Skip to main content

Arolsen Archives: Search success in Norway

"While visiting the Arolsen Archives, a Norwegian journalist discovered a small collection of personal items that had been confiscated from concentration camp prisoners from Norway when they were arrested by the Nazis. Gøril Grov Sørdal resolved to help search for the relatives of the victims so these mementos could be returned. Thanks to intensive research, excellent knowledge of the country and appeals on television and radio, she helped the Arolsen Archives to find nearly all of the families.

More than 9,000 resistance fighters were arrested by the Nazis during Germany’s occupation of Norway. They were sent to German concentration camps, where some of them had to perform heavy forced labor. The Arolsen Archives hold thousands of documents with extensive information about these victims of persecution from Norway – as well as a collection of personal objects that a small group of them left behind in Germany.

Small collection of striking fates 

The collection comprises items like pocket watches, wallets and jewelry from around 30 prisoners who were rescued from the camps as part of the famous “White Buses” operation by the Swedish Red Cross. The Swedes were allowed to drive to the concentration camps and pick up Scandinavian prisoners with the official authorization of the SS. These prisoners were taken to an assembly camp at the Neuengamme concentration camp, where they were cared for by the Red Cross before being returned to their home countries. Their personal effects were taken along as well, as they were on any transport. Some of these items remained behind in Neuengamme and subsequently entered the collection of the Arolsen Archives.


Successful research in Norway

The journalist Gøril Grov Sørdal could not stop thinking about the fate of the Norwegian prisoners after she visited the Arolsen Archives in the summer of 2019 while conducting research into a different topic and saw the personal effects for the first time. Together with her team, she began searching for the descendants of the former prisoners in Norway in order to return their personal items. She reported on television and radio about the objects being returned and presented the personal effects of concentration camp prisoners whose families she had not yet found. Thanks to these efforts and a good collaboration with the Arolsen Archives, nearly all of the relatives could be tracked down."

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Jewish Religious Life in Poland since 1750 - Conference 11 Jan 2021

ONE-DAY ONLINE CONFERENCE TO LAUNCH VOLUME 33 OF POLIN: STUDIES IN POLISH JEWRY  Jewish Religious Life in Poland since 1750      Published by the Littman Library of Jewish Civilization/Liverpool University Press   Monday January 11th 2021 10am-3.30pm Organised by the Institute for Polish-Jewish Studies and the Institute of Jewish Studies, UCL with JW3 London. Co-organised and supported by the Polish Cultural Institute, London This event honours the memory of Ada Rapoport-Albert, who edited the volume with Marcin Wodziński. Following tremendous advances in recent years in the study of religious belief, this volume adopts a fresh understanding of Jewish religious life in Poland. The contemporary reassessments, with their awareness of emerging techniques that have the potential to extract fresh insights from source materials both old and new, show how our understanding of what it means to be Jewish is continuing to expand.  Conference convenors: Dr F...
Post a Comment
Read more

Free family tree templates

Please see https://templatelab.com/family-tree-templates/#How_to_Make_Family_Tree_Templates to download some free family tree templates in Word, Excel and PDF formats. Let us know if you have tried these, and if they work. See Dick Eastman's blog for his announcement: https://blog.eogn.com/2020/07/03/the-best-free-family-tree-templates-for-microsoft-word-and-excel/
Post a Comment
Read more

Sephardic World: Libyan Jews in the Maelstrom of Modern History - 25 October

From Ton Tielen and David Mendoza: A frequently overlooked part of modern Jewish history, the Holocaust and expulsion of Jews from Arab countries, is this week's topic, looking at the experience of Libyan Jews. The Holocaust and post-War politics in Libya led the destruction of an ancient Jewish community. We are delighted to be teaming with Sephardic Horizons. Judith Roumani of Sephardic Horizons will introduce our three speakers who will each give a 15-minute talk on their subject. Vivienne Roumani-Denn, "Libyan Jews in the Fascist Internment Camp of Giado" Danielle Willard-Kyle "'Not within the Mandate: Libyan Jewish Refugees in Italian Displaced Persons Camps" David Meghnagi "Libyan Jewish Refugees and 1967” Topic: Libyan Jews in the Maelstrom of Modern History: Sunday October 25, 2020 07:00 PM London. PLEASE NOTE THAT THE CLOCKS HAVE GONE BACK, THIS IS GMT. Please check your time zone. We believe this is 8pm in Amsterdam/Paris, 9pm in Jerusalem a...
Post a Comment
Read more