Alf Wager 1898 - 1944

Born 28.7.1898 in Oslo
Died 28.12.1944 in Gusen

Biography

Alf Wager was born on 28 July 1898 in Kristiania, later Oslo. He was the son of Sina and Herman Wager and had six sisters and a brother.

Alf was educated at the Norwegian Technical University, where he specialized in electronics and low-voltage systems, graduating as an engineer. He worked for ‘The State Telegraph Company’ in Oslo and rose to the position of ‘Constituted Senior Engineer’, was a member of ‘The Telegraph Board’ and was also a graduate of ‘The Telegraph School’, where he also worked as a teacher. Alf went on frequent business trips, mostly to Bergen and other towns in Norway, but also to for instance Stockholm, Linz and Berlin.

During the autumn of 1929, Alf was working on the installation of telephone lines between Norway and southern Europe, and for this purpose he was in Bergen. At ‘The State Telephone Exchange’, Alf ordered a call to Madrid through Alida Hansen. It turned out that Alida was a sister of Alf`s friend and colleague, Johs. Stabell-Hansen. The call to Madrid went through smoothly, and two days later, Alida and Alf were engaged, to be married on 5 July 1930. Their son, Alf Bernhard, was born on 12 July 1931. Their daughter Berit was born on 6 February 1934.

When Berit was born, Alf was working on the installation of telephone lines in northern Norway. On 19 December 1943, Alida gave birth to a second daughter, Eli Sigrunn. When Eli was born, Alf was in prison, in Akershus fortress. Almost two months previously, the Gestapo had found a paper containing names and codenames of an intelligence group at ‘The State Telegraph Company’, and the entire group was arrested after midnight on 27 October 1943.

In January 1944, it was time for Alida to complete the family’s Tax Return papers, and she was therefore permitted to meet with Alf at Akershus fortress. Alida took the three-week-old Eli with her to the fortress, and Eli was kissed and embraced by her father.

In March 1944 Alf was transferred from Akershus to Grini prison camp and, on 6 April, together with 13 other prisoners, he was taken from Oslo to Kiel on the ship Lappland. On 8 May 1945 Alida and her family learned that Alf was dead.

44 years later, Eli, Berit and Alf B. finally learned about Alf’s last journey when Kristian Ottosen’s book NATT OG TÅKE (NIGHT AND FOG) was published in 1989. On the day the book was released, Alf B. found his father’s name in the last section of the book. In it he read that Alf Wager had arrived at Natzweiler concentration camp in May 1944, had been given prisoner number 13893, and that Alf had died in Gusen on ‘xx.01.45’.

In July 1990 Alf‘s three children, his daughter in law and two of his grandchildren followed Alf`s route, from Kiel to Natzweiler, and to Mauthausen and Gusen. When we visited Gusen, we noticed that several memory-plates had been put up inside the crematorium. So in August 1990 Berit requested and received permission from the Austrian Government to put up a memorial plate for Alf Wager inside the crematorium in Gusen. 

Thus in July 1991 Alf‘s memorial plate was transported from Copenhagen (where it was made) through Berlin (where ‘Die Mauer’ was just opened), through Praha, and then further on to Mauthausen, where Berit hoped that Alf Wager‘s memorial plate could be put up on 28 July, Alf‘s birthday. 

But as 28 July 1991 happened to be Sunday, where the Mauthausen Memorial workers would be off duty, it was arranged that the memory plate instead should be we put up on July 30th between 10.00 and 11.00 am. And the memory plate for Alf Wager was installed in the Gusen Memorial according to that planned schedule.

 

Eli Wager / Berit Wager Pettersen

Eli Wager and Berit Wager Pettersen are the daughters of Alf Wager.

 

Translation into English: Joanna White

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