Nansenhilfe

The Nansenhilfe for refugees and stateless persons (Norwegian Nansenhjelp ) was founded in 1936 by Odd Nansen (1901–1973), the son of Fridtjof Nansen (1861–1930). It was supposed to take care of the many stateless refugees in inter-war Europe and also took care of many refugees who had to flee from National Socialist Germany to Norway (cf. German-speaking emigration to Norway 1933–1945 ), most of them German Jews . The Nansenhilfe should honor Fridtjof Nansen's memory and, in his sense, provide unbureaucratic help. It was a private foundation and its activities were funded by donations, government funds and the Norwegian Nobel Committee .

The first of the major support campaigns was devoted to Austrian refugees after the annexation of Austria . After German troops marched into Czechoslovakia in March 1939 (" smashing the rest of the Czech Republic"), Nansenhilfe was able to obtain entry permits for 200 adults and 60 children from the Norwegian government. In the Finnish-Soviet winter war of 1939/40 humanitarian work was supported on the Finnish side.

After the German occupation of Norway in 1940, the relief work could only be continued to a very limited extent. In June 1940 Nansenhilfe took part in the founding of the Norwegian aid organization Nasjonalhjelpen , which had to officially cease its activities in September 1941. An important task was the distribution of clothing and food that came to Norway from Sweden and other countries.

In autumn 1942 the office was closed by the Norwegian NS authorities. Odd Nansen himself had been in custody since January 1942, first in the Grini camp and later in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp , where he was liberated in April 1945.

In 1946 Nansenhilfe was merged into the newly founded Norwegian European Aid , later renamed "Norwegian Refugee Council", since 2005 "Flyktninghjelpen", Norway's largest humanitarian aid organization .

literature

Odd Nansen: Day by day. A diary , Hamburg 1949