Landesarchiv NRW – Abteilung Rheinland – BR 3002 Nr. 643630

In early 1942, Helge Stray Johansen volunteered as an ordinary seaman on the Kvarstad ship D/S Skytteren to reach Great Britain and continue his resistance activities. On 1 April 1942, the crew of the Skytteren scuttled the ship after German patrol boats discovered it in the Skagerrak. Helge Stray Johansen was picked up by the Germans in a lifeboat and taken to the naval internment camp Milag/Malag Nord near Bremen. In April 1943, he was sentenced by the Special CourtEstablished in each higher regional court district from 21 March 1933, the special courts served to quickly punish regime-critical behaviour. In so-called summary proceedings, several thousand people of different backgrounds were sentenced to death. in Kiel to five years in prison for “treasonable aiding and abetting the enemy.” After imprisonment in Rendsburg Prison and Sonnenburg PenitentiaryThe sentence of penal servitude was imposed as a prison sentence for criminal offences along with the loss of civil rights. The milder prison sentence was imprisonment. Under the Nazi regime, the punitive measures imposed in penal servitude, particularly forced labour and deprivation, were significantly intensified., he arrived at Wolfenbüttel Prison in June 1944. During his imprisonment, he suffered from malnutrition, hard, “overburdening” forced labour, and contracted tuberculosis.

On 27 April 1945, he and his fellow prisoners were liberated from Brandenburg-Görden Penitentiary by Soviet troops. Afterwards, he had to undergo numerous hospital stays and surgeries for years due to tuberculosis.

Helge Stray Johansen maintained contact with his former fellow prisoners of the Kvarstad group through regular meetings over the years. For example, the former fellow prisoner Alf Pahlow Andresen remained lifelong friends with him and his family, affectionately known as “Uncle Alf.”

In September 1953, Helge Stray Johansen asked lawyer Axel Middelthon in a “preliminary assignment” to represent him and twelve other former Norwegian fellow prisoners in a lawsuit for damages for ten months of “slave labour” in Wolfenbüttel Prison against Voigtländer & Sohn AG to demand compensation:

“We believe we can prove that we really worked there, and claim that our work there should be considered slave labor.”

Helge Stray Johansen sent a copy of the letter to his friend Wilfred Jensenius, asking for comments and a review of the list of victims. Although this lawsuit did not materialise, the efforts reflect the criticism in Norway at the time, particularly by Axel Middelthon, of the lack of compensation by the Federal Republic of Germany for Nazi forced labour, which was further fuelled by the Wollheim trial at the time.

Three years later, in June 1956, Helge Stray Johansen, supported by public opinion in Norway, applied for compensation in the Federal Republic under BEG. This application was rejected in December 1959 due to the residency rule. After the ratification of the Bilateral Compensation AgreementBetween 1959 and 1964, the Federal Republic of Germany concluded bilateral compensation agreements with twelve Western European states. These agreements included lump-sum payments intended to settle all compensation claims. The distribution of the funds was the responsibility of the recipient state. (Globalabkommen) between Norway and the Federal Republic in the spring of 1960, Helge Stray Johansen again applied for compensation for imprisonment in June 1960 and received compensation for 37 months in November 1960.

As a crew member of the D/S Skytteren, he received another payment in 1973, which was not compensation but a wage adjustment payment. The KrigsseilerenThe “war sailors” were seamen of the Norwegian merchant navy who served as crew members on ships that had joined the Norwegian exile government during the Second World War and thus served the Allied war effort. received ex gratiaVoluntary payments by the Norwegian government from 1971-1975 “ex gratia” (out of gratitude) to former sailors of the Norwegian merchant navy from 1939-1945. These payments were intended to equalise the difference between Norwegian and British seamen’s wages during the Second World War. Eligible recipients received 180 Norwegian kroner per month of war service upon application. 180 Norwegian kroner per month of war service. However, this payment was reserved only for crew members. Additionally, Helge Stray Johansen received at least four medals for his merits as a resistance fighter, one of them in 1980 as a member of the Krigsseileren.

In the post-war period, Helge Stray Johansen initially worked as the head of the advertising department of the newspaper Morgenbladet and then at the Norwegian Savings Banks Association. From his marriage in 1947 to his wife Ester, three children were born: Helge, Paul, and Wenche. For them, the effects of imprisonment were omnipresent. They report frequent nightmares of their father and his health limitations due to tuberculosis. Frequent spa stays and difficulties with lifting stood in stark contrast to his athletic past. His children felt pride for their father as a resistance fighter. He was often asked to give speeches on National Day on 17 May and, for example, participated as part of the Norwegian delegation at Winston Churchill’s funeral in 1965. Their father’s past also influenced them professionally.