health grounds in 1966, on the order of Minister of Justice Ivo Samkalden.

She was reburied in section 22 at the honorary cemetery Erebegraafplaats Bloemendaal in the dunes in Overveen in the presence of Princess Juliana and her husband Prince Bernard.

Schaft was one of 95 people to receive the Dutch Cross of Resistance and General Eisenhower awarded her a decoration, possibly the Medal of Freedom.

Author Theun de Vries wrote a biography of her life, The Girl with the Red Hair, which inspired the 1981 movie of the same title by Ben Verbong featuring Renée Soutendijk as Hannie Schaft.