Viking Magazine - July 2019 - 21

Oslo 1955. Jan Baalsrud (pictured left)
stands with four of the Norwegians who
helped save his life during World War
II: Are Amandus Lillevoll, Olaf Lanes,
Alvin Larsen and Marius Gronvøll.
Baalsrud survived thanks to people who
transported and nursed him during his
two-month journey to freedom.
TORE HAUG MET HIS
FAMOUS WAR HERO
RELATIVE JUST ONCE.
It was 1956, Haug was about 14, and
Jan Baalsrud, his second cousin, had
come to town to give a talk.
" We expected, of course, that he
would talk about his escape from
the Gestapo, " Haug says. Instead,
he recounted an earlier journey:
his six-month trek eastward from
Norway to Scotland, where he
joined up with Kompani Linge in
1941. The Norwegian military unit
trained in Scotland under the British
Special Operations Executive (SOE),
which prepared soldiers for sabotage
operations in German-occupied Europe.
But in March 1943, on a mission
in Troms in northern Norway, he met
even greater adversaries than German
soldiers. In the epic ordeal that would
make him famous, he fought brutal
cold, punishing terrain, and the longest
of odds to survive. He was at times
snowblind, and after weeks on the
run, emaciated. To keep gangrene
from spreading beyond his frozen feet
and killing him, he used his knife to
amputate nine of his own toes.
That wasn't what he came to
discuss, however, that day in 1950s
Eidsvoll. So Haug could only take note
of what he saw.
" I noticed he was a slim, very goodlooking
man with black hair, but he
walked a little strange. "
In Search of the Real Story
Baalsrud was never eager to describe
himself as a hero. He died in 1988,
and the stone at his modest gravesite
in Manndalen in Troms gives " thanks
to everyone who helped me to freedom
in 1943. " His ashes are buried where
he wanted them, in the grave of Aslak
Aslaksen Fossvoll, one of his rescuers.
But others have told the story
of how Baalsrud escaped when his
mission in Troms was found out
by the enemy. Most famous among
them was David Howarth, the British
SOE veteran and BBC journalist who
wrote " We Die Alone " in 1955. More
recently was Harald Zwart, director
of the 2017 film " The 12th Man. "
That film was based on Haug's own
retelling of his second cousin's escape,
a book bearing the same title, which he
published in collaboration with the
late Astrid Karlsen Scott as translator
and co-author.
What set his work in motion, Haug
says, was an older film. Like many
Norwegians, Haug watched " Ni
Liv " ( " Nine Lives " ) when it aired for
the umpteenth time on Norwegian
television in 1995, marking the 50th
anniversary of World War II's end.
Released in 1957, " Ni Liv " has become
a classic in Norway and is largely based
on Howarth's book. Though Haug had
seen and read the story many times,
he found himself wanting to know
more. So, with his family, he made a
trip to Troms to visit the sites and the
surviving witnesses along Baalsrud's
escape route.
" They told me a quite different
story from what I had read in 'We Die
Alone,' " Haug says. Resentment had
lingered in northern Norway over
help that the British hadn't provided
late in the war. Locals didn't want to
share what they knew with Howarth,
the Brit who showed up a few years
later with his hat and his briefcase and
his questions, one man told Haug. He
added, " I wish someone would write
the true story. "
sonsofnorway.com VIKING JULY 2019 21
PHOTOS BY : INGVALD MØLLERSTAD / AFTENPOSTEN (RIGHT), AKTUELL / SCANPIX (OPPOSITE)
http://www.sonsofnorway.com
Viking Magazine - July 2019

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