Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
These actions came at a cost. Over 50,000 Norwegians were arrested for political
reasons during WWII, not a small number for a country of only three million, and
9000 were sent abroad. Of these, 1400 Norwegians, half of them Jewish, would nev-
er return.
With that in mind, we posed a few questions about the resistance to Ivar Kraglund,
director at Oslo's Resistance Museum.
If resistance fighters had to escape, where did most of them go?
Almost 50,000
people escaped to Sweden, some on their own and others with guides. Once there,
many received military training. By the end of the war, there were 13,000 Norwegi-
ans who had been trained in Sweden and who were carrying Swedish weapons.
Did any famous acts of sabotage take place?
The most important attack was on the
heavy water plant at Vemork in 1943 (
Click here
). It is probably one of the most
famous sabotage attacks of WWII, and the museum has the only remaining water cell
from the factory that I know of.
And what happened to Gunnar Sønsteby?
He became the leader of the 'Oslo
gang' and one of Norway's most famous resistance fighters. He's probably best
known for his attack on the registration offices in 1944, which made it impossible for
the Germans to send Norwegian recruits to the front.
What other reminders of the resistance are there in Oslo?
In addition to the
Resistance Museum, keep an eye out for the haunting, grey Victoria Terrasse near
Oslo centre, which was commandeered by the Gestapo. At the time, it was known as
the
skrekken hus
(house of fear). And a little further on, at Solli plass (
Offline map
)
,
there's a bronze statue of Sønsteby and his bicycle.
As told to Kari Lundgren
CENTRAL OSLO
Oslo Opera House
OPERA HOUSE
Offline map
Google map
(Den Norske Opera & Ballett;
Click here
; 21 42 21
21;
www.operaen.no
; Kirsten Flagstads plass 1; admission to foyer free; foyer
10am-11pm Mon-Fri, 11am-11pm Sat, noon-10pm Sun)
Hoping to transform the city
into a world-class cultural centre, the city fathers have embarked on a massive waterfront
redevelopment project (which is scheduled to last until 2020), the centrepiece of which is
the magnificent new Opera House, a creation likely to become one of the iconic modern
buildings of Europe.
