Henry Oliver Rinnan

Henry Oliver Rinnan (May 14, 1915 – February 1, 1947) was a notorious Gestapo agent in the area around Trondheim, Norway during World War II.

He led a group called Sonderabteilung Lola. This group, known as Rinnanbanden among Norwegians had 50 members. Among them were Karl Dolmen, Arild Hjulstad-Østby, Ivar and Kitty Grande.

Rinnan was born in Levanger on May 14, 1915, the oldest of eight children in an impoverished family. He was unusually short (1.61 meters - 5 ft 3 in) and was a loner during his childhood. He worked briefly for his uncle, but was fired for stealing.

During the Winter War, Rinnan tried to enlist to fight with the Finns against the Soviet Union, but was rejected due to his poor physique.[1] During the Norwegian campaign in 1940, he was a truck driver for the Norwegian Army. According to Rinnan, he was recruited by Gestapo in June 1940.

From September 1943, the Rinnanbanden had its headquarters in Jonsvannsveien 46 in Trondheim, known as Bandeklosteret ("gang monastery"). He worked closely with the German Sicherheitspolizei in Trondheim, where his main contacts were Gerhard Flesch and Walter Gemmecke.

The members of Sonderabteilung Lola infiltrated the resistance movement by engaging people in conversation in buses, trains, cafes, etc., encouraging them to talk about their attitudes toward the Nazi occupation. Having identified people who they thought were in the resistance, they would work to build their trust and penetrate their networks. Their efforts resulted in more than a thousand arrests, compromised several hundred resistance groups, and in some cases, lured people to perform missions for the Nazis. Rinnan operated with impunity and little interference from their Nazi taskmasters, often using murder and torture as sanctioned means.

Henry Rinnan testifying at his trial

In the course of two trials after the war, 41 members of the Rinnan band were tried and sentenced. Eleven were sentenced to execution by firing squad by the court of Frostating on September 20, 1946. Seven of the death sentences were carried out. Eleven were sentenced to lifelong forced labour (later pardoned) while the rest were given long prison sentences. The Rinnan band was responsible for the death of at least a hundred people in the Norwegian resistance and the British Special Operations Executive, while several hundred were tortured and more than a thousand resistance members were arrested.

Rinnan was sentenced for personally murdering 13 people, but the real number is probably higher. Four hours after midnight on February 1, 1947, Rinnan was taken from his cell in Kristiansten Fortress. A guard blindfolded him and led him outside, where he was tied to a pole. At 04:05, Rinnan was executed by firing squad.

Rinnanbanden was so notorious that 40 percent of the people executed in the trials in Norway after World War II were connected to Sonderabteilung Lola.

[edit] External links

• Rinnanbanden (Norwegian)