Egil Eggen, father of Eystein Eggen and colleague of Bruun-Evers, Leib and Thoresen, here as a young student of Germanistics in Oslo before the war.
Jonas Lie and Karl Leib together on SS training ground at Kongsvinger fortress. To the left with cane SS-Hauptsturmführer Olaf Lindvig from Fåvang in Gudbrandsdalen. The germans were exhilarated by Lindvigs germanic looks, therefore he couldn't seek cover when under fire, was therefore constantly wounded and walks with a stick. The stocky civilian in the middle is Hans S. Jacobsen, who after the war allied himself with the british journalist Ralph Hewins in an attack on the official norwegian historyversion.
Unni's uncle Einar Ingvald Skogstad/Woodstead (1913-1994) was an US Army tank driver in the allied landing in Normandy 1944. His nephew Arthur M. Woodstead (1947-2006) got the Purple Heart as an US Army sergeant in the Vietnam war. He is buried at the National Memorial Cemetry of Arizona.
Albert Henrik Mohn, the doyen of norwegian foreign correspondents. Wrote one book with his own poems and fifty odd on foreign affairs. During the war in BBC radio, and in 1993 he reviewed Eystein Eggens book "The Boy from Gimle" on the broadcast and concluded:
"In popular opinion the son (EE) should have become environmental loaded scum. Instead he is a fine-feeling, deep-ploughing human beeing, a glittering master of style, a courageous storyteller who has given us one of the most thoughtgiving books of the year."
Aschehoug publishing, beeing the old fascist book-company of Norway, refused to use Mohns review in advertising Eystein Eggens book "The Boy from Gimle". For cover of company's book "A Gentleman on new roads", published in the battle for Stalingrad autumn of 1942 , see 139
cf. 71,113,115,117,118,122,123,125
Werner Christie (1917-2004), general in the norwegian air force, here during the war as a fighter pilot in the british Royal Air Force. One of the very few remaining operative nobles of Norway, related to Fridtjof Nansen on his mothers side.
In 1993 the retired general reviewed Eystein Eggens "The Boy from Gimle" for the countrys leading newspaper and concluded: "Eystein Eggen has given us an honest, valuable and awakening book which concerns everyone".
Johs. Seland, born in Flekkefjord 1912. War-time Press Chief for the Norwegian Gouvernment in exile in London. After editor in chief of the big newspaper "Fædrelandsvennen" ("The Patriot" ), where he in 1993 reviewed Eystein Eggens book "The Boy from Gimle".
"A deeply moving story about the love which no longer could be carried by them whom the war had changed...On me the book has made a strong impression".
Whole review toghether with Mohns on Volapuk Culural Forum page 5, with fighter pilot Christies words on the first
Svein Blindheim, born in Voss 1916 , as a young ensign in the army of genereal Fleischer. Blindheim is one of the highest decorated norwgian war officers, army major and a stauch reviewer and defender of Eystein Eggens books "The Boy from Gimle" and "The General" (on Fleischer), which alas cannot be said of the editor and, in casu Fleischer, the initiator, of these two books, cultural director Ola Jacob Bull, chicken number one in Norways civil service. See Volapuk Cultural Forum, page 6 and 22
Narvik Memorial Cemetry. Fleischer stone top left.
Egil Eggen in his mid-fifties around 1970, lecturing german and norwegian at his college.
General major Carl Gustav Fleischer (1883-1942) with the old norweigian army at Narvik 1940. Fleischer was commanding Eystein Eggen father in 1940, and Unni Friis Skogstads father in 1941-42, when he shot himself with a Colt 45 in Canada. Replica of a painting hanging in the garrison church of Akershus castle in Oslo, given to Eystein Eggen on the day of unveiling in december 1996. For Eggens book on general Fleischer, see Volapuk cultural forum, page 20, 22, 33 and 34. Exceptional spirited review by major John Berg, whose father, captain Finn Berg, was shot by the germans i 1942, and not a single memorial stone, not even a photo, cf.106, 108
Third troop of the machine gun comany, first batallion of the 12. norwegian infantryregiment, South-Trondelag, on neutrality watch 1939 at the russian border in Finmark, six months before Gratangen , Narvik, cf. 104, and the heaviest norwegian casualities in the short war of 1940. Their rifles are the renowned norwegian Krag-Joergensen, which were of little avail, as the "trønderbataljonen"was wiped out by bavarian mountaineers in a surprise attack in the the early hours of aprl 25. , having hastily bivouaced in the valley of Gratangen after a forced advance in the blizzard. Lance corporal Eggen number to from right.
Eystein Eggen and Unni Friis Skogstad. Head of Quality and Governmental grant holder. Distant cousins and married couple. Son of a SS-man and daughter of a british staff sergeant / niece of an an US Army soldier, and very much for reconciliation after WWII.
"The most candid in print", wrote professor Einar Haugen, Universities of Wisconsin and Harvard, in his review of Eggens autobiograhy "The Boy from Gimle"
For index side, click norwegian, for other versions of the interview "Forsoningen" by Hans Broch-Nielsen, click english, deutsch, francais or italiano, par favore. For the present absolute necessity of letting bygones be bygones, se recent letter to Skogstad/Eggen from chief of Norwegian Police Security, with further public documentation on Volapuk, page 45
Egil Eggen (1915-1984) newly wed in the year of 1943. He arrived late for his church wedding and got a stern remark from his father, Eystein Eggen the older who afterwards was told to have raised an eyebrow at thew sight of Leib arriving with the yellow chrysantemums., although grandfather too figures as a registered nazi in the standard work on more substantial resistance in his native area, see page 84 .
Up at the grey blackflagtopped stone castle of "Der höhere SS- und Polizeiführer Nord, Karl Leib also personally wed young couples. "The bride arrived drunk, but beeing highly pregnant, it didn't matter," the witness Felix Thoresen later recalled from one ceremony more in the heathen ways, with only bread, salt and Hitler on the altar. Although police general Wilhelm Rediess had written the booklet "With sword and cradle", he didn't actually wed people. Rediess looked like a bavarian farmer and held speeches, when in norwegian mostly written by Eggen. The SS-generals car with its black and white ensign rolled up outside the west end Leitstelle. There was no guard outside Leitstelles door, and inside only Hitler and Himmler on the wall and an invalid soldier to handle the deadly dangerous dog. At the second floor Thoresen muttered "time for a new speech" , looked into the treetops and dreamed on of the Ritterkreutz, given to his popular teacher at Bad Tölz, Fritz Klingenberg, for Klingenbergs adventurous capture of the yugoslavian capital the year before.
The germans did not require buildings, they required whole quarters at the time. Leitstelle alone had two houses, next door were "Germanic SS of Norway" and the administration of Lebensborn. No lack of " ladies from the burgeoise," remembered another Untersturmführer. "Your father did look germanic," Eystein Eggens mother reminiscensed to her son. "We can't shoot at people", one of Egil Eggens skiing mates, Magne Slåttsveen from Ålen, had said at Gratangen 1940. Mate's picture as young atlethe, see 92. And that was first batallion of IR12, the oldest of norwegian regiments. After all, Norway had not been at war for the last 150 years.
Three years later Eggen discussed intensly with his office-neighbour Thoresen how to render the german phrase "Die Liebe bleibt unser Gesetz", title and last line in a very long german poem. Himmler himself was proud of it, written as it was at the front by Hans-Werner Nachrodt. Verbatim it was "love remains our law". The result in norwegian became "kjærligheten er vår lov", id est "love is our law". Stuffed with pictures of downsnodden soldiers at Mius in the Ukraine and german girls with golden plaits back home, the poem filled a double number of SS-Leitheft. Batchelor Thoresen was frustrated by the new ban on using Leibs car. Hauptamt had statistically proven that more SS-officers drove themselves to death than were killed at the front. Wartime photo, 1943. For phto of Egil Eggens succcessor as editor of SS-Leitheft, his in-law Ola Furuseth, see Volapuk page 61, for photos of his wife before, during and after the war, see pages 55 and 60 and for Eggens other nazi relatives 64 and 65
Main entrance to Gimle at Bygdøy. Portico built 1941, building up hill former "Villa Grande" from the jobbing times of WWI, rebuilt with romanesque tower by Vidkun Quisling 1942, today Holocaust memorial site.
Felix Thoresen, SS-Obersturmführer/captain 1942-45, EK I and II, after prison advertising man i Dublin, Ireland, later norwegian writer. Thoresen was born in 1924, and died in 1991 at the Deacon Hospital in Oslo. Of old german stock on his mothers side, Jordan from Prenzlau in the Uckermark, his uncle Felix Hartmann volunteering in 1914 and getting the EK I, Thoresen went as a 17 year old volunteer with 5. SS-Division "Wiking" to Russia in the summer of 1941, presented arms for Adolf Hitler at Tarnopol, was wounded at the river-crossing Dneprprotovsk, came to SS-Junkerschule Bad Tölz, where he read his poem "Eternal fighting family" for Heinrich Himmler and became an officer in the SS. Back in Oslo, he met Eystein Eggens father, the norwegian war veteran Egil Eggen, at the Germanische Leitstelle, got himself a new pair of boots from Lepinsky in Warsaw , donned the black and silver uniform of the germanic SS, and thus toured the country for new recruits. He went to Gimle at Bygdøy, but could't come near the norwegian leader Quisling, surrounded by a human wall of darkblue doublebreasted "Hird" with red and golden nationalistic sun-crosses on their sleeves. From spring 44 with SS-Nordland, Thoresen took "the grand tour" down Balticum , loosing his company for a short time, to a New Years eve in Modlin , where the machine gunner at twelwe o'clock at wanton emptied his magazine into the bleak polish night. Lamenting the loss of his all time high, division "Grossdeutschland" of the Wehrmacht, Thoresen rejoined "Wiking" and the other crack SS-divisions, "Das Reich", "Totenkopf" and "Leibstandarte", in Hungary spring 45, saw fears green light in man's eye on mornings parade, and learned it was a pre-token of death before evening. He sat beside in his batallion commanders car at Plattensee when the commander suddenly got a bullett through his head, Thoresen thus becoming Obersturmführer. His life's recurring nightmare was being shot at from the air while retreating through Austria in a Red cross train. Quote: "War is the Sunday of Man, Peace his Workday". Photo by Heintz Günther Mebusch, D-4000 Düsseldorf AM WEHRHAHN 45, taken in 1977, when Thoresen was 53 years of age. For Thoresens war poem in german, see Volapuk page 61, for his letter as a front officer to the mother of one of his soldiers killed in action, see page 73
Karl Leib, SS-Sturmbannführer, 1942-45 chief of Germanische Leitstelle, Oslo, Norway. Althouhgh son-in-law of SS-Hauptamt chief Gottlob Berger, blond Leib was a primarly a desk officer, his uniform poshly shading in light grey, and no fighting man. Kriegsverdienstkreuz, with only one brief sojourn to the front in Riga in 44, where he met his old subordinate Thoresen. A recruiting officer with broad contacts in the norwegian resistance, Leib was somewhat unpopular among his norwegian volunteers, but came late fall 42 with a bunch of yellow chrysantemum to the wedding of Eystein Eggens parents. For pictures of Leib as a pagan priest leading a SS-weeding, se Volapük page 63
Emil Bruun Evers, SS-Untersturmführer. Born 1921 at Flotmyr, Haugesund, fell at Narva April 7. 1944, 22 years of age, fighting in the SS-Nordland, his body beeing fetched in by Felix Thoresen. NS member since he was fifteen. Obituaries on Volapük page 63
"Read out loud and clear, lad, and stop at the separation marks!" Eystein Eggen maternal granduncle, the mountain farmer John Hov ,said to the young police officer when Hov was arrested for high treason and nazism in 45, the policeman beeing embarrassed over arresting such a relict from wiking times and therefore rushing through the warrant with an incredible speed.The north sea had seen many tides since Hovs forbears followed the warrior chieftain Eric Hakonsson over to England to fight for mighty king Canute. Eric became earl of Northumberland, and his bones presumably peace under York cathedral, but back in Norway the family become exceedingly conservative and pro german, blaming modern Great Britain for most of the worlds problems. Pictures of his family in old surroundings, see Volapuk page 48, 49, 57 and 90
Captain John Karlsen (1913-1985) had his first parachute jump at Ringway, Manchester in july 1941. For background, see British Army's site and Gotuskjegg saga.Staff sergeant in the Norwegian Parachute Company, Norwegian Independent Brigade, Scotland 1941 to 45. Worked close together with the Polish Parachute Brigade, which he highly estimated. Joined the norwegian infantry in 1945, where he became a captain, father of Unni Friis Skogstad and late father in law of Eystein Eggen. Born and bred in the old wiking nest of the Faroes way out in the Atlantic, went in his early youth fishing on the west coast of Greenland, whaled in the Antarctic and wintered before the war in South Georgia. "Send for Karlsen," as they said when disturbance in the barracks. Post war photo.
Jonas Lie (1899-1945), chieftain of The germanic SS of Norway, with main office at Drammensveien, Oslo, next door to Leibs Germanische Leitstelle. SS-Obersturmfürer, EK I and II. Police officer and writer of excellent detective stories. Before the war chief of the riot squad and teacher of tactics at the police high school. During the war chief of the norwegian police. At the front at Lenigrad and in the Balkans. Son of Erik Lie, the very pro-german librarian in Paris who had founded the Norwegian writers' association. Sailed as a young cadet in 1918 with his father in a german Zeppeliner from occupied Belgium to Berlin. A distant cousin of Eystein Eggen on Eggens maternal side, the Hov people, presumably Norways oldest pro-german family. See photos and documentation at Volapuk, page 48, 49, 53, 55, 56, 57, 90, 121,134
For pre-war leading norwegian fascist paper "Tidens Tegn" ("Times Token") and the papers presentation of: irish fascists Corund Cronin, Ernest Blythe, Eoin O'Duffy, colonel Ryan and dr. Tom O'Higgins, see 125, same as for Sir Oswald Mosley, England
Jef van der Wiele, Flanders, and Henk Feldmeyer, the Netherlands, 63
Ernst Rüdiger von Starhemberg, Austria, 126
Extensive interview with Adolf Hitler 1933, 123. First interview with Hitler, 1923, befor Beer Hall Putsch, 138. Intervew with Joseph Göbbels,118 and with Benito Mussolini 1923 by poet laureate Olaf Bull, 136
"Fascism, that's me," star reporter Sven Elvestad said. Elvestad on Italy and Bavaria in the 1920'ies: 170,171,183; interview 1923 with answer in Hitlers handwriting: 176
Scintillating report by editor Jonas Scanche Jonassen from meeting Hitler/Mussolini, Berlin september 1937: 156. Jonasen also interviewed Mussolini in november 1925, 166, and in an 1924 issue presented him and his fascist concept, 167
Mussolini decorating the duke of Aosta, 165
Norwegian republican fighters in the Spanish Civil war and Jose Moscardo front page, 127. Norwegian pre-war riot police, 140
For TT front page on Red Army generals Mikhail Tukhatsjevski, Alexander Jegorow, Semjon Budjonny, Wassili Blücher, see 132
TT on french fascists Marcel Déat, Adrien Marquet, Barthélémy Montagnon, 128, on Francois de la Rocque, 135
Ioannis Metaxas under the Pelekys in Greece, 142
Hungarian count Fidél Pállfy von Erdõd, Erdödi gróf Pállfy Fidél, 131, with obituary on Gyula Gömbös in TT
TT on german invasion of Norway april 1940, 147, 149, 150. Winston Churchill as first sealord, 157,160
The finnish winter war. Hugo Victor Østerman.: 158, 159
SS in Oslo from right to left along the Drammensveien, the old main road westwards out of Oslo. Photo above: If you felt a sudden longing for the eastern front, you just stepped inside the stone walls of the foremost building, filled out the papers, and they were brought on garden path to the house behind the leaves to the left, where Karl Leib, Felix Thoresen, Emil Bruun Evers, Egil Eggen, the invalid veteran and the dangerous dog worked. Photo below: then you could walk fifty metres on to join the germanic SS as well, stretch your neck and try to get a glimpse of a nurse at SS-Lebensborn, the admistration of around ten maternity homes scattered all over the country, later enthusiastically remembered by Thoresen as "a jolly good place where the bravest lads could meet the prettiest girls". ( Photos: Eystein Eggen). For other visitors photographed before the stone wall of Germanic SS Norway (below right), as Henk Feldmeyer from Holland and Jef van der Wiele from Flandres, see Volapuk page 63
Eystein Eggen before wartime seat of Höhere SS- und Polizeigericht Nord. To the left the road down to Germanische Leitstelle at Frogner, where Vidkun Quisling lived before he moved to Gimle down by the fjord.To the right the Vigelandsparken, which then had a SS-detachment down in the bushes behind. In those times visitors to the park must have had a pretty good view of the black ensign with the two runic s'es flattering above the fortress. The detachment covered Leitstelle and the whole area. Karl Leib lived down there at the end of the park, in Prinsessealléen, one of Oslos better addresses, his quarters today been bought by the financier Kjell Inge Røkke. That is called Skøyen, and Skøyen manor next to Leib was owned by Axel Stang, suburban country squire and NS-minister for youth and sports ( standing left below ). As old Thoresen said: "If I should name the prominent people I saw dining at the SS Casino, the would be a huge cry in norwegian society".
"I lost my oldest son in the bombing of Hamburg," the woman in broad-brimmed hat to the right below later said to Eystein Eggen at Frogner square, right around the corner from where Eystein is standing on the above photo. She looked at Eystein and added "but now I've found you". Eva Reichelt from Kragerø, sister of the very young SS-soldier Kurt Reichelt was a leader in the norwegian fascist youth movement, NSUF, on the picture visiting Germany with their leader Stang. Later in the war Eva Reichelt married Hans-Wilhelm Scheidt, Adolf Hitlers special envoy to Norway, his "Vertrauensmann". It was their oldest son who died in the attack on Hamburg.
Helge Vold and Eystein Eggen. Editor and writer of the book "The Boy from Gimle", which won the recognition of norwegian parliament.
A bust of Egil Eggen by Siri Aurdahl at the "Høstutstillingen", the annual presentation of norwegian contemporary art, 1961.
The main entrance to the Germanische Leitstelle, Oslo.
Another survivor from Gratangen was ensign Leif Schanche, born 1916, who later also joined the paras in England and after the war became a colonel in the norwegian army.
Main entrance to Leitstelle. To the left the tower with communications and Fernschreiber to Berlin and the germanic movement's spiritual leader, the swiss physician dr. Franz Riedweg. Karl Leib sat on the first floor to the right with garden window, his lieutenants above his head on the second.
John Karlsen, father of Unni Friis Skogstad as a staff sergeant in England with parachute wing on his upper sleeve. Handwritten note on 103
The norwegian parachute sergeants in Scotland. Staff sergeant John Karlsen , father of Unni Friis Skogstad, standing right in the middle and looking straight ahead.
In back "Karlsen-row" from left sergeants Johannes Dahl, Hjelmstad, Karlsen himself, Kristian Aasland, the later renowned farmer in Ålgård close to Stavanger (Time), Johannes Mikaelsen from Arendal, Erling Knutsen from Høvåg close to Kristansand, with Rackløv from North-Norway freestanding.
Front row from left: Kåre Strønen ( with comrade's hand on his shoulder) from Bergen, unknown, William Skjørten with mustache and from Oslo, Rolf Styrmoe, Thor Steen from Rakkestad and Våge.
Captain Martin Linge (1994-1941). Head of Norwegian Independent Company No 1. Fell on the norweigian shore 1941. Maternal grandfather of writer Espen Haavardsholm, who always defended Eystein against the slanderings of the infamous poet Arnljot Eggen.
Norwegian Foot Soldier 1940, cf. interview with Eystein Eggen in Norwyays "Defence Forum" on the hundreth anniversary of the modern norwegian army, Volapuk page 20
