Thorvald Markus Thorkildsen 1901 - 1945
Born 5.12.1901 in Mandal
Died 14.3.1945 in Ebensee
Biography
Thorvald Markus Thorkildsen, born on 5 December 1901 in Mandal, lived in Flekkefjord. He was married to Emmy Johanne Kvarø, born on 26 December 1909.
They had three children: Arne, born on 12 August 1931; Ingrid, born on 8 December 1934 and Svein Olav, born on 16 October 1939.
Thorvald was a driver for the De Sammensluttende Bilruter bus company and worked on the route between Flekkefjord and Kristiansand. He was recruited as a courier and carried messages for the ‘XU’ military intelligence agency. He hid the slips of paper with the messages under his driver’s cap. Milorg[1] in Flekkefjord frequently made use of Thorvald’s ability to carry messages. He, like many others, was an important part of the intelligence operation in southern Norway.
On 16 January 1943, Thorvald was arrested by the Germans. He was sent to Flekkefjord prison and was transferred from there to the ‘Arkivet’ Gestapo headquarters in Kristiansand. On 30 April 1943 he arrived at the Grini prisoner camp, where he was given prisoner number 7462. From Grini he was moved on to the Møllergata 19 prison in Oslo. He arrived there on 30 December 1943.
Thorvald was classified as a Nacht-und-Nebel (‘Night and Fog’) prisoner. On 5 May 1944 he was put on German prisoner transport number 20, whose destination was Natzweiler concentration camp. The prisoners were transported by boat to Germany. Having arrived there, the journey continued by train and, around one month leaving Oslo, he arrived at the Natzweiler camp. Thorvald was assigned prisoner number 13892. In autumn 1944 the camp was evacuated and Thorvald was transferred again. This time he and the other Norwegian Nacht-und-Nebel prisoners were taken to Dachau. Just one week later he was sent on yet another transport. Thorvald arrived at Mauthausen concentration camp in mid-September 1944. He was assigned prisoner number 99274. During the autumn, a final transport took him to the Ebensee subcamp.
On 14 March 1945, Thorvald Markus Thorkildsen died in Ebensee at the age of 44.
Ingrid Unhammer / Svein Olav Thorkildsen
Translation into English: Joanna White
[1] Translator’s note: Milorg is short for and translates as ‘military organisation’. It was the military resistance movement in Norway.
Location In room
