A border guide ( no, grenselos, sv, gränslots) was a person that helped refugees from Norway escape over the

Norway–Sweden border The Norway–Sweden border ( no, Svenskegrensa, sv, Norska gränsen) is a long land national border, and the longest border for both Norway and Sweden. History The border has changed several times because of war. Before 1645, Jämtland, Här ...

during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

.''Store norske leksikon'': Grenselos.
/ref> There were probably over a thousand Norwegian border guides active during the Second World War. Men, women, and children served as border guides and assisted in guiding a total of 40,000 refugees to safety across the border in neutral Sweden.

Background

On the same day that Norway was attacked by

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

, some people started fleeing to Sweden. Initially this was relatively easy, with few controls. As the German occupation authorities gained control over the country in spring and summer 1940, control at the border intensified and border passports were issued to residents. With an increasing demand from people with various backgrounds to escape to Sweden, there was a need for local knowledge at the border to help refugees safely cross to the Swedish side. The

Norwegian resistance movement The Norwegian resistance (Norwegian: ''Motstandsbevegelsen'') to the occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany began after Operation Weserübung in 1940 and ended in 1945. It took several forms: *Asserting the legitimacy of the exiled governmen ...

gradually established systems with transport routes for refugees, in which locally known border guides were the last link in the chain that took them to safety.

Aftermath

After the war, those that had served as border guides did not receive public recognition. Instead, they were largely forgotten or faced accusations of treason. This was exacerbated by the fact that many of the border guides were ethnically

Sami Acronyms * SAMI, ''Synchronized Accessible Media Interchange'', a closed-captioning format developed by Microsoft * Saudi Arabian Military Industries, a government-owned defence company * South African Malaria Initiative, a virtual expertise ...

and continued to face discrimination after the war.Andersen, Sander. 2009. Losene forfulgt grunnet sin etnisitet. ''NRK'' (December 17).
/ref>

Background

Aftermath

See also

References

Further reading