Akershusstranda

At the time of the Germans’ attack on Norway in april 1940 about 2100 jews lived in the country (about 1600 norwegian, 200 foreign and 300 stateless). Some managed to escape to Sweden and UK but the majority remained. At the end of October 1942, situation got worse for the remaining jews, a state of emergency was introduced and the head of Norwegian state police Karl Marthinsen sent out an order that all Jews in Norway over 15 years old should be arrested and their property confiscated. Norwegian resistance movement had, however, received information about the impending arrests through German contacts, which gave them the opportunity to warn the Jews. Those who had time to be warned in time and had the opportunity to escape did so, mainly to Sweden, with the help from resistance movements.

Others hid (and managed to stay hidden until the end of the war) but about 770 were arrested and put in camps and prisons. At the end of November 1942, the Nazis began deporting the Jews by sea from the port of Oslo to Hamburg and Stettin and then by train to Auschwitz. Between november 1942 and february 1943 four transports with 767 jews left Norway. The largest transport departed on November 26, when the D/S Donau with about 540 Jews departed for Stettin, where they arrived November 30. 28 hours later, they arrived by train to Auschwitz, where two-thirds were murdered on arrival, while the others were chosen for slave labour. Of the 767 Jews deported from Norway, just under 30 survived.