Nazi Arrest of my Grandfather in 1942
While researching all the historical information about Thor and his cause of death, some other facts regarding my family history are now a bit more intriguing. Thor died on October 6, 1941, and five months later, on March 21, 1942, during my mother’s 4th birthday party at their apartment in Drammen, his brother (my grandfather) Sverre was arrested by a Nazi soldier. It was my mother’s first real memory - probably because the arrest interrupted her party. She recalls a knock on the door of the apartment, and seeing a Nazi soldier and one of my grandfather’s students at the door. He was given 1/2 hour to pack up some personal items. My mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother watched them drive away from their 2nd-floor apartment in a black car.
What happened to him, happened to almost 600 other teachers in Norway. They were arrested for refusing to teach Nazi doctrine, and shipped off to the furthest place in Norway - only 10 miles from the Russian border. This was what became known as the Teacher’s Protest.
From: Global Non-Violent Action Database:
“In April the government sent 499 teachers to a concentration camp near Kirkenes, in the Arctic. When news of this action was leaked crowds of students and farmers gathered along the tracks to sing and offer food as the train passed. The teachers also formed their own choirs and gave lectures in order to maintain their sanity and pass the time. Around a month after their arrival in Kirkenes, word came in mid-May that the occupation government’s Church and Education Department had given up on creating a fascist teachers’ organization, and the teachers asked to return to their schools but they did not receive a response. During their time at Kirkenes, a teacher died and several were injured from the forced labor, but a German soldier secretly showed the teachers how to create beds out of hay to ease their conditions.
Eventually, it became clear to Quisling that while the approaching winter might force the teachers to capitulate, he would lose whatever legitimacy he had left in the eyes of the population. By November 4, 1942, the teachers had all returned from the concentration camp. Thanks perhaps in equal measure to Norwegian pride and fascist oppression, the people of Norway had solidified into a resistance movement that successfully defended the schools from incorporation into the fascist state. The people would continue to give Quisling so much difficulty that he was ultimately forced to give up on his idea of the Corporative State altogether. Norwegian culture was successfully defended during the occupation.”
The photo on this blog post is a portrait of my grandfather made by an artist (Herlov Åmland) at the labor camp in Kirkenes in 1942 - I believe he made other drawings of prisoners as well. It shows my grandfather as I remember him (even though I was only 8 years old when he passed away) - I remember this pensive look and always with a pipe.
As I have been trying to organize piles and piles of documents about Thor, I realize I am very lucky because I also have piles and piles of books, journals, and letters written by my grandfather about his family history. In fact, on October 20, 2023 (83 years since Thor was buried in Oslo), I found 28 pages of a diary that my grandfather kept during his entire incarceration at the labor camp. Day by day it outlines his arrest, travels, work, food, deaths, and even the weather. I have included here the first pages of the diary and my translation of excerpts of the diary.
Two sides of the napkin ring carved by my grandfather for my mother while in the labor camp in northern Norway in 1942. BIJ - Berit Inger Jensen.
The photo below shows the first 2 pages of a 28-page diary (Laereferden = The Learning Journey) kept by my grandfather when he was a prisoner. The teachers were kept there for 10 months and he finally returned home on November 21, 1942. While it wasn’t a concentration camp per se, the teachers were forced to work for sometimes 16 hours/day (according to his account), digging roads and other manual labor tasks. These were teachers - not manual laborers - and this was very difficult for the men. On May 6, 1941, the first teacher in their group passed away - Olav Hole from Larvik.
There are so many interesting notations within the 28 pages - so I will add a few here as I translate them:
I pinched my big toe under a beam
Snowstorm
Worked for 12 hours
12 June we received: bread, marmalade, sardines, butter, sugar, cod liver oil, vitamin C, cigars, washing powder, soap
In the morning I started as flea removal assistant
Nice weather, mild, snow is gone
Bombs
Free day!
Heavy bombing in the day and a good part of the night
7 October - I hereby declare my entry into the Teachers' Union and commit myself, after the recovery, to take up the school services according to the current regulations
