Arne Jostein Ingebrethsen 1903 - 1945

Born 7.9.1903 in Flekkefjord
Died 7.1.1945 in Melk

Biography

Arne Ingebrethsen was born in 1903 in Flekkefjord. With a newspaper editor for a father and a typographer for a mother, it was only natural that he follow in his parents’ professional footsteps. In 1933 he married Inger, née Johansen. Their son Bjørn was born around one year later. In 1942 their second son, Aage, was born – half a year before Arne was imprisoned by the Germans.

Shortly after the outbreak of the war, Arne Ingebrethsen had become the editor of the local newspaper. The newspaper was placed under strict censorship. His closest family and friends noticed that the situation weighed on him. But he tried to encourage the population to fight for the country’s freedom. He did so with pieces disguised fables or ‘harmless’ fairy tales. In August 1940, the day after one of these article’s had appeared in the paper, Arne Ingebrethsen was arrested. The paper was temporarily shut down by the Germans. Three months later he was released from prison in Oslo.

It seemed that he was not part of the organised resistance. Later it emerged that he was a secret agent supporting one of the commanders of the SOE (Special Operations Executive) in Flekkefjord and the surrounding area. These SOE operations have been the subject of several books and the film Det største spillet (The Greatest Game).

On 23 June 1943 he was captured by the Germans. He was taken to a remote hut used by the Gestapo in Flekkefjord to carry out torture. He was tortured. The torture went on for three days before he was taken to the Gestapo headquarters in Kristiansand, where the torture continued. It turned out that he had been denounced by the most notorious informer in the Sørlandet (Southern Norway) region. In July he was transferred to the Møllergata 19 prison in Oslo and then to the Grini prison camp. On 13 November he was put on a transport to Germany. He did not know where he was going or what awaited him. But the journey marked the beginning of the final, painful chapter of his life.

After a month-long journey, he and his fellow prisoners arrived at the Natzweiler concentration camp in France. The Norwegians became Nacht-und-Nebel (‘Night and Fog’) prisoners. In brief, the background to the ‘Nacht-und-Nebel-Decree’ is the following: the Norwegians who occupied leading roles in the resistance movement saw resistance as a right and a national duty. The Germans viewed resistance as treason. And treason was punishable by death. Yet opposition to the occupying forces continued to increase despite a steep rise in the number of death sentences. Those sentenced to death became martyrs. Therefore, in the Netherlands, Belgium, France and Norway, the ‘Nacht-und-Nebel-Decree’ was introduced.

In reality, the ‘Nacht-und-Nebel-Decree’ was a refined form of the death penalty. Nacht-und-Nebel prisoners were to be given minimal food rations and worked to death. Their punishment was inhuman. Over the course of a few months, many of them became ‘Muselmänner’. In addition, they were to be hidden away and forgotten. No one was to be allowed to know where they were, whether they were alive or dead. They were completely isolated and had no form of contact with the outside world. At the beginning of September 1944, the Natzweiler prisoners were evacuated to Dachau. Over 70 of the Norwegian Nacht-und-Nebel prisoners were transferred from there to Mauthausen and taken to its subcamps at Ebensee, Gusen and Melk. Arne Ingebrethsen died on 7 January 1945 in Melk.

504 Norwegian Nacht-und-Nebel prisoners were deported to the Natzweiler concentration camp during the war. Only half returned to a free country. Of the eight Nacht-und-Nebel prisoners from Flekkefjord, only two survived. Three of them died in the subcamps of Mauthausen.

 

Aage Jostein Ingebrethsen

 

Translation into English: Joanna White

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