Kai Holst

Kai Holst
Photo of Holst taken on 22 June 1945, a few days before his death
Born	Kai Christian Middelthon Holst (1913-02-24)24 February 1913 Lillehammer[1]
Died	27 June 1945(1945-06-27) (aged 32)[2] Stockholm
Cause of death	Pistol bullet to head, officially suicide[3][4] but many friends and colleagues suspected murder.[4][5][6][7][8][9]
Body discovered	Top of stairway, apartment house, Gärdet
Resting place	Vestre Gravlund, Oslo
Nationality	Norwegian
Education	Secondary school, vocational school[1]
Occupation	Seaman, fur farmer[1]
Known for	Resistance fighter and suspicious circumstances regarding his death
Spouse(s)	Margarete Corneliussen[10][11]
Children	None
Parents	Christian and Inga Holst (born Rasmussen)[1]

Kai Christian Middelthon Holst (24 February 1913 – 27 June 1945) was a Norwegian seaman, fur farmer and resistance fighter during World War II.^[12] When the leadership of Milorg was torn up by the Gestapo in 1942 he acquired a leading role in the organisation and participated in re-establishing the central leadership (Sentralledelsen, SL) of Milorg together with Jens Christian Hauge.^[12][13] Holst had to flee from Norway in the autumn of 1943^[14][15][16] and stayed in Sweden until the liberation of Norway in 1945.

For posterity Holst is known both for his work with the Norwegian resistance and for the circumstances surrounding his death in Stockholm in 1945.^[2] Holst's demise was so much talked of at the time that the Milorg leadership issued a statement in the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten in July 1945.^[17] Swedish and Norwegian authorities officially concluded that Holst committed suicide,^[3][4] but his family and many of his friends and colleagues had the opinion that Holst was murdered.^{[4][5][6][7][8][9]}

Background

Kai Holst was born and grew up in the town of Lillehammer. He was the son of businessman Christian Holst and Inga Holst, born Rasmussen, both originally from Stavanger.^[1] After elementary school Holst attended secondary school and vocational training in Lillehammer.^[1] A couple of years after his confirmation he found work as a seaman, and in the years 1930–1933 he sailed on MS Brageland owned by the Norwegian shipping company Sydamerikalinjen, then transferring to MS Daghild, owned by the Norwegian shipowner Ditlev-Simonsen.^[1]

In 1933 he finished working as a seaman and started as a fur farmer in Mesnali east of Lillehammer.^[1] Holst contracted tuberculosis and just before the outbreak of World War II he had a major operation related to his pulmonary tuberculosis.^[1]

From December 1944 until his death he was married to Margarete Corneliussen, daughter of soussjef (director) at Tiedemanns Tobaksfabrik and member of the board of Industriforbundet Ragnar Corneliussen and Monna Morgenstierne Roll. He was thus brother-in-law to Major General Ole Otto Paus, who was married with his wife's sister Else Paus, born Corneliussen.

Work with the resistance

Clandestine work in Norway

Norway invaded, German soldiers marching down the main street of Oslo in April 1940

After Norway was invaded and occupied by Nazi Germany Holst soon, despite his bad health, started working with the main Norwegian resistance organisation Milorg. Holst was recruited in 1941 by his brother-in-law, the officer Lars Heyerdahl-Larsen^[18] and was soon given important tasks^[12] and gained a reputation as the most action-oriented man in the central leadership (Sentralledelsen) secretariat.^[19] From 1942 Holst worked as a courier, established Milorg's system for hiding refugees (apartments where resistance fighters went into hiding before being "exported" to neutral Sweden)^[20] and had close contact with central resistance persons as Ole Borge^[21] and Jens Christian Hauge.^[14] Kai Holst was, according to professor Tore Pryser, instrumental in teaching Hauge the various skills needed: "In many ways it was actually Holst that trained the inexperienced Hauge."^[22]

At this time Holst worked closely with Hauge and for half a year they shared an undercover apartment.^{[12][14][23][24]} Holst's girlfriend and wife-to-be cared for the two men and was herself deeply involved in work for the resistance.^[11] In his report about his work during the war Jens Christian Hauge was highly approving of "Kaka" as Holst was called informally and especially recognized him among his colleagues.^[25] When Jomar Brun (known for his involvement in Norwegian heavy water production) and his wife had to flee to Sweden, it was Holst who through Milorg's chief of communications, Salve Staubo, organised an undercover apartment in Oslo for the couple.^[12] It was also Holst who through Staubo recruited Milorg's legendary chief of weapons, Bror With.^[19]

Even though he never had any formal executive position in Milorg,^[18] Kai Holst had an important role in the practical work in the organisation,^[18] and he was especially important for Milorg in the autumn of 1942 when several of the leaders were arrested by the Gestapo or had to flee to Sweden.^[18] Holst participated in the meeting at the turn of the year 1942 when Milorg was reorganized with Jens Christian Hauge as Inspector General (known as "big I").^[12][21]

In addition to being the link between the Milorg leadership and its district organisations, Holst was also the link to resistance groups independent of Milorg. They included Oslogjengen with Gunnar Sønsteby,^[26] XU,^[27] Asbjørn Bryhn' groups,^[19] 2A and the Osvald Group (also known as the Sunde Group after its leader Asbjørn Sunde).^[12][14][19] The cooperation with the communists and their inferior security almost resulted in Holst being caught by the Gestapo.^[28] Holst had an important role during the Osvald Group fire-bombing of the work-service office in Pilestredet^[29][30][31] in Oslo on 20 March 1943 which Milorg hesitantly agreed to,^[30][32] where the aim was to destroy archives of people assigned to work service for the nazi regime.^[12][30]

In spite of his bad health Holst worked hard and took on several dangerous assignments, among them meetings with persons that were suspected of working with the German security services.^[33] Holst also organised squads for liquidating dangerous German and collaborationist Norwegian agents.^{[34][35][36][37]} Holst was a skilled undercover operator, fully aware of the risks of being captured and always carried a gun and a poison pill with him so he could commit suicide and not reveal information about the organisation, if he was caught.^[12]

Escape to Sweden

Stureplan in Stockholm in 1943

In the summer of 1943 Holst had to flee to neutral Sweden.^[14][15][16] After hiding at a fur-farm in Mesnali he was followed over the border by a courier (grenselos) at Svinesund on 5 August. He was arrested on entering Sweden and explained that he had to flee as he without permission had a radio, had listened to news from London and spread them to others. He did not say anything about his work with Milorg.^[38] After being questioned by the Swedish authorities in Strömstad (landsfiskalkontoret) he was as a refugee from Norway sent to Kjesäter and after further questioning there given permission to travel to Stockholm.^[38]

In Stockholm Kai Holst was employed at the Norwegian legation in Stockholm, working with military office number 4 (Mi4)^[38][39] with an office at Skeppargatan 32 on Östermalm.^[40] He worked with supplies to the resistance forces in Norway and one of his tasks was to organize courier routes to and from Norway.^[41] Parts of Holst's work for the Norwegian resistance was illegal in neutral Sweden. At least once Holst were arrested by the Swedish police, but was quickly set free.^[42] The arrest was connected with a failed attempt by Holst to organize a courier route over Magnor, assisted by a Swede with local connections and another Norwegian. After the war it was revealed that the two were in the service of the German intelligence agency Abwehr.^[42] Holst was good at organizing and acquiring equipment and had many contacts, one of them was the Soviet ambassador to Sweden, Alexandra Kollontai, from whom he acquired several pistols.^[42]

In November 1944 Holst was involved in an illegal weapons purchase and received a warning from the Swedish security police Säpo.^[42] Around the same time Holst was mentioned by Säpo in connection with an espionage affair in which the Norwegian intelligence Finn Jacobsen was involved. It was however not possible for the Swedish authorities to interrogate Holst as he had diplomatic immunity.^[43] Finn Jacobsen was working for the British Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) and cooperated with Holst in supplying the British with intelligence from Norway, without the knowledge of the Norwegian legation in Stockholm, which the SIS did not fully trust.^[44] Holst was an activist and probably had sympathy with the action-connected resistance groups, such as 2A and the Osvald Group and the so-called sports-office (Idrettskontoret) at the Norwegian legation, led by Harald Gram.^[42]

Holst married Margarete Corneliussen on 19 December 1944 in Stockholm.^[10]

Peace and death

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

Kai Holst grave, Vestre gravlund in Oslo

After the German capitulation in May 1945 Holst was working with closing the various storage bases Norwegian resistance fighters had established on Swedish soil and travelled back and forth between Sweden and Norway.^[22] On 23 June Holst arrived by car from Stockholm and early in the morning on 26 June he accompanied British and Norwegian forces in searches carried out^[45] at German military camps at the Wehrmacht headquarters in Lillehammer.^[22]

The same day he unexpectedly travelled back to Stockholm^[46] and in the morning of 27 June was found dead at the top of the staircase in an apartment building at Rindögatan 42 on Gärdet.^[2] Holst, shot in the right side of the head, lay in a pool of blood at the top of the staircase, outside the door to the elevator room. Holst was found by the porter's wife.^[2] Some hours earlier she had found his rucksack and travel bag outside the entrance.^[2] The body was found with 1,200 NOK, a large sum at that time (equal to more than 20,000 NOK,^[47] or over 3,000 USD in 2012) something that seemed to rule out robbery as a motive for murdering Holst.^[2]

According to the Swedish police Holst had rung the doorbell and had been let in by one of the tenants, but without visiting his apartment when he was let in.^[48][49] The policeman who first saw the body reported that the pistol (Holst's own, a Spanish Llama Colt 9mm^[50]) was in Holst's right hand,^[51] with his finger on the trigger.^[2] The gun was removed by the police officer, before the criminal police came.^[2] There is no photography or sketch of the body at the site, only photographs from the autopsy.^[52]

Even though the case was investigated as a possible murder, the Swedish police quickly concluded that it was suicide.^[4] The criminal technicians test fired the weapon found in Holst's hand and found that it was the same as the one that fired the bullet found in the staircase where Holst had been found dead.^[53] Of the 28 tenants in the building, only three were questioned by the police during the investigation.^[54] In addition to a limited questioning of possible witnesses, there were several other deficiencies with the investigation, there was no detailed description of the place he was found and information that by routine was collected during murder investigations was not recorded.^[55]

Kai Christian Middelthon Holst was buried at Vestre gravlund in Oslo, the grave is marked with a simple headstone with his name, birth and death engraved.^[56]

"The Holst Case"

Suicide or murder?

Holst's family, many of his friends and colleagues in the resistance movement, among them Hans Ringvold and Erik Myhre, held the opinion that Holst was murdered.^[4][6][7][9] Among the theories colleagues and friends put forward about a possible murder was liquidation by a foreign intelligence service, be it from Germany, Sweden, the Soviet Union or the US.^[4]

Threats

Holst's family did their own research regarding his death.^[57] Holst's sister, Else Heyerdahl-Larsen, contacted Norwegian authorities, but was warned against looking into the case as it could be dangerous.^[58] Ole Otto Paus, then an army captain, later a major general, was married to the sister of Holst's widow and in 1945 in Oslo he saw the documents from the police investigation when he tried to check the case. The fact that Holst had bought tickets for a sleeper wagon from Stockholm to Oslo for his wife and himself the day after he was found dead Paus found especially troubling.^[57] When he wanted to check the documents again two years later they were gone.^[57]

Ole Otto Paus were warned by a high-ranking Norwegian policeman, the jurist Olav Svendsen, former chief of the juridical office (Norwegian: Rettskontoret, a Norwegian intelligence organisation in neutral Sweden)^[59] against continued research into the death of Holst.^[57][60] The same policeman also threatened Holst's widow and wife to leave the case.^[57] Ole Otto Paus was also warned by the chief of defence, Lieutenant General Ole Berg (former chief of the military office Mi2 and Mi4 at the Norwegian legation in Stockholm),^[61] against any further research into the case, as he risked his life by doing so.^[57][62]

Renewed research

In the 1990s, Holst relatives contacted the lawyer Jan Heftye Blehr. Blehr contacted Rettsmedisinsk institutt (the Norwegian forensic institute) in order to have a new look at the autopsy of Holst. The pathologist Olving stated that: "from the findings at the autopsy there is nothing that speaks against that it could be a suicide. There is however nothing that rules out that it could be a murder".^[63] On the background of Major General Paus' statements, the Ministry of Justice and Public Security took up the case and the historian Trond Bergh was in 1995 in Stockholm and got to see what material the Swedish security police Säpo had, that was related to Holst's case. According to the minister of Justice, Grete Faremo, no new information was found.^[64]

Professor Magne Skodvin at Norway's Resistance Museum looked into the case the same year. The museum used material collected by retired supreme court judge Einar Løchen,^[50] on behalf of Ole Borge, one of Milorg's leaders and veterans, who believed Holst had been liquidated.^[65] Borge and Løchen believed it was the communists that had murdered Holst,^[66] the same view was held by the former XU agent Wiggo Ljøner.^[67] Professor Skodvin remarked certain shortcomings with the police investigation, but concluded with, that from the material, it was clear that the cause of death was suicide.^[50]

Questions

Among the strange circumstances with the case is that Holst's dossier at the Swedish security police has been removed from the archive.^[68] Professor Tore Pryser claims that with the level of details Säpo went into in similar cases there must have been a dossier: "Everything points at that information about Holst has been destroyed."^[67][69] There is however some information relating to Holst in dossiers regarding three other persons.^[64] The witness statements regarding his whereabouts when arriving in Stockholm and who he was together with the night he died are also contradictory.^[70][71]

Holst was found dead in an apartment building where the German intelligence organisation Abwehr had a cover apartment, while a British SIS-agent lived in the apartment building beside it.^[49] The man who opened the door via intercom was Svante Holger Ahreson, an acquaintance of Holst. According to Ahreson's statement to the Swedish police he had only heard mumbling, thought it was someone that called the wrong apartment and went back to bed when no one turned up at his apartment.^[48][72] According to Ahreson's daughter Holst did however had an agreement with him to lodge Norwegian resistance fighters that were under threat, Holst was therefore in close contact with Ahreson and not some distant acquaintance.^[73] Contradicting what he had told the Swedish police, Ahreson recognized Holst's voice in the intercom, waited for him to arrive at the apartment, which did not happen, but registered that the elevator passed, heard voices and after that a gunshot.^[74]

According to the Swedish police Holst was found with the pistol in his right hand, something that has been interpreted as a sign of suicide. Gun experts do however say that it is highly unusual that a single hand weapon remains in the dead person's hand as the recoil combined with almost immediate lack of power in the musculature will result in the weapon falling out of the person's hand.^[75] That the body was found with the gun in its right hand is also something that provoked a strong reaction from the family as Holst according to them was left-handed.^[76] In the Swedish police's report about the case the conclusion (suicide) is written only one place, on the front page, the forensic pathologist that did Holst's autopsy wrote the following: "Suicidum", which is latin for suicide.^[77] The physician that in his autopsy report did not conclude as to why Holst died, suicide or murder, did sign the police report, but according to Swedish handwriting experts the signature has been forged.^[78]

Holst's superior in Stockholm in 1945, Wladimir Mörch Hansson, was of the opinion that Holst received death threats, and found lacking Swedish assistance in solving the case impossible to explain.^[79]

Odd Feydt, active in the resistance group 2A and in 1943 leader of Sambandskontoret (a Norwegian intelligence office in neutral Sweden) stated that Holst were followed (tailed) during his last trip from Lillehammer to Stockholm and that Holst's death might be connected with cooperation between the Norwegian Rettskontoret and the Swedish intelligence organisation C-byrån.^[57]

A diploma where Kai Holst posthumously was honoured by the British King for brave conduct and is thanked for services rendered. The document was issued on 24 June 1950 and was signed by the British prime minister Clement Attlee

The Swedish professor Ingvar Bergström, who had worked for C-byrån in Gothenburg during the war,^[80] was of the opinion that Holst had been murdered. He first stated that the liquidation had been ordered from "high levels within Milorg" but later on changed his opinion, in collusion with the pensioned landshövding and historian Per Nyström, to that it was done by the Swedes, in cooperation with the Norwegians.^[81] Holst's close colleague during the war, the Milorg leader Jens Christian Hauge has been criticized for refusing to assist in casting light on the case.^[82][83][84] In connection with the press coverage of the case in 1994 Hauge issued a press statement where he stated that he did not have any specific knowledge of the case, and concluded with the following: "It would be a great relief for me and for all of Kai Holst's remaining comrades if this sad case could be solved."^[85]

Operation Claw

It has been questioned if Kai Holst's death could be connected with his task at Lillehammer, a hypothesis primarily put forward by the historian Tore Pryser.^[22][86] It could have been that Holst had with him information from Lillehammer that could damage the operation, which later on were known as "Operation Claw" (in Norwegian "Lillehammer-kuppet").^[49][86] Odd Feydt stated that Holst was tailed from the moment he passed the Norwegian-Swedish border when he travelled back to Stockholm.^[57] The information about Operation Claw was secret in the years after the war and even today all is not available. A report in the British National Archives is classified until 2020.^[87]

Kai Holst never received any decoration from Norwegian authorities for his wartime efforts, in spite of his superior Wladimir Mørch Hansson recommended so to the council of the resistance forces in January 1946.^[88] Holst was however on 24 June 1950 posthumously commended by George VI of Great Britain for Brave Conduct.^[88] Afterwards it has been questioned why Britain choose to honour Holst, as he never officially worked for the British.^[88] A thesis put forward by professor Tore Pryser is that Holst, who in addition to his work for Milorg also were in the service of the British SIS^[64] were killed by Swedish intelligence as to avoid him reporting Operation Claw to the British SIS.^[49][88]

Documentaries

• Göran Elgemyr: «Den mystiska kofferten från Lillehammer» and «Liket på Gärdet i Stockholm», Sveriges Radio P-1, 17 and 20 April 1992
• Mysteriet Holst, Ekkofilm, 2012,^[89] aired by the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK) on 1 April 2013 and by the Swedish Broadcasting Corporation (SVT) in May 2013

Notes

References

• Tore Pryser: Fra varm til kald krig : etterretningskuppet på Lillehammer i frigjøringsdagene 1945 og et mulig mord. Oslo, Universitetsforlaget, 1994 ISBN 82-00-21942-9
• Tore Pryser: Svik og gråsoner: Norske spioner under 2. verdenskrig, Spartacus forlag, Oslo 2010 ISBN 9788243005075
• Tore Pryser: USAs hemmelige agenter. Den amerikanske etterretningstjenesten OSS i Norden under andre verdenskrig, Universitetsforlaget, Oslo, 2010 ISBN 9788215015866
• Tore Pryser: Tyske hemmelige tjenester i Norden. Spionsaker og aktører 1930–1950, Universitetsforlaget, Oslo, 2012 ISBN 9788215020594
• Espen Haavardsholm: Ikke søkt av sol. Forlaget Oktober, Oslo 1994 ISBN 82-7094-669-9
• Espen Haavardsholm: Taushetens pris, Oktober forlag, Oslo 1995 ISBN 8270947156
• Ole Kristian Grimnes et al.: Motstandskamp, strategi og marinepolitikk, Oslo, Universitetsforlaget, 1972 ISBN 82-00-03172-1
• Arnfinn Moland: Milorg 1941–43 : fremvekst, ledelse og organisasjon, Norges Hjemmefrontmuseum, Oslo 1991, ISBN 82-991026-9-3
• Arne Semb-Johansson: Fem år for fred og frihet : med Milorg 1940–1945, Cappelen, 1995 ISBN
• Jens Christian Hauge: Rapport om mitt arbeid under okkupasjonen, Gyldendal, Oslo, 1995 ISBN 82-05-23200-8
• Gunnar Sønsteby: Rapport fra «nr. 24», utgitt i 1960, Orion Forlag, ISBN 82-458-0153-4
• Olav Njølstad: Jens Chr. Hauge : fullt og helt, Aschehoug, Oslo 2008 ISBN 9788203229886
• Per Helge Martinsen: Rød skygge over DI3: Kommunistene og Milorg i Stor-Oslo 1940–45, Happy Jam Factory, Bergen 2010 ISBN 9788299735896

External links

• About Kai Holst, from Norsk biografisk leksikon (Norwegian)
• About Kai Holst, from Norsk krigsleksikon (Norwegian)