Gunnar Kværk « WWII Norge
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Gunnar Kværk, (Aliases: Per, Even) was born on January 13, 1917, towards the end of the First World War. He was an active participant in the second. His experiences, and his reflections on them, are the theme of his book “Kværk on XU”.

I read the book shortly after publication in 2005. He had hoped to publish it in connection with the 50 years celebration of the end of the war in 1995 but was unable to find a publisher. I first met him shortly after his 92nd birthday at his favourite snack bar where he and his wife regularly treat themselves to hot chocolate and waffles. He is still active as a lecturer and meets monthly with the few remaining members of the resistance movement who live in, or near, Oslo.

He gave me permission to use the contents of his book as my source for the following portrait in English.

Gunnar Kværk dedicates his book to: “…my dear son Are, in the hope that he will never have to experience anything similar.” He was, and is still, concerned about the youth of the nation. After two short chapters on the beginnings of XU 1 and his reasons for writing the book, Kværk addresses himself “to young readers – if I have any.” To explain how the world has changed he tells of his childhood as the only child of a technical father and a musical mother, first in Sandefjord and later in Drammen. The problems of today existed then: mobbing, discipline, competition, and money. Only the ways of dealing with problems were different and we see young Kværk overcoming his tormentors, respecting his teachers, becoming an athlete and winning scholarships to continue his education. At the same time he seems to have become fond of fighting but his combatants remained his friends.

He remembered the Rector at his matriculation to the University in Oslo advising them to choose a broad study programme and not to become “specialist slaves”. So, in addition to his basic language studies he attended lectures on mathematics, physics, geography, and philosophy – to his great satisfaction – and later benefit.

In those days the professors lectured on single themes from which students had to try to understand what would be expected of them in the exams. Most of the curriculum had to be covered individually and this meant that students had to read more than was strictly necessary.

Later, as a college lecturer, Kværk often reflected that perhaps things were being made too easy for the students. They lacked independence and often failed to take responsibility for their own lives. He accredited his own generation’s willingness to sacrifice itself in the Resistance Movement to their study regimen of wrestling with problems in solitude and without guidance. He is not sure that today’s youth have been given the opportunity of developing enough independence to tackle a similar challenge.

Gunnar Kværk clearly remembers his first meeting with the forces that would forever change his life. On Oct 3, 1935 he attended a Student Union lecture given by a representative from the Foreign Office. He is not sure, but thinks it was Halvard Lange 2 . From a pile of manuscripts and a copy of “Mein Kamp” the situation in Germany was unfolded: The thirst for revenge, racial purity, super-man and under-man, and the Jews as responsible for all the ills in the world. The atmosphere in the hall was electric, almost like a religious revival meeting. It led to Kværk’s interest in Germany, the Nazis, Hitler, and his gang.

In summer 1937 he cycled from Norway through eastern Germany to Munich. At Youth Hostels he came in close contact with the Hitler Youth and felt compelled to respond to Heil-Hitler salutes in order to avoid physical conflict. He felt that the youngsters were completely brainwashed. Signs of anti-Semitism were everywhere: The words “Jewish pigs” daubed on shop windows, caricatures of Jewish faces and posters with anti-Jewish slogans on every wall. From a bridge over a newly constructed motorway he caught his first sight of Hitler’s growing war machine: four files filled with military vehicles, all heading in one direction.

In Munich he stayed with relatives who told him of the increasing influence of the Gestapo, of the fear, the panic, and the midnight raids, and of men and women dragged away. Everyone knew about the horrible KZ Lager, the concentration camps – and that those who were sent there seldom returned. When his relatives spoke of these things they dropped their voices and spoke in almost a whisper; as his uncle explained, “Walls have ears.”

At the Leopold arena in Nϋremberg he experienced Hitler and Goebbels at close quarters. Most of us have seen films of these spectacles: the massive backdrop of banners, the searchlights, the soldiers and civilians who marched in military precision to take their places in uncounted rows in front of a huge rostrum, the rousing music, the dwindling lights, and then the single spotlight on the slight figure stepping forward. With outstretched arms the ecstatic audience shouted “Sieg Heil” “Sieg Heil” in staccato unison for what seemed like an age.

Kværk saw at once that this hypnotised mass of humanity would follow Hitler like sheep. “One could be scared to death by less” was his fitting comment and he had difficulty in getting to sleep that night. After a repeat performance at the Sportspalast in Berlin he wrote that he would never forget those thousands of outstretched arms and those hoarse cries: “Sieg Heil, Sieg Heil, Sieg Heil.”

His return to Norway took him through the Rhine Valley, Cologne, and Hamburg. He was in Germany for 9 weeks. His total expenses: kr. 180!

As a counterpoint to the evil vibrations from Hitler, Kværk tells us of another memorable meeting. This time it was not a mass gathering but a theatre presentation by Bjørn Bjørnson, of his father, Norway’s great poet and patriot, Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson. Kværk treats us to the essence of Bjørnson’s performance by quoting the first verse of “Ja vi elsker” – Norway’s national anthem, complete with descriptions of accents, gestures, and facial expressions. He then quotes all nine verses of the poem, one of the sources, no doubt, of his own patriotism.

Another source was his National Service in an engineering regiment where he learned about military duty, discipline, and technical communication skills. Good NCOs’ and officers got the most out of the raw recruits in the short months available and he remembers this as a happy, useful time of his life. Reflecting on the scary scenes from Germany, he tried to be a good soldier – maybe he thought his military training would come in useful later.

The benefits of the physical training certainly came in useful when he recommenced his studies at the University of Oslo and daily had to cycle two hours each way between Drammen and Oslo. Studying wasn’t easy, the threatening news from Europe was disturbing, and Norway’s position was unclear. The economy, after the hard twenties and early thirties, had recovered. The country felt secure with its reputation for neutrality and with a Chamberlain-like Halfdan Koht as Foreign Minister, Norway at war was unthinkable. When a war in Europe became a fact on September 1, however, Gunnar Kværk’s thoughts returned to the military traffic on the motorway in Germany, the Sieg Heils, the Hitler youth – and he feared the worst.

Just over six months later his fears were realized when he heard the German aircraft flying over Drammen on their way to Fornebu airport near Oslo. Shortly afterwards a small German patrol entered Drammen. Two armed soldiers were left standing guard in the main square. Gunnar asked passers-by why they didn’t fetch a gun and shoot the soldiers – they thought he was mad. He listened to the radio and read newspapers waiting for a mobilization call that never came.

Two days later, with a group of like-minded men, he took the train to Hønefoss to join his regiment. An army lieutenant met them and said they might just as well turn round an go home – “There’s no point in resisting and anyway, Quisling had formed a government with the support of Germans because the King, Cabinet and Parliament have left the country,” The officer had to beat a hasty retreat when one of the men grabbed him by the throat, called him a traitor, and threatened to punch him. The group then marched through Hønefoss and out to the camp.

At the camp chaos reigned because mobilization had barely begun and nobody seemed to know what was happening. The answer was ‘not much’, because the call-up had been sent by mail and even this was only a partial mobilization

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When uniforms and arms had been distributed, Kværk and another man were ordered to string a telephone line to a nearby camp. On the way back German aircraft dropped bombs close enough to make the two men fear for their lives. Two days later German troops were reported nearing the camp but the regiment’s task was communications – not fighting. Thus began a wandering so common to many a Norwegian unit at that time: up one valley, down another, over one mountain, down the next, through one village and then back. They slept in barns and begged food from farms and only once had to take cover from enemy air attack.

Kværk remembers this as one, long, boring retreat broken only by another enemy air attack when they finally made camp in Espedalen. Hearing that a German party was heading their way it was decided to send a patrol to meet and stop them. The officer in charge asked one of the men, Larsen, a lanky, unlikely looking soldier, if he could shoot. “I’m a good shot” he replied. “Do you have a marksman’s badge” was the next question. “Oh, yes, and more than that – people call me Stag-Larsen.” It turned out that Larsen was a Norwegian shooting champion. After the war he became an Olympic champion and twice world-champion.

Larsen’s prowess remained untested – they didn’t find the German patrol and the Norwegian force at Espedalen was soon overpowered, disarmed, and taken to Lillehammer in open arrest. The Germans needed an interpreter so Kværk volunteered and was promoted to “cook”. With the rations he received from the German quartermaster he was able to feed the men and supply the local population with some extra food – thus fulfilling the quartermaster’s two rules: no leftovers and no food to be thrown away.

The Norwegian ‘prisoners’ were finally released and Kværk arrived back in Drammen on May 12 – to a new life in an occupied country.

That summer he was invited down to Sandefjord to visit a good friend and fellow student, Arne Belgau. Arne and a group of young men and women lived in a pleasant summer house where they had built up a stage and organised a show for the many summer residents of the area. Gunnar was commandeered to sing a couple of duets with a young woman he hadn’t met before: “Her name was Ruth… and her fine soprano voice matched my modest baritone quite well.” It was ‘love at first sight’ and before the summer ended they were secretly engaged.

It was Arne Belgau who contacted Gunnar early in the summer of 1942 and asked him if he would consider joining an intelligence organisation. Arne had been recruited at the University of Oslo at Blindern where Gunnar studied and where much of the recruitment for XU took place. Another Blindern scholar, E8 3 Nils Brusli, was Gunnar’s first contact. Brusli had done a great job in developing strong networks in several southern counties. He needed a man in Drammen and Gunnar Kværk fit the role.

After the loose, often total lack of security in the early years, recruitment had become stricter and better understood. Gunnar sounded out only trusted friends and close acquaintances who had one or more useful attributes: Kristian had just opened a small shop that could be used for meetings, Sven was a policeman, Thorolf, as a salesman, travelled throughout the district in a company van that raised no suspicions and then, after his mother died, Gunnar recruited his father, a proficient amateur photographer who became “The Pope” because of his name, Johannes. Others followed: a Dutch-born electrical engineer who knew the German mentality in and out, a Finland-war hardened nurse who ‘organised’ doctors and storage space, Rolf, Trond, the Pettersen brothers, Hildegunn, Gulbrand, Ruth and Nils – these are their real names, all had aliases, mostly they didn’t know each other but Gunnar, with one exception, knew them all. He also knew that this, in itself, was a security risk and in the war’s last two years he carried a pistol and kept his ‘caramel’ 4 in his mouth.

The Pettersen brothers, acted as couriers between Drammen and a radio operator in Tofte. The radio operator’s job was to report on German ship movements in the Oslofjord but he had been given special permission by London to co-operate with the XU group. The Pettersen brothers cycled between Drammen and Tofte with messages hidden in their bicycle pumps. German patrols rarely took any notice of these two young cyclists.

Trond’s alias was “Kontoristen” and Rolf’s was “Jim”. “Kontoristen”, working in the German commandant’s office, had access to secret documents that were of vital importance to the Allied cause. These he was able “borrow” and “Jim”, who was in and out of the office daily, collected the documents, took them to the photographer, and returned them next day. Among these were details of German troop movements to the Western front in 1944. Many people in Drammen knew that Trond and Rolf worked with the Germans – and drew the seemingly, obvious conclusion that they were NS adherents. Thus, in addition to the daily threat of being discovered – with certain death to follow – these two patriots suffered the indignity of being treated as traitors after the war. Trond moved from Drammen to escape the stigma, Rolf remained and not until Gunnar Kværk, at an open meeting in 1986, told of the real situation, was Rolf finally recognized as a “good” Norwegian again. This is one example of “double agents” who were exonerated in their lifetimes; many died before the truth was revealed.

Gunnar is obviously deeply concerned with the fate of “double agents” and he cites the story of Harald Haraldsson as another example. Harald owned a print shop and regularly received orders from the Germans for printing of secret documents. He made sure that XU got copies of all documents that were of interest to the Allies. Nevertheless he was charged with economic treason after the war and in spite of a recommendation from Col. Roscher Lund 5 , and support from the entire XU leadership, the court found him guilty and fined him 30,000 kroner.

He paid the fine but later regretted it and began a fight to get his name cleared. In 1992 the Justice Department annulled the 1945 conviction. Haraldsson received the “Participation medal” and a refund of the 30,000 kroner – but not the accrued interest – he should have received over a million kroner in 1992 money. More important than money were the words of Lieutenant-General Svang-Rasmussen when he presented him with the medal: “Dear Harald Haraldsson! I have the pleasure and the honour of presenting you with the “Participation Medal” on behalf of His Majesty the King and the Defence High Command.”

Ivan Rosenqvist, an early XU leader, in an interview with the Swedish Radio, said that in a similar situation in the future he would not encourage anyone take on the role of a double agent. Gunnar agrees and adds: “… no person or organisation should have the right to demand such a sacrifice from anyone – even in wartime.”

Sacrifices, however, both large and small are an integral part of the life of anyone working in a Resistance Movement. The leadership of XU did its best to provide a safe framework for its agents. The men and women in leading positions had as few contacts as was practical with the agents in the field. They tried to make sure that if they were arrested those closest to them would be warned and could escape. It didn’t always work – but there was no other way. The leadership also gradually opened channels to their counterparts in Milorg, Sivorg, and to the Police, the road administration, the railroad, the various departments and to a “supply service” that could conjure up remarkable amounts of money, food, clothes, and equipment.

One golden rule was that all XU agents should avoid contact with all other groups and organisations. This was not as simple as it sounds. Many young men and women started their resistance at an early stage in the occupation and certain connections were unavoidable. New “recruits” were, in any event, given written instructions about the danger of such connections, of the other rule: “Silence is golden”, and of the necessity to watch their intake of alcohol. They were also given detailed lists of types of defences, things to be noted, silhouettes of ships and aircraft, and the meaning of German uniform distinctions.

The information and the support proved positive. The thousands of small pieces of information, sketches, maps, and photographs which, in themselves might have no value, when pieced together and analysed, provided invaluable assistance to the Allies. XU did this so effectively that the Allied High Command knew the location of every gun emplacement in Norway more than a year before the war ended. Kværk gives full credit for this to both the men in the field and the XU leaders.

By 1943 Gunnar Kværk had become E8 – that is, XU leader for three counties: Lower Buskerud, Vestfold and Telemark. In the autumn of that year a telegram from London asked for more information about the many bunkers that the Germans had built between Sandefjord and Larvik. One of Gunnar’s contacts in Sandefjord was “Anders” and he promised to “see what he could do”. A week later “Anders” turned up in Drammen with documents that included the Germans’ own map of the area together with lists – not only itemising what each bunker contained but noting the various movements of equipment in and out of the bunkers. All were penned with the usual Teutonic order and neatness. “How did you manage to get these?” asked Gunner.

Anders said that it was easy: “You know how organised the Germans are – inside each bunker the lists hung on a nail on the back of the door. All I had to do was to collect them.”

“Logical enough” said Gunnar, “but how did you get into the area without being challenged?”

“I thought that there must be some kind of alarm system and that it had probably been installed by a local electrician. I knew one of the electricians in town so I went and asked him if he knew anything about this. Talk about luck – his firm had installed the system. I asked if the Germans checked the system from time to time and when he said yes I asked him to call the officer in charge and suggest a test. He did. The officer thought it was a good idea and asked him to send an electrician.”

The same electrician who had installed the system was sent but this time he had with him an apprentice – Anders. A soldier followed the two around but did not go into the bunkers with them. Whilst the real electrician checked the alarms Anders helped himself to the documents and hid them in his toolbox. When they were finished and back at the guardhouse, the officer in charge had to go outside to warn the guards of an alarm-test. This was when Anders stole the location map that was hanging on the wall. “The worst part of all was forcing myself not to run as we walked away from the guardhouse” concluded Anders.

Both the electrician and his boss were arrested when the Germans soon afterwards discovered their loss but somehow, almost incredibly, they were released relatively quickly.

Gunnar describes Anders as a long, lanky unassuming youth who, in spite of living almost surrounded by water, couldn’t even swim. But he had a sense of humour and the determination to get things done. He illustrates one of Gunnar Kværk’s maxims: Courage is not that one is never afraid – but that one manages to control fear.

Much of Gunnar’s time was taken up with encoding and decoding messages to and from London. He carefully describes both the ‘old’ and ‘new’ methods. I am glad that, as a radio operator during my time in the army, I only had to send the messages, not encode them.

Many messages were in connection with the parachute delivery of men, supplies, and equipment. Gunnar gives transcripts of several of these messages, describing the events before, during, and after the actual drop – and some nerve-racking episodes: driving a load of recently dropped containers and being stopped by a German patrol at 4.30 in the morning, charming a German officer to carry a suitcase (containing a radio transmitter) through the check-point in a railway station.

On December 17, 1944, at another check-point – the entrance to National Industries in Drammen – Gunnar’s father, “The Pope” was stopped, his brief-case searched and an illegal camera disclosed. The guard kept the camera to check that “The Pope’s” explanation of holiday snaps was true when the film was developed. Meanwhile “The Pope” could continue to his work. He knew that the film was far from as innocent as he had claimed and he telephoned Gunnar. They agreed that Gunnar and his wife (“Lasse”) should take the first train to Oslo and “The Pope” should go underground in Drammen – he had to leave work through a hole in the fence. All went well. Gunnar and “Lasse” made their way to the apartment where E1, Helge Usterud Aasgaard (Ulf), lived. As the situation was potentially dangerous, XU’s leader, “Fredrik” was sent for. They decided that because “Ulf” was exhausted after 4 year’s hard illegal operations, Gunnar should become E1 and he and “Lasse” should move to Oslo.

It was not the first time Gunnar had met “Fredrik” – Øistein Strømnæs was his real name. The first time was a special occasion in 1943 when Gunnar and his fiancé, Ruth had to seek permission to marry. This they obtained with their promise that there would be no children until the war ended. “Fredrik” made an exceptionally good impression on Gunnar: “He was a very attractive man, with an open, clear face, eagle-nose and brown eyes….He gave the impression of having a strong and good personality.” Later, as E1, Gunnar was to have many meetings with this respected leader and other leading XU members.

At these meetings security was tight: “…the others had to arrive 5 minutes earlier than “Fredrik” and “Aslak”(XU’s second in command). I knew them all so I let them in and put them in a room to the left of the entrance hall. When we heard “Fredriks” special ring I unlocked the door but didn’t open it. I then joined the others,(“Lasse” stayed in the kitchen because she knew only one of the leaders and must not see the others.) “Fredrik” and “Aslak” let themselves in, locked the door behind them, and went into the bedroom to the right of the entrance hall. From the bedroom “Aslak” went into the bathroom and sat there with the door slightly ajar. “Fredrik” then fetched the others and the meeting took place in the bedroom. Every time something was said that “Aslak” wanted to comment on he knocked on the bathroom door and “Fredrik” went in. “Aslak” spoke in whispers to avoid his voice being recognised. “Fredrik” came out and reported the gist of their conversation. I remember almost always thinking that “Aslak” must be a very intelligent man because whatever his suggestions, they were better than anything we others had proposed. My respect for Aslak grew and I felt secure, knowing that we would have a good leader if we should ever lose “Fredrik”. I had formed a mental, idealistic picture of “Aslak” – another “Fredrik” perhaps.”

In Gunnar’s opinion, “Fredrik” and “Aslak” were great leaders who deserve to be (but are not), recognised alongside the now famous, highly decorated, “war heroes” 6

As his replacement in Drammen, Gunnar appointed Otto Isaachsen, (“Kristian”) a law student who had been his contact in Notodden. The leadership styles of Gunnar and “Kristian” were completely different: whereas Gunnar tended to talk to the men and discuss their objectives, “Kristian” simply gave orders. At this late stage in the war, intelligence about troop movements, locations, and identification were of prime importance to the Allied cause. The reports of “Kontoristen” were especially valuable in this respect. But while reports continued to flow, friction under the surface grew and finally erupted in a devastating flame of destruction.

One of Gunnar’s early recruits in Drammen had been “Nils”, a quiet, introspective young man who worked tirelessly for the cause right from the start. Through his work as a courier, travelling around the district, he came in contact with many members of the organisation. During the turbulent times of March 1945, at the height of the uncertainty about lines of communication between the districts, Stockholm and London, “Nils” contacted the Gestapo and told them much of what he knew about the organisation. There are various explanations as to why he did this: a confused ambition to advance himself, frustration and revenge against the new leader and, in retrospect, the outcome of an unhappy childhood. “Nils’s” father was a psychopath and had been one of Gunnar’s teachers in junior school when, “his anger was often quite out of control.”

Whatever the reason, the result was a catastrophe. When the Gestapo arrested “Kristian” in his apartment in Drammen they found a hidden cache of documents in the cellar that gave information leading to contacts throughout the district. In the following razzias, 29 XU members were arrested in Tønsberg, Sandefjord, Skien, Porsgrunn and Rjukan and imprisoned in Drammen. Here the story takes a remarkable turn: The head guard at the prison was a Czech sergeant. He arranged a party for the other guards and got them all drunk. He then locked them in the cells, led the prisoners out of the jail, marched them out of town, and escaped with them to Sweden.

After the war, the War Crimes Court sentenced “Nils” to twenty years in jail.

After their hasty transfer from Drammen an impromptu Christmas party in fog-shrouded Oslo brought a welcome respite for Gunnar, Ruth and “Paven”. A couple of days later, when the previous E1 had left for Sweden, they moved into an apartment near Majorstuen. E1’s main tasks were contact with district heads and participation in leadership meeting and operations. Meetings with district leaders mostly took place in the street. A meeting would be arranged at a certain corner, for example, at 12.12. The two participants had to arrive between 12.10 and 12.14. If one of them did not appear the other would simply continue walking and return next day, or next week, whichever was scheduled. Loitering on the streets around Majorstuen was not a good idea – German patrols were everywhere. Oral information given during the ‘walking-meetings’, and any documents that Gunnar received were delivered to “Fredrik” for micro-photographing and dispatching to Stockholm or London. Gunnar didn’t know where “Fredrik” lived and had no way of contacting him – security first remained the watchword.

The more important messages received from London and Stockholm were discussed at the leaders’ meetings. In the last few months a series of dissensions had cropped up between Oslo and London and between Oslo and Stockholm. London wanted actions to be carried out as they decreed – often in a stiff, military manner: those in Oslo thought they should be allowed to do it their way – taking the minute to minute, day to day situation into account. But the dissent was partially because London was sincerely concerned about safety – they thought that in some places the Gestapo was too close for comfort, and the stakes were high. So much so that they had plans to move “Fredrik” and some other leaders to Stockholm where, they said, they could continue to coordinate the work – but in safety.

Gunnar writes: “Naturally we disagreed with this analysis and suggestion – feeling, as we did, that the Gestapo was not breathing down our necks, that we were fighting for a good cause and that nothing could harm us. Certainly we had long ago balanced the accounts on our lives – we would never be taken alive – the loaded pistol or the primed poison pill would make sure of that. Of course prestige and personal pride played their part – and we were guilty of being more than somewhat outspoken in our opinions to London. “Fredrik” had may fine characteristics, he was a born resistance man, but a diplomat he was not.”

The relationship with Stockholm involved similar basic conflicts but because many of the Norwegians in the Stockholm office had, themselves, been involved in illegal activities in Norway, the tone often became personal. Oslo claimed that they had quickly forgotten just how difficult the situation was in Norway. The atmosphere became charged and bitter recriminations on both sides led to mutual mistrust and, on occasions, to intrigues that could have harmed the war effort.

In the spring of 1945 the Germans laid some fairly concrete plans to establish “Festung Norwegen” (Fortress Norway) based on the 350,000 well-trained and rested troops occupying the land. Ultimo April, Gunnar and another in the leadership group travelled to Stockholm to meet with Norwegian and British representatives from London. They had to discuss the different alternatives facing them if Fortress Norway should become a reality. It was not pleasant to sit working long hours preparing for the continuation of the war in Norway while national flags were flying and folk were celebrating peace in Holland, Belgium, and Denmark. On May 7th the senior British officer received a telegram, opened it, read it, paused, and said: “Gentlemen, I see the war is over. May I propose that we go out and dine?

“I spent the evening with Øistein and Anne Sofie (Fredrik and Aslak) in their apartment in Bygdøy Allé. There I met many other members of the organisation. Most of them I had neither met nor heard of before. They all used their aliases, or what I thought were their aliases.

Two men came direct from Stockholm in a taxi. One of them introduced himself as Gunnar Kværk. He had been to Sweden to discuss how XU should react if the Germans made good on their threat to establish “Fortress Norway”. But the Germans capitulated. Unable to get a train to Oslo, Gunnar had found a taxi-driver willing to drive him direct to Bygdøy Allé. The driver spent the night in Oslo and returned to Stockholm next day.

I witnessed Anne Sofie take off her mask. Everybody who knew anything about XU thought that the second-in-command was a man called “Aslak”.

Now we saw that behind the name and the mask was a small, attractive,young lady. 7