Jewish Children's Home in Oslo

Last updated April 04, 2024

The Jewish Children's Home in Oslo was established in 1939 under the auspices of Nansenhjelpen, the Nansen Aid, a humanitarian organization established in 1936 by Odd Nansen, the son of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Fridtjof Nansen. It was intended as a safe haven for Jewish children during the Holocaust, yet all of the children eventually had to flee to avoid deportation when Norway itself was occupied by Nazi Germany during World War II.^[1]

Origin

With the rise of the Nazi party, Nansenhjelpen, the Nansen Aid, was established in 1936 to help get vulnerable groups out of Central Europe and into Norway. Originally the group was stationed in Austria, but after Austria's annexation with Germany (the Anschluss), the group moved to Czechoslovakia.

Through the work of recently arrived psychiatrist Leo Eitinger and Nora Lustig (who was later detained, deported, and immediately murdered in Auschwitz concentration camp) from Brno, Nansenhjelpen applied on humanitarian grounds to admit 100 Czech Jewish children who otherwise faced a grim future under the Nazi regime. The ministry of justice only reluctantly approved the application for a 22 children, on the grounds that it would be "difficult to get rid of them."^[1]

The Nansen Aid brought 21 Jewish child refugees, aged 7–9 years old, from Vienna (known as Wienerbarna, "the Vienna children"), to Norway in June 1938 on the pretext of a 3-month summer vacation with the Norwegian Jewish community at the Jewish community's cabin at Skui in Bærum. After the summer, with the political situation in Austria not improving, a new plan was needed. 6 parents decided to bring their children back to Vienna, all of whom were killed. The remaining children were linked to local Jewish families as "foster children," (allowing them to stay in Norway) and moved into rented facilities in Industrigaten and finally into an apartment the Jewish community had acquired at Holbergsgate 21 in Oslo.^[1]

The first director of the orphanage, Nina Hasvoll (née Hackel), was recruited by Norwegian psychiatrist Nic Waal after they had become acquainted in Berlin while attending the Kinderseminar (Seminar on Children) run by Wilhelm Reich. Hasvoll lived with the children in the apartment. Nansen Aid board member Sigrid Helliesen Lund was also active in establishing the home.^[1]^[2]^[3]

Children of the orphanage

In 1938 the apartment it was only the remaining 15 children from Vienna. Although, one of the children never lived in the orphanage as his foster family believed it was better for him to live privately. On November 26, 1942, he was arrested with his foster family, the Feinbergs, deported to Auschwitz on December 1, 1942, where he was immediately killed in the Auschwitz Gas chamber.^[4]

Later on, two boys from Czechoslovokia arrived to the orphanage, one of them was Berthold Grünfeld.^[4]

A Norwegian 16 year old also lived at the orphanage for a time due to difficult conditions at home. In the Fall he moved back with his parents. He was arrested with his father and sent to Auschwitz/Birkenau on November 26, 1942. Both the boy and his father were killed there.^[4]

By the time the Nazi authorities ordered the detention and deportation of all Jews in Norway in November 1942, there were nine boys and five girls in the home.^[1]

Nazi occupation of Norway and escape

When Norway was occupied by Nazi Germany, conditions progressively worsened for the Norwegian Jewish community in general and also for the inhabitants of the Jewish children's home. Though Sigrid Helliesen Lund had the foresight to burn the entire list of Czech Jewish refugees on April 9, 1940, German and Quisling authorities eventually caught up with the home.

Hasvoll had a J in her identification papers, marking her as a Jew. After October 26, 1942, she reported to the Hegdehaugen Police Station every day. During this period, Hasvoll and Waal began to plan an escape. Waal sent the oldest boy at the orphanage, Siegmund Korn, with NOK 10,000 in his boots to the husband of the orphanage's housekeeper, Gudrun, to arrange the escape. Gudrun lived in Grorud and was part of the resistance network.^[1]

On November 25, 1942, Helliesen Lund received a tip that the Nazis were coming to take away Jewish Children in Norway, including in the orphanage. Waal also received a similar tip.^[1]

On November 26, 1942, Hasvoll woke up the children of the orphanage early telling them to wear 2 pairs of their finest clothing, including underwear, socks, jackets, etc. The group snuck out of the back stairs of the building, with Waal waiting for them in the street. The youngest children went with Waal and brought them to a friend Gerda Tanberg. Then Waal brought the older children, narrowly avoiding confrontation with the police.^[1]

14 children made it to Tanberg's house where they were on strict rations and had to crawl to move around, all the while keeping very silent as to not alert anyone to their presence. Helliesen Lund helped Tanberg receive ration cards and maintain communication with Hasvoll and Waal.^[1]^[5]

The children were then driven to Sweden by members of the resistance movement including Martin Solvang. When they arrived in Sweden they were taken to a military detention center, and then to a hospital.^[3]

All 14 children survived the Holocaust and subsequently found new homes in Norway, Sweden, Argentina, the United Kingdom, and the United States. In the summer of 2007, all were still alive.^[1]

Recognition

Of those who participated in the rescue effort, seven were honored as being among the Righteous among the Nations through Yad Vashem in 2006:

Caroline (Nic) Waal , who orchestrated the escape, relying on her personal network of friends and family.
Nina Hasvoll, the director of the orphanage.
Gerda Tanberg, who hid the children in her second floor apartment in Ullern.
Martin Solvang, a taxi driver who was very active in the underground railroad to Sweden, and drove the children to Elverum.
Ola Rauken, a border guide, who took the children into his farm and walked them 17 kilometers toward the border.
Ola Breisjøberget, who took them across the border.
Sigrid Helliesen Lund , a member of Sivorg who dedicated herself from the outset to saving the children's lives, planning the escape and arranging for provisions.^[6]

See Norwegian Righteous Among the Nations for a complete list of Norwegians recognized.

In 2015, a movie was created depicting Hasvoll's role in World War II called Ninas barn .^[7]

Related Research Articles

The history of Jews in Norway dates back to the 1400s. Although there were very likely Jewish merchants, sailors and others who entered Norway during the Middle Ages, no efforts were made to establish a Jewish community. Through the early modern period, Norway, still devastated by the Black Death, was ruled by Denmark from 1536 to 1814 and then by Sweden until 1905. In 1687, Christian V rescinded all Jewish privileges, specifically banning Jews from Norway, except with a special dispensation. Jews found in the kingdom were jailed and expelled, and this ban persisted until 1851.

Leo Eitinger was a Norwegian psychiatrist, author and educator. He was a Holocaust survivor who studied the late-onset psychological trauma experienced by people who went through separation and psychological pain early in life only to show traumatic experience decades later. He devoted a long period studying posttraumatic stress disorder among Holocaust survivors, which had led Holocaust survivors including Paul Celan (1920–1970), Primo Levi (1919–1987) and many others to commit suicide several decades after the experience. Eitinger was a pioneer of research into psychological trauma among refugees, and also laid the foundation for Norwegian military psychiatry research with emphasis on psychological trauma among soldiers.

The German occupation of Norway began on 9 April 1940. In 1942, there were at least 2,173 Jews in Norway. At least 775 of them were arrested, detained and/or deported. More than half of the Norwegians who died in camps in Germany were Jews. 742 Jews were murdered in the camps and 23 Jews died as a result of extrajudicial execution, murder and suicide during the war, bringing the total of Jewish Norwegian dead to at least 765, comprising 230 complete households.

Prior to the deportation of individuals of Jewish background to the concentration camps there were at least 2,173 Jews in Norway. During the Nazi occupation of Norway 772 of these were arrested, detained, and/or deported, most of them sent to Auschwitz. 742 were murdered in the camps, 23 died as a result of extrajudicial execution, murder, and suicide during the war. Between 28 and 34 of those deported survived their continued imprisonment. The Norwegian police and German authorities kept records of these victims, and so, researchers were able to compile information about the deportees.

Berthold Epstein was a pediatrician, professor, and scientist who was conscripted as a doctor in the Auschwitz concentration camp during World War II.

Moritz Moses Rabinowitz was a retail merchant based in the city of Haugesund, Norway. Rabinowitz was active in the Jewish community in Norway and was an early opponent of Nazism. After Nazi Germany invaded Norway, Rabinowitz was arrested and moved to Germany. He was murdered in Sachsenhausen concentration camp in 1942.

Nansenhjelpen was a Norwegian humanitarian organization founded by Odd Nansen in 1936 to provide safe haven and assistance in Norway for Jewish refugees from areas in Europe under Nazi control. It was formally disbanded in 1945, but effectively ceased operations in late 1942, after all Jews in Norway had been deported, murdered, or had fled into Sweden.

Odd Nansen was a Norwegian architect, writer, and humanitarian. He is credited with being a co-founder of UNICEF and for his humanitarian efforts on behalf of Jews in the early years of World War II.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Julius Paltiel</span>

Julius Paltiel was one of the 26 Norwegian Jews who returned from Auschwitz. For their efforts in telling about the atrocities in the Nazi extermination camps, both Paltiel and his widow were awarded St. Olav's Medal, he in 2004 and she in 2016. Paltiel was given a Norwegian state funeral, attended by King Harald V.

Nic Waal, born Caroline Schweigaard Nicolaysen in Kristiania, Norway was a Norwegian psychiatrist, noted for her work among children and adolescents in Norway where she is known as "the mother of Norwegian pediatric and adolescent psychiatry." She was also active in the Norwegian resistance during World War II, and was named as one of the Righteous among the Nations by Yad Vashem.

Sigrid Helliesen Lund was a Norwegian peace activist, noted for her humanitarian efforts throughout most of the 20th century, and in particular her resistance to the occupation of Norway during World War II. On 14 May 2006, Yad Vashem posthumously named her one of the Righteous Among the Nations for her work during the Holocaust.

Kurt Ludwig Josef Maria Lingens was a German anti-fascist militant and physician. He and his wife, Ella Lingens, were honoured by Yad Vashem, which named them Righteous Among the Nations.

Bernt Henrik Lund CBE is a Norwegian retired civil servant, diplomat and politician for the Labour Party. He held leading administrative positions in the municipality of Oslo, and also worked on foreign affairs, including foreign aid projects. He was Norway's first ambassador to Namibia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eva Scheer</span> Norwegian writer (1915 –1999)

Eva Scheer was a Norwegian journalist, literary critic, translator and author.

I slik en natt is a Norwegian war film from 1958 directed by Sigval Maartmann-Moe. It stars Anne-Lise Tangstad. The music was composed by Øivin Fjeldstad.

Nina Hasvoll, surname also Hasvold and Hasvold Meyer, was a Russian–Norwegian psychoanalyst. She headed the Jewish Children's Home in Oslo during the Second World War, and she escaped to Sweden in 1942 with 14 children. The orphanage and the escape inspired the 1958 film I slik en natt by Sigval Maartmann-Moe and the 2015 film Ninas barn by Nina Grünfeld.

Ninas barn is a 2015 documentary film about the Jewish Children's Home in Oslo during the Second World War. The film was written and directed by Nina Grünfeld, and it was produced by her company Gründer Film. A book containing the story was also written by Espen Holm and Nina Grünfeld, and it was published by Kagge Forlag in 2015.

Nina Frederikke Grünfeld is a Norwegian film director and author, and the former head of the Norwegian Film Directors (NFR) trade union.

References

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Levin, Irene (2009). "Det jødiske barnehjemmet og Nic Waal" [The Jewish Children's Home and Nic Waal]. Tidsskrift for Norsk Psykologiforening (in Norwegian). 46 (1). Norsk Psykologiforening. 2010-06-18.
↑ Lange, Jon (2002-01-30). "[Nic Waal--the mother of Norwegian child and adolescent psychiatry]". Tidsskrift for den Norske Laegeforening: Tidsskrift for Praktisk Medicin, NY Raekke. 122 (3): 296–297. ISSN 0029-2001. PMID 11894601.
1 2 Bartrop, Paul R.; Grimm, Eve E. (2020-10-19). Children of the Holocaust. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-1-4408-6853-5.
1 2 3 Levin, Irene (7 January 2009). "Det jødiske barnehjemmet og Nic Waal". Tidsskrift for Norsk Psykologforening (in Norwegian Bokmål). 46 (1). Retrieved 2022-08-03.
↑ Aarek, Hans Eirik (2022-06-30), "Sigrid Helliesen Lund", Norsk biografisk leksikon (in Norwegian Bokmål), retrieved 2022-08-03
↑ "Lund, Sigrid Helliesen" (in Norwegian). NorgesLexi.com. Archived from the original on 2011-12-24. Retrieved 2008-08-30.
↑ Grünfeld, Nina (2015-09-24), Nina's Children (Documentary, History, War), retrieved 2022-08-03