Escape and Rescue
Around 1,100 Jews managed to escape from Norway to Sweden during the war. Most of them were assisted by their fellow Norwegians; rescue efforts involved anywhere between ten and twenty-five persons helping one or two Jews to escape.
The backpack on display here was used by theology student Hans Christen Mamen to carry the four-year old Ivar Bermann across the border to Sweden in November 1942. Altogether, Mamen had helped twenty-five Jews to escape. In December 1942 he fled to Sweden himself, working as a courier for the Norwegian resistance movement during the last years of the war.
Backpack on loan from Hans Christen Mamen.