Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Trondheim and Northern Norway
Minnesmerket over de døde jøder i Trondheim og det nordafjeldske
With the re-establishment of Trondheim’s post-war Jewish Community in July 1945, an initiative was launched to erect a monument at the Jewish cemetery in memory of the Jews of Trondheim and northern Norway who were murdered under German occupation.
History
In April 1940, the German Wehrmacht occupied hitherto neutral Norway. At the time, most of the approximately 1,300 Norwegian Jews lived in the cities of Oslo and Trondheim. In addition, about 600 Jews from other European countries had sought refuge in Norway. In September, the German occupying forces under Reichskommissar Josef Terboven (1898–1945) installed a collaborating government in Norway. From June 1941 on, the German occupiers and Norwegian nationalists radicalised the exclusion of Jews. After their wealth had been for the most part confiscated, all Jews in Norway were arrested in October 1942. In November 1942 and February 1943, the SS deported 690 Jews from Norway, most of them to the Auschwitz extermination camp. A further 80 Jews were deported in the course of other »Aktionen«. Only 30 of those deported survived. 21 Jews died in Norway itself. Around 900 Jews from Norway had been able to flee to Sweden. In all, around 765 Jews from Norway were murdered between 1940 and 1945, over 40 per cent of the country's Jewish population.
130 Jews from the region of Trondheim and northern Norway perished in the Holocaust.
Victims
The memorial is dedicated to the 130 Norwegian Jews from Trondheim and northern Norway who were murdered during the German occupation.
Remembrance
On July 31, 1945, the day the post-war Jewish community was founded in Trondheim, an initiative was started to erect a monument at the Jewish cemetery to the Jewish victims of the German occupation.
In 1947, once enough funds had been raised, the Memorial Committee commissioned Danish-Jewish sculptor Harald Isenstein to design the memorial. With a dedication, the Jewish Community of Trondheim remembers the shot, deported and murdered Jews of Trondheim and northern Norway during the German occupation from 1940 to 1945.
The stone sculpture has a low, altar-shaped base out of which three approximately 2 metre high columns extend upwards. The names of the 130 Jews murdered from the region are engraved on the two sides of the columns.
Since 1997 there is a small Jewish Museum in Trondheim. It is located in a former synagogue building in the Arkitekt Christies gate in the city centre.
Open
The memorial is accessible at all times. The opening times or the Jewish Museum are irregular, for information please consult its website.
Contact
post@jodiskmuseum.org
+47 401 69 801
Thomas von Westens gate
7412 Trondheim
