Kai Holst

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Kai Christian Middelthon Holst (24 February 1913 - 27 June 1945) was a Norwegian resistance fighter and member of Milorg. He was from Lillehammer, and became a central leader of the resistance movement from the autumn of 1942 when many of the leaders was arrested by the Germans.

Holst was the person with detailed knowledge about the resistance movement in Norway, and played a vital role in the reorganisation of Milorg. He had to escape to Sweden in the autumn of 1943. From there he worked at the Norwegian embassy; one of his tasks was to organise the courier service to and from occupied Norway.

Holst returned to Norway in May 1945 and participated in the arrests at the Wehrmacht headquarters at Lillehammer in the end of June. He then suddenly went back to Stockholm, where he was found dead on 27 June 1945 in an apartment building.

The house in Stockholm where Kai Holst was found dead, Rindögatan 42 on Gärdet

Officially, his death was declared as suicide. After the war, there were discussions whether his death could have been a liquidation connected with his findings in Lillehammer^{[citation needed]}. Many of the central German intelligence personnel had escaped to Sweden, possibly arranged by the Americans in Operation Paperclip or TICOM as part of securing their knowledge against the Soviets. According to one of Holst's friends the same apartment building where he was found dead also housed a MI6 apartment, implying that Holst was trying to reach one of his contacts.

Holst was post mortem honoured when the British prime minister Clement Attlee on 24 June 1950 cited his wartime service "for brave conduct".