Kai Holst

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 Norway in the autumn of 1943[14][15][16] and stayed in Sweden until the liberation of Norway in 1945.

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]
Died27 June 1945(1945-06-27) (aged 32)[2]
Stockholm
Cause of deathPistol bullet to head, officially suicide[3][4] but many friends and colleagues suspected murder.[4][5][6][7][8][9]
Body discoveredTop of stairway, apartment house, Gärdet
Resting placeVestre Gravlund, Oslo
NationalityNorwegian
EducationSecondary school, vocational school[1]
OccupationSeaman, fur farmer[1]
Known forResistance fighter and suspicious circumstances regarding his death
Spouse(s)Margarete Corneliussen[10][11]
Parent(s)Christian and Inga Holst (born Rasmussen)[1]

Holst is remembered 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 were of 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 transferred to MS Daghild, owned by the Norwegian shipowner Ditlev-Simonsen.[1]

In 1933 he finished working as a seaman and became 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 Ragnar Corneliussen, the president of Tiedemann's tobacco factory and a member of the board of Industriforbundet, and Monna Morgenstierne Roll. He was thus brother-in-law to Major General Ole Otto Paus, who was married to his wife's sister Else.

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. He 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 secretariat of the central leadership (Sentralledelsen).[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 such central resistance figures 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 who 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 recognised 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 reorganised 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's fire-bombing of the work-service office in Pilestredet in Oslo on 20 March 1943,[29][30][31] which Milorg hesitantly agreed to,[30][32] whose 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 people who 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 that if he was caught, he could commit suicide and not reveal information about the organisation.[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 accompanied over the border by a border guide at Svinesund on 5 August. He was arrested on entering Sweden and explained that he had to flee as he had been in possession of a radio without permission, had listened to news from London, and had spread it to others. He did not say anything about his work with Milorg.[38] After being questioned by the Swedish authorities in Strömstad, as a refugee from Norway he was sent to Kjesäter and after further questioning there given permission to travel to Stockholm.[38]

In Stockholm Holst was employed at the Norwegian legation, working with military office number 4 (Mi4)[38][39] at 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 organise courier activities into and out of Norway.[41] Part 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 organise 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, the Abwehr.[42] Holst was good at organising and acquiring equipment and had many contacts, one of whom 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 agent 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's grave in Vestre gravlund in Oslo

After the German capitulation in May 1945, Holst was working on closing the various storage bases that Norwegian resistance fighters had established on Swedish soil, and travelling back and forth between Sweden and Norway.[22] On 23 June, he arrived in Norway by car from Stockholm and early in the morning of 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 on the morning of 27 June was found dead at the top of the staircase in an apartment building at Rindögatan 42 on Gärdet.[2] He was found by the porter's wife, shot in the right side of the head, lying in a pool of blood at the top of the staircase, outside the door to the elevator room.[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 in 2012), something that seemed to rule out robbery as a motive for murdering him.[2]

According to the Swedish police Holst had rung the doorbell and had been let in by one of the tenants, but had not then visited that apartment.[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, with his finger on the trigger.[2][51] The gun was removed by the police officer before the criminal police came.[2] There is no photograph 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 limited questioning of possible witnesses, there were several other deficiencies in the investigation; there was no detailed description of the place he was found and information that was routinely 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 on which his name, birth and death are carved.[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. Paus found it especially troubling that Holst had bought sleeping car tickets from Stockholm to Oslo for his wife and himself for the day after he was found dead.[57] When he wanted to check the documents again two years later, they were gone.[57]

Paus was warned by a high-ranking Norwegian police officer, the jurist Olav Svendsen, former chief of the juridical office (Norwegian: Rettskontoret, a Norwegian intelligence organisation in neutral Sweden)[59] against continued research into Holst's death.[57][60] The same police officer 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 reexamine 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 basis of Major General Paus' statements, the Ministry of Justice and Public Security took up the case and in 1995 the historian Trond Bergh was 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 who had murdered Holst,[66] and the same view was held by the former XU agent Wiggo Ljøner.[67] Professor Skodvin noted certain shortcomings in the police investigation, but concluded that from the material, it was clear that the cause of death was suicide.[50]

Questions

Among the strange circumstances of 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 detail Säpo went into in similar cases there must have been a dossier: "Everything points to the information about Holst having 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, the Abwehr, had a cover apartment, while a British SIS agent lived in the apartment building next door.[49] The man who opened the door via intercom was Svante Holger Ahreson, an acquaintance of Holst's. According to Ahreson's statement to the Swedish police he had only heard mumbling, thought it was someone who had 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 have an agreement with him to lodge Norwegian resistance fighters who were under threat, and Holst was therefore in close contact with Ahreson and not some distant acquaintance.[73] According to her, contradicting what he told the Swedish police, Ahreson had recognised Holst's voice on 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 for a handgun to remain in the dead person's hand, as the recoil combined with almost immediate loss of muscle firmness 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 according to them Holst was left-handed.[76] In the Swedish police's 32-page report about the case the conclusion of suicide is written in only one place: on the front page, the forensic pathologist who performed Holst's autopsy wrote Suicidum, Latin for suicide.[77] The same physician who in his autopsy report drew no conclusion concerning how Holst died, suicide or murder, signed 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, said that Holst received death threats, and found the lack of 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 was 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 certificate in which Kai Holst is posthumously 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 at "high levels within Milorg" but later on changed his opinion, in consultation with the retired landshövding and historian Per Nyström, to its having been 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 criticised 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 in which 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
Main article: Operation Claw

The question has been asked whether Kai Holst's death could be connected with his task at Lillehammer, a hypothesis primarily put forward by the historian Tore Pryser.[22][86] Holst might have had with him information from Lillehammer that could damage the operation later known as "Operation Claw" (in Norwegian Lillehammer-kuppet).[49][86] Odd Feydt stated that when Holst travelled back to Stockholm, he was tailed from the moment he passed the Norwegian-Swedish border.[57] The information about Operation Claw was secret in the years after the war and even today is not all 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 recommending one to the council of the resistance forces in January 1946.[88] He was however posthumously commended by George VI of Great Britain on 24 June 1950 for Brave Conduct.[88] The question has been raised of why Britain chose to honour Holst, as he never officially worked for the British.[88] Tore Pryser has put forward the thesis that Holst, who in addition to his work for Milorg also was in the service of the British SIS,[64] was killed by Swedish intelligence to prevent him from reporting Operation Claw to the 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
  1. Fra varm til kald krig, 88
  2. Fra varm til kald krig, 107–111
  3. Fra varm til kald krig, 107
  4. "That there could be a need for such a security unit, one got a shrill reminder about as Kai Holst, the Milorg-veteran that together with Ole Borge had the main honour for establishing a security service, died under strange circumstances in Stockholm in the end of June 1945. The police investigation concluded with suicide, but among Holst's old comrades from Milorg there were many who refused to believe that Holst could have taken his own life.", from Jens Chr. Hauge: fullt og helt, 285
  5. Svik og gråsoner, 159
  6. "Also a lot of other friends and colleagues of Holst from the war reject the suicide theory as nonsense. The Swedish police showed little ability or will in solving the case, they argue", Fra varm til kald krig, 105
  7. "That Holst was liquidated due to what he discovered at Lillehammer is also the opinion of several of Holst's friends from the resistance movement during the war. Several say like Otto Paus that they were warned against looking into his cause of death", from Svik og gråsoner, 183
  8. "Retired general Ole Otto Paus' statement to Dagbladet 28.9.94: 'Kai Holst was without doubt killed. That I can swear to God.' (avlegge salighetsed)", from Taushetens pris, 55
  9. "Erik Myhre thought of continuing his investigation in Stockholm together with Erling Mörk Hansson who heard tell that Myhre first went to the British intelligence officer MacRoberts (Major W.D MacRoberts, Svik og Gråsoner, 168–169, contributor's note).": "He came back and said: 'Do you know what MacRoberts said, he said he forbids us to travel over, he said it would cost us our lives if we did it, he forbids us to travel. Erik Myhre was a bit surprised ... and in the end he said 'but if I take with me Erling and we travel privately over', so MacRoberts had said to him that then you will not return alive to Oslo", statement by Erling Mørch Hansson, from the radio program Liket på Gärdet i Stockholm, from 10:30 in the recording
  10. Fra varm til kald krig, 139
  11. Jens Chr. Hauge : fullt og helt, 165
  12. Fra varm til kald krig, 89–92
  13. "After this severe draining of the central leadership in SL there was only one connection between the council and all sections within O, namely Kai Holst. There were no horizontal connections, so very much was dependent on him", Milorg 1941–43, 23
  14. Taushetens pris, 52
  15. "In August 1943 Kaka crossed the border and by that concluded a uniquely intense effort in occupied Norway", from Rapport om mitt arbeid under okkupasjonen, 134
  16. "But during the summer a range of important colleagues had to travel due to razzias and warnings. From Grini there came a warning that Gestapo were on the trail of Kaka (Kai Holst), and in August he went over the border to Sweden, where he soon got important tasks at the Norwegian military office in Stockholm. It was with heavy heart that Hauge let him go. Kaka's bravery, unselfishness (selvoppofrelse) and contagious activism had made him a close friend and a rare valuable colleague. But the dangersigns were after a while so many that both Hauge and Holst realized that it was best to give up while he could.", from Jens Chr. Hauge : fullt og helt, 149
  17. Milorg-leadership statement regarding Kai Holst's death, of 19 July 1945:
    "Due to the sensation that has emerged concerning Kai Holst's death we want, after Swedish and Norwegian police have made thorough investigations, to give the statement below:
    Kai Holst very early entered the work with establishing the resistance forces. He was connected to the leadership (Sentralledelsen), where his work was of invaluable use. His strong and good character, his bravery, clear intelligence and charm made him unusually well fit for this work. In 1943 he was ordered to leave the country, after he had been heavily sought by the Gestapo.
    In Sweden he was immediately employed by the Norwegian legation in Stockholm, where he continued his outstanding work to support the resistance forces.
    When peace arrived, it was natural that he got a responsible task in connection with winding down the large structure that had been established in Sweden.
    Throughout the fight for freedom Kai Holst used all his strength. He worked day and night without thought of himself, and without taking into consideration that he had been through a severe illness that he had won over, but that had given him a severe physical handicap. When he after all managed the enormous workload through several years, it was the satisfaction he felt by submitting his utmost.
    One has been able to follow Kai Holst from day to day, and in the last time period from hour to hour and on the basis of this it can be stated that there has not been found any proof (holdepunkt) for the assumption that there is a murder. Neither has there been found anything that hints that he – even a few minutes before his death – had plans about taking his own life, and he cannot be seen to have had any motive for such an act. All his dispositions, on the contrary, show that he calculated on living. This is also in line with the impression his friends that talked with him got, also during his last journey from Norway back to Sweden.
    In the last weeks and days under and after the capitulation, the workload Kai Holst had, reached such a degree of intensity that it went above what a human could manage. He wore himself out in the fight for the liberation of the country. Olaf Helset Carl Semb Michael S. Hansson
    Oslo, 19 July 1945", from Fra varm til kald krig, 111–112, originally printed in Aftenposten, 21 July 1945
  18. Svik og gråsoner, 160
  19. Jens Chr. Hauge: fullt og helt, 114
  20. Usynlige veier: fra Edderkoppens og flyktningeksportens historie, 122
  21. "The new structure was decided in a meeting in January 1943. There was agreement concerning establishing an i-side and an o-side. (operations and logistics, contributor/translator's remark) But as before there had been two leaders who shared the organisational work in southern Norway between them, it was not decided that there should be one inspector general – one Big I – for all districts, and that he should have a number of district inspectors. On the o-side there was also expansion and the work was led by the chief of organisations, Big O", from Fem år for fred og frihet: med Milorg 1940–1945, 43
  22. Svik og gråsoner, 161
  23. "Munken, which was situated on the corner of Munkedamsveien and Parkveien, was in the danger zone. At Munken we had at that time huge archives in secret rooms, under the kitchen sink and in the wall under the windows. (Kaka and I had lived there for some time and Rudolf had taken over the place to live there, but it was still kind of a main archive there.)", from Rapport om mitt arbeid under okkupasjonen, 123
  24. "Kaka and I lived for a time together in Munken and had it both good and nice", from Rapport om mitt arbeid under okkupasjonen, 129
  25. "SL's people were all good to cooperate with and all were very helpful. I especially have to mention Kaka who was a great illegalist, always willing to help, full of inventiveness and in good spirits", from Rapport om mitt arbeid under okkupasjonen, 27
  26. Rapport fra «nr. 24», 100
  27. "Some time later we did however get new and improved contact with Fredrik and XU through Kaka", from Rapport om mitt arbeid under okkupasjonen, 166
  28. Jens Chr. Hauge: fullt og helt, 173
  29. Usynlige veier: fra Edderkoppens og flyktningeksportens historie, 150
  30. "The attack against Pilestredet 31 happened around Easter 1943 (20 April) and was daring and successful. I got a vivid description a couple of hours later from Kaka who had received the guys when they returned", from Rapport om mitt arbeid under okkupasjonen, 72
  31. Rød skygge over DI3, 76
  32. Motstandskamp, strategi og marinepolitikk, 14
  33. "Finally Kaka and Syver got in contact with an agent who claimed to forward messages from Grini. They had as far as I remember a meeting with him at Majorstua to find out how he looked. It was a high-risk game", from Rapport om mitt arbeid under okkupasjonen, 172
  34. "Under Kaka's leadership a couple of new liquidation teams were established, including tails. Most of the people working as tails were women. Agents from Operation Bittern trained the two teams, and the plan was that the agents themselves would lead the first liquidations. A series of attempts were made to get rid of bathmaster Hagen, and if I do not remember wrong, Torgersen. All the attempts failed. The agent who tried to take down Kaka was however taken care of in 1943 after his apartment in Løvenskioldsgt was found", from Rapport om mitt arbeid under okkupasjonen, 173
  35. Jens Chr. Hauge: fullt og helt, 118
  36. "Hauge was painfully aware that he bore a special responsibility in these cases, formally and in reality. Together with the Hansson brothers and Kai Holst he had pushed through the change of policy in Milorg's leadership that opened it to planned liquidations", from Jens Chr. Hauge: fullt og helt, 554
  37. Rød skygge over DI3, 70
  38. Fra varm til kald krig, 95
  39. "At the end of 1942 and the beginning of 1943 large parts of the former central leader group (Sentralledelse) relocated to Stockholm. There were two members of the council (Topsy and Otto). There were Petter and Aksel and Sørlie, in June came Bakke, in August and September came Kaka and Max. This meant that [the organisation in] Stockholm was considerably strengthened and certainly improved the possibility of active support from there", from Rapport om mitt arbeid under okkupasjonen, 125
  40. Svik og gråsoner, 188
  41. Fra varm til kald krig, 96–97
  42. Fra varm til kald krig, 100–105
  43. Svik og gråsoner, 192
  44. Svik og gråsoner, 196
  45. "The razzia were initiated and led by the British major W. D. MacRoberts from Task Force with assistance of Norwegian intelligence staff and police", from Svik og gråsoner, 169
  46. Svik og gråsoner, 170
  47. Norges banks price calculator Archived 13 June 2013 at the Wayback Machine
  48. Fra varm til kald krig, 122
  49. Svik og gråsoner, 202–204
  50. Svik og gråsoner, 178–179
  51. "In his right hand he had a pistol. Right finger on the trigger and the trigger was active (spent)", from the radio program Liket på Gärdet i Stockholm, from 17:43 in the recording
  52. Fra varm til kald krig, 123
  53. From the film Mysteriet Holst, from 33:20 in the film
  54. From the film Mysteriet Holst, from 34:55 in the film
  55. From the film Mysteriet Holst, from 35:10 in the film
  56. From the film Mysteriet Holst, from 18:00 in the film
  57. Svik og gråsoner, 172–173
  58. "The family contacts Norwegian authorities to find an answer. 'When mother tried that, after a while, she was told that she could not do anything about this and I don't know if she was threatened but at least she was told that it could be dangerous for her. So there is something lying there, that is very disturbing'", statement by Elsebeth Heyerdahl-Larsen, in the film Mysteriet Holst, from 15:59 in the film
  59. USAs hemmelige agenter, 47
  60. "According to Paus, the policeman he did not trust in connection with the investigation of the "Holst-case", was Olav Svendsen. During the war, Svendsen was leading the juridical office (Rettskontoret) in Stockholm and after the liberation he was vice police chief in Norway", from Svik og gråsoner, 173
  61. "Topsy was after a while military inspector and the Chief of Defence's representative in Sweden. As such he was also heading the two military offices that worked towards Norway, namely MI IV that worked with us and MI II that handled intelligence", from Rapport om mitt arbeid under okkupasjonen, 125
  62. "Paus went to Norway and told the Chief of Defence about the man on the station platform. He was then told that he could be risking his life if he made further inquiries and that he would do best to let the case rest. 'He was no easily frightened man, my father, but I think he understood that he was moving into an area that was very dangerous and he also talked with the family about the fact that we should be cautions as it could strike them all, and then I frankly speaking think he meant liquidation'", statement by Ole Paus, son of Major General Ole Otto Paus in the film Mysteriet Holst, from 55:13 in the film
  63. Svik og gråsoner, 174
  64. Svik og gråsoner, 175
  65. "Borge was also present at the press conference at Bristol in the autumn of 1994 and was among those veterans who then clearly expressed that Holst had been liquidated", Svik og gråsoner, 178
  66. Svik og gråsoner, 198
  67. Svik og gråsoner, 197
  68. Svik og gråsoner, 176–177
  69. Svik og gråsoner, 189
  70. Fra varm til kald krig, 120, 172
  71. "Especially the taxi driver and Fanny Gustavsen's statements diverge. Mrs Gustavsen living at Dukvägen claims that there was a third person in the taxi – a man in a light raincoat. The taxi driver Karlsson however claims that he and Holst were alone in the car", from Svik og gråsoner, 171
  72. From the film Mysteriet Holst, from 23:25 in the film
  73. From the film Mysteriet Holst, from 59:00 in the film
  74. "At Rindögatan 42 they had like an intercom so it rang and Daddy was just convinced it was Kai who was about to arrive so he just pushed the button. He then opened the door so he could come in and then he just saw the elevator passing up. Then while he stood there he hears, I don't know if it was people or voices up there, but he closed the door then. I think that he got anxious, what is this? It was not Kai, he did not return. I don't know what he thought. And he heard a shot. Kai Holst was murdered in our staircase", Svante Ahreson's daughter in the film Mysteriet Holst, from 59:20 in the film
  75. From the film Mysteriet Holst, from 31:05 in the film
  76. "The first thing I kinda remember father talking about regarding Kai Holst's death was that the pistol was found in Kai Holst's right hand, while Kai Holst was left-handed and that was such a thing that got father to be totally steadfast in his conviction that Kai Holst was murdered", statement by nephew Ole Paus, from the film Mysteriet Holst, from 31:50 in the film
  77. From the film Mysteriet Holst, from 38:32 in the film
  78. From the film Mysteriet Holst, from 39:35 in the film
  79. "It is absolutely certain that Kai received death threats just before the war ended. He said so quite frankly, but he did not know exactly where they came from and he was very brave. He was the kind of person who did everything to get to the bottom of things, he would not give in for intimidation. 'I am not a weakling' he said then, as a person he was stubborn, enduring and fearless. He did a tremendous job, both as a resistance fighter and as an intelligence man. There was never anything wrong in Kai Holst, I want to state that strongly. He was first rate. I have no firm ground – but if I should build on the inexplicable reluctance from the Swedes in helping us ... Be aware – I'm not saying it. I do not dare say it. I can not say it. But that there was something strange with the circumstances surrounding his death, about that there is no doubt at all. It has only been impossible to find the key", statement by Wladimir Mørck Hansson, resistance leader, from Taushetens pris, 54
  80. "Bergström had during the war been with the intelligence service C-byrån in Gothenburg and was one of the so-called Three Musketeers who cooperated with the Norwegian resistance movement", from Svik og gråsoner, 162
  81. "Nyström was no nobody in this connection. In 1945–46 he was secretary of state under the Social Minister Gustav Möller in the Social Department that Säpo and counter intelligence were controlled by", from Svik og gråsoner, 209
  82. Taushetens pris, 56
  83. "When Jens Christian Hauge forty-nine years later is asked by his friend Kai Christian Holst's closest living relative, Elsebeth Heyerdahl-Larsen, why her uncle was liquidated in the liberation summer of 1945 he becomes like a wall in his face and answers: 'Some truths you can never expect to know!'", Taushetens pris, 86–87
  84. "This moral and existential depth (alvor) must be kept in mind to understand Hauge's way of being, reactions and positions in the inflammatory cases we now are about to go into. From various quarters Hauge over the years received very harsh accusations for his way of handling the occupation history. The accusations went in the most varied directions: He supposedly tried to direct and censure history-writing. He supposedly hindered insight into the number of and the circumstances around the liquidations carried out by the resistance, which according to the critics must have been far more than Hauge's terse statements indicated. He supposedly contributed to hiding the truth about his Milorg comrade Kai Holst's strange death in Stockholm in June 1945", from Jens Chr. Hauge: fullt og helt, 549
  85. Jens Chr. Hauge: fullt og helt, 565
  86. Fra varm til kald krig, 127–129
  87. "Dyrhaug has also identified a document in the British National Archive with the title Post Use of a German Intelligence Unit by Sweden. But this is classified for 75 years and is therefore not available before the year 2020", from Svik og gråsoner, 166
  88. Fra varm til kald krig, 170–172
  89. About the movie Mysteriet Holst, from the producing company Ekkofilm's website
gollark: 5
gollark: <@683735247489466397> play computercraft
gollark: <@683735247489466397> skip
gollark: <@683735247489466397> queue
gollark: <@683735247489466397> help

References
  • Göran Elgemyr: Kai Holsts mystiska död : – Historien om en norsk motståndsman i Oslo och i Stockholm, Jure bokhandel, Stockholm, 2015 ISBN 9789172236158
  • 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», 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
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