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Our Escape From Nazi-Occupied Norway: Norwegian Resistance to Nazism

by Leif Terdal

206 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #08-0556; ISBN 1-4251-7727-1; US$19.75, C$19.75, EUR13.49, £10.20

This book reports on the Terdal family's escape on a fishing boat to the Shetland Islands. It reviews Norwegian resistance to the Nazi-occupation and efforts by clergy to help Jews avoid deportation.

About the Book

Germany invaded Norway with a massive military force in April 1940. The author describes the Norwegian resistance movement including their effort to help Jews avoid Nazi death camps. Much of the resistance movement was led by clergy from the Norwegian Lutheran church and by school teachers. Section two describes our escape from western Norway via a fishing boat to Scotland, and then on a Norwegian freighter to Canada. On each leg of our trip we experienced a military attack from either a German airplane or a submarine attack. I was four years old at the time of our escape; one of my brothers was eight years old, and our younger brother was eighteen months old. My mother made all the arrangements and experienced the brunt of the stress of our escape, because my father had already escaped previously.

The final section of the book focuses on reflections by us three brothers, now some sixty years after our escape. We have come to a painful realization that anti-Semitism has a long history in our Christian churches (Protestant and Catholic) that contributed to the silence and even collaboration with the Nazi plans for the holocaust.

Reviews

This is a very powerful and moving narrative, both the personal story about the escape and the larger picture of heroic Norwegian resistance.

Jack Cooper, Ph.D

About the Author

As a boy at the age of four, Leif Terdal with his family escaped Nazi-occupied Norway in a wooden fishing boat. The fishing boat, Siglaos, was attacked by a German airplane on its way to the Shetland Islands. The second phase of his family's escape was on a Norwegian freighter that left London in early January 1942 in a convoy of 40 ships on its way to cross the Atlantic for Canada. That convoy was met by a fierce U-boat attack.

Leif and his two brothers have maintained a life-long interest in trying to understand WW II, the successes and failures of resistance movements, and the history of anti-Semitism. To this end Leif and his wife have visited Dachau and resistance museums in Denmark and Norway. Leif has also interviewed resistance fighters who survived the war, a German citizen who survived the bombing of Dresden, a Jewish man who survived Auschwitz, Englishmen who survived the bombing of London, as well as many of his Norwegian relatives who endured the Nazi-occupation.

Dr. Terdal was a clinical psychologist at Oregon Health Science University before retiring in 1994. He has published on Behavioral Assessment of Childhood Disorders, including ADHD (attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder). In retirement he enjoys cruising and has authored books on Small Boat Cruising to Alaska and on Northwest Sea Disasters: Beyond Acceptable Risk (a Trafford Publication).

Excerpts