We are here today to honour seven women and men who, in different ways, risked their lives during World War II in order to rescue 14 children from the Jewish children’s home in Holbergsgate in Oslo. Because of their contributions, they are to be recognized as Righteous Among the Nations. All of the children are still alive, and five of them are here with us today. While only one of the rescuers, Ola Breisjøberget, is living.

You may say that recognition for these acts is rather late, coming more than 60 years after the events. We are all in agreement on this. Not only is the recognizion late, but the miraculous rescue operation carried out by these courageous women and men continues to be unknown to the Norwegian people. The fact that the Jewish children’s home was saved is not considered part of our history of resistance. In the Norwegian narrative of resistance stories, we have some histories that are so famous that they have entered our language as metaphors for escape and heroic deeds. “Nine lives” by Jan Bålsrud serves as an example of how a man saved his life despite all odds. There are many more stories of resistance heroics that are part of the Norwegian cultural heritage. Just by saying a single catchword one can make everyone think in the same direction.

The post-war period was full of stories of grand acts of bravery. However, none of the collective resistance stories are about the courage it took to save the children from the Jewish children’s home. It is true that a film was made in the 50’s (called I slik en natt – In such a night), but it was full of inaccuracies. Nor did it make a difference for the collective narrative of the Norwegian history of resistance.

The silence surrounding this rescue operation has been striking. The classical resistance- and history books since the war have also failed to mention the rescue of the Jewish children’s home. Even if there might be one exceptence, the main picture is the same: The silence is, quite simply, odd, given that bringing 14 children aged between eight and fourteen to safety requires the sort of courage in which the goal overshadows the importance of one’s own life.

I have asked people who have been recognized as Righteous Among the Nations in former years why they did what they did. They have all looked at me in astonishment, and said “I just did it.” Research about why people do these things echoes their statements: people act on what they think is right, without reflecting any more on the matter. In the rescuers’ minds, there was no doubt. For me this is what we mean when we talk about brotherliness.

But why has saving the Jewish children from the home in Oslo not been considered an important part of Norwegian war resistance? There are many reasons to that. However, I think we have to admit that saving Jews has not been given much status in this country. To this day, noone has become a resistance hero in Norway by saving Jews.

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What actually happened? Let us move back in time, to the period of the mass arrests of Jews in Norway, from the 26th of October to the 26th of November 1942. On the 26th of October all Jewish men who were not under cover or fleeing, were arrested. The men in Eastern Norway were sent to Berg detention camp. The women tried to get in touch with them, bring them parcels, and keep their courage up as best they could. Some women tried to flee, but many found fleeing an impossible proposition when their sons, husbands and fathers were in the hands of the enemy. The women also had to report to the authorities every day.

This was also true for the head of the Jewish children’s home, Nina Hasvold. Nina came to Norway in 1936, with the help of her good friend, child psychiatrist Nic Waal. They had got to know each other in Berlin at Wilhelm Reich’s Kinderseminar at the Psychoanalytical Institute. Nic was from Oslo, and Nina from St. Petersburg, and they were united by their concern for children.

In 1938/39 the position as head of the newly-opened children’s home run by the jewish community became available, and Nina was appointed. 22 children had come from Vienna in the beginning of June 1938. They had been sent to Norway on a three-month summer holiday in order to get away from the dramatic events in Central Europe. They spent some time at the Jewish cabin at Skui in Bærum, and were then placed with foster parents for a period. When the Jewish children’s home was opened, first in Industrigaten, and then in Holbergsgate 21, opposite where the SAS hotel stands today, Nina Hasvold became the “mother” at the children’s home.

As the situation became worse, and Norway was occupied by Germany, all the children’s parents were contacted. The parents of seven of the children wanted them to return to Vienna. All these children were later killed. More children came to the children’s home, from Czechoslovakia, and one boy from Oslo, who moved out before the escape, and was killed in Auschwitz. As the 26th of November 1942 approached, there were 9 boys and 5 girls in the home in Holbergsgate. Of the children to whom I have spoken, all speak of Nina Hasvold with great affection. She became one and every child’s mother.

The situation was extremely serious, and there were few options. But when the situation deteriorated and the men were arrested on 26th October, Nina, Nic and an assistant, Gudrun Karlsen, who also worked at the home, planned a getaway. Nina sent Siegmund Korn – one of the oldest boys – with 10 000 Norwegian kroner to Grorud in the North of Oslo, where Gudrun’s husband, who was in the resistance movement, lived. These brave women prepared as best they could, and the happy outcome must be viewed in the light of their planning.

On the 25th of November another courageous woman, Sigrid Helliesen Lund, received a phone call with the message “… there is another party tonight – they will get the small parcels this time”. The line went dead. Sigrid didn’t know who the call was from, or what the message meant. ”Party” was the code word for arrests. “It had to be women and children.”

Sigrid Helliesen Lund at once thought of the Jewish children’s home. On getting in touch with Nic and Nina, she learned that they had also got the message. Sigrid started warning other women and children and bringing them to safety.

What happened next at the children’s home is an example of bravery involving many people. Part of the escape had been prepared, and Nic Waal used her network, family and other contacts to make it a success. Nevertheless, when I spoke to the children, they say that they were told “the situation is very grave, more so than the 9th of April”. But they were not, at any time, afraid. Nina and Nic saw to that.

On the night of the 26th of November, the 14 children were asked to dress up in their best clothes – two of everything. Carrying their boots in their hands, they quietly crept down the back stairs of the building in Holbergsgate 21. They had to be very careful, because a woman with Nazi sympathies lived on the first floor. The younger boys together with the girls went first, followed by the older boys in the next group. Nic stowed them all into her car, and drove them to a friend, Gerda Tanberg, in Veslekroken 1 at Ullern. Gerda had two rooms in a villa. Accommodating 14 children was no easy matter. The children were confined to one of the two rooms, and if they moved, they had to creep across the floor. Nobody should know. For part of the time it took to prepare the escape route, some of the children were brought to other flats in Oslo. One of them was placed at Torshov, and the girls lived for a while with Nic Waal’s sister, Maisen Moe, at Nordstrand. Needless to say, food was another problem. Sigrid Helliesen Lund procured food – everything had to be bought with rationing cards at the time. But at no time did Sigrid allow the children to see her. If it could be avoided, showing oneself was not a good idea.

After a week, the first group of children left Gerda Tanberg’s. This time the older ones left first. Taxi driver Martin Solvang, who was in the same network as Nic Waal, drove the older ones from Ullern to Arneberg, south of Elverum. Ola Rauken had a small farm, and was a wartime border guide. They intended to cross the border that very night, but he was due to slaughter a pig the next morning, and his absence would have aroused suspicion. The children spent the night in a cabin. They were awake all night in order to watch the fire. Next day, Ola Rauken took the first group towards the border, to another wartime border guide, Ola Breisjøberget. Ola Rauken walked with the children for 17 kilometers; Breisjøberget for 3.5 km.

I am sad to inform you that, Ola Breisjøberget did not feel he could join us here today. As being retired the feelings of that time comes back. He says he sees the entire scenario “under a shadow.” All his family members were border guides, including Reidun Kvande-Pettersen, who is here to receive the recognizion today on his behalf.

Saving a single person during the war required the help of nine to fifteen people. In the story I have told here, I have pinpointed seven people who contributed to the success of the operation. Very likely, my story should also include many more. Nor must we forget that everybody being recognized as Righteous Among the Nations also helped many others, in addition to the children from the Jewish children’s home. Taxi driver Martin Solvang was put in Grini detention camp in February 1943 for having brought other people to the border. Gerda Tanberg participated in the battles in Northern Norway, and later knocked down a German officer. She was sentenced for this. Sigrid Helliesen Lund has a long list of deeds to her credit. Among others, she saved Amos Samuel, the son of rabbi Samuel who was already arrested. As a member of the board of the Nansen-help, on the 9th of April 1940, she burnt the lists of the refugees brought to Norway by the Nansen-help. One of the survivors from Auschwitz, Julius Paldiel tells that Sigrid Helliesen Lund helped him getting treatment after the tough stay at Falstad by physichian Gordon Johnson at Botsfengselet (prison) when the nazi physichian Hans Eng had refused him so. There are many reasons she should be recognized as Righteous Among the Nations. Nina Hasvold and Nic Waal were at the heart of the rescue operation that saved the children of the Jewish children’s home. Nic Waal later had to flee to Sweden, and she visited the children where they stayed in Alingsås.

Today we shall honour these seven: Nic Waal, Nina Hasvold, Gerda Tanberg, Martin Solvang, Ola Rauken, Ola Breisjøberget and Sigrid Helliesen Lund. Without hesitation, without reservations, without a second thought, they risked their own lives in order to save their fellow human-beings. This is a tale of good Norwegians - told by hardly anybody. Why not gather all these good stories of good Norwegians? We need the whole picture if we are to understand our war histroy as well as the history of the post-war.

This recognition ceremony is late. My deepest wish is: Maybe more than 60 years of silence is enough; perhaps now we can draw attention also to those resistance heroes who saved Jews.