| Nordahl Grieg | |
|---|---|
Nordahl Grieg sometime during World War II. |
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| Born | Johan Nordahl Brun Grieg November 1, 1902 Skien, Norway |
| Died | December 2, 1943 (aged 41) Kleinmachnow, Germany |
| Pen name | Jonatan Jerv (early works) |
| Occupation | Playwright, poet, novelist, journalist, soldier |
| Nationality | Norwegian |
| Notable work(s) | Til Ungdommen |
Johan Nordahl Brun Grieg, known as Nordahl Grieg[1], (born 1. November 1902 in Bergen – shot down above Berlin 2. December 1943) was a Norwegian poet, novelist, dramatist, journalist and political activist.[2] He was a popular poet and a controversial public figure in his lifetime.[3] A convinced stalinist[4], he served as chairman of the political organization Friends of the Soviet Union (1935-40). He was the brother of publisher Harald Grieg.
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Johan Nordahl Brun Grieg was born in Bergen, Norway. He was related to the famous composer Edvard Grieg, and brother of the powerful Norwegian publisher Harald Grieg. Grieg studied at King Frederick’s University (now the University of Oslo). Grieg made his debut in 1922 with first book of poetry Omkring Kap det gode Haab ("Around the Cape of Good Hope"), which was followed by Skibet gaar videre ("The Ship Sails On") in 1924. Grieg spent 1927 as a newspaper correspondent in China, where he witnessed firsthand the civil war between the Kuomintang and the Communists.[5] The same year saw the production of Grieg's plays En ung manns Kjaerlighet ("A Young Man's Love") and Barabbas.[5][6]
From 1933 to 1935, he lived in the Soviet Union. He was officially invited to study the techniques of Soviet stage and film.[5] Upon returning to Norway, he became known as an ardent supporter of Joseph Stalin's policies, and became the chairman of the Friends of the Soviet Union in the same year. In 1937, he famously wrote a defence for the Moscow Trials, attacking a number of Norwegian authors who had criticized these trials. His novel Ung må verden ennu være was also a defence for Stalin and the Moscow Trials. In many articles, he also criticized the supporters of Leon Trotsky, whom he viewed as a traitor.[7]
His 1935 play Vår ære og vår makt (Our Honor and Our Glory) was an attack on shipping industry's exploitation of seafarers. From 1936 to 1937, Grieg published the magazine Veien Frem, which initially succeeded in attracting a number of prominent writers, but as the magazine adopted an increasingly Stalinist position in the discussion relating to the Moscow Trials, most of them severed ties with it and it ceased publication.[5] His 1937 dramatic play Nederlaget ("The Defeat") was about the Paris Commune.[8]
From 1940 onwards, he committed himself toward the struggle against the occupation following the Nazi invasion of Norway. In 1940, he escaped to England in the same vessel carrying the Norwegian Royal family and the National Gold reserves.[9]
Once in Britain, Grieg served in Norway's government-in-exile and participated in making patriotic radio programs in England.[5] He was commissioned into the Norwegian Armed Forces and served as a war correspondent. At the time of his death he was a Captain. His work involved visiting Norwegian units around Britain and experiencing their duties, in order to make his reports. He also travelled outside Great Britain to meet Norwegian servicemen on duty in Iceland and other more remote outposts. In the summer of 1942 Grieg spent several weeks on the Norwegian island of Jan Mayen in the Atlantic Ocean, writing the poem Øya i Ishavet ({The Island in the Ice Sea).[10] Like other war correspondents he joined operational missions over occupied Europe, and it was in the course of one of these that he lost his life.
On the night of 2–3 December 1943, Captain Grieg was attached to 460 Squadron, an Australian squadron based at RAF Binbrook, as one of several observers for a raid on Berlin. Grieg joined the crew of a Lancaster Mk.III, serial number LM.316 and letter codes "AR-H2", captained by Flying Officer A.R. Mitchell, RAAF. Berlin was always a tough target as it was the capital city and so was well-defended, but also because it lay far in the east of the country, which meant that crews were not only flying on the limits of fuel and of their own endurance, but had to pass over many night-fighter bases on the way to the target, and all the way back home again. 460 Sqn. lost five aircraft that night and one of them was Lancaster LM.316. 37 airmen had been on board these aircraft and only eight survived being shot down, to spend the rest of the war in a POW camp. None of the eight survivors came from aircraft LM.316. So, in addition to the distinguished Norwegian supernumerary, all seven crew-members: four Australians and three Britons, went down with the aircraft.[11]
Grieg was neither the only war-correspondent shot down that night, nor the only Norwegian. An Australian correspondent also flying with 460 Sqn. was killed, and a British correspondent with another squadron became a POW. Among the 44 'RAF' aircraft and nearly 300 aircrew lost on this single raid were two Norwegians in a Halifax that was part of the elite Pathfinder Force (PFF). The captain of this Halifax was a Norwegian Lieutenant who managed to maintain control long enough to allow his compatriot, and all five British members of the crew, to bail out successfully and become prisoners of war, at the cost of his own life. For a population as small as that of Norway, the attrition of losses such as this on each raid was quite significant, but the loss of a figure as famous as the poet Nordahl Grieg was the extra blow on this night.
After the end of World War II, Grieg became a hero in Norway because of his resistance to the Nazi Occupation, both during the invasion itself and in the continuation of the fight in the forces in exile in Britain. Grieg is still popular in Norway today, especially his anti-fascist poetry.
In 1945, a collection of Nordahl Grieg's war poems, Friheten ("Freedom") was published which remained a best selling Norwegian poetry collection. In 1957, a statue Nordahl Grieg by Roar Bjorg was unveiled at Den Nationale Scene in Bergen. In 1990, the musical Nordahl Grieg i våre hjerter ("Nordahl Grieg in our hearts") , written by Erling Gjelsvik with music by Knut Skodvin debuted in Bergen. In November 2003, a memorial stone was unveiled at the site where Nordahl Grieg died near Berlin, Germany, when the Lancaster bomber in which he was flying hit the ground on 2 December 1943. In 2010, Nordahl Grieg High School (Nordahl Grieg videregående skole) in Rådal was opened in the Rådal neighborhood in Bergen.[12][13] [14]