Erling Bauck (8 April 1924 – February 2004) was a Norwegian resistance member and writer. He was in Nazi captivity from 1942 to 1945 during

World War II 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 opposin ...

, first in Norway, then from 1944 in

Auschwitz Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It con ...

War years

He was born in

Mosjøen Mosjøen (; sma, Mussere) is a List of towns and cities in Norway, town in Vefsn Municipality in Nordland county, Norway. Mosjøen is the oldest town in the Helgeland region, with only the Bodø (town), town of Bodø being older within Nordland c ...

Nordland Nordland (; smj, Nordlánnda, sma, Nordlaante, sme, Nordlánda, en, Northland) is a county in Norway in the Northern Norway region, the least populous of all 11 counties, bordering Troms og Finnmark in the north, Trøndelag in the south, N ...

but lived in

Bærum Bærum () is a municipality in the Greater Oslo Region in Norway that forms an affluent suburb of Oslo on the west coast of the city. Bærum is Norway's fifth largest municipality with a population of 128,760 (2021). It is part of the electoral ...

Akershus Akershus () is a traditional region and current electoral district in Norway, with Oslo as its main city and traditional capital. It is named after the Akershus Fortress in Oslo. From the middle ages to 1919, Akershus was a fief and main county ...

. Norway. He was arrested on 30 April 1942 and incarcerated in

Møllergata 19 Møllergata 19 is an address in Oslo, Norway where the city's main police station and jail was located. The address gained notoriety during the German occupation from 1940 to 1945, when the Nazi security police kept its headquarters here. This is ...

until 22 May 1943, then in

Grini concentration camp '', '' no, Grini fangeleir'', location=Bærum, Viken, Norway, location map=Viken#Norway, built by=Norway, original use=Constructed as a women's prison, operated by=Nazi Germany, notable inmates= List of Grini prisoners, liberated by=Harry Söderma ...

until 29 July 1943. He was then transferred to Germany and was imprisoned in Hegerwelde and

Sachsenhausen Sachsenhausen () or Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg was a German Nazi concentration camp in Oranienburg, Germany, used from 1936 until April 1945, shortly before the defeat of Nazi Germany in May later that year. It mainly held political prisoners ...

until January 1944, then

Majdanek Majdanek (or Lublin) was a Nazi concentration and extermination camp built and operated by the SS on the outskirts of the city of Lublin during the German occupation of Poland in World War II. It had seven gas chambers, two wooden gallows, a ...

and

Lublin Lublin is the ninth-largest city in Poland and the second-largest city of historical Lesser Poland. It is the capital and the center of Lublin Voivodeship with a population of 336,339 (December 2021). Lublin is the largest Polish city east of t ...

before being in

Birkenau Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It con ...

from 29 July 1944 to 18 January 1945. He was then imprisoned in

Mauthausen Mauthausen was a Nazi concentration camp on a hill above the market town of Mauthausen (roughly east of Linz), Upper Austria. It was the main camp of a group with nearly 100 further subcamps located throughout Austria and southern German ...

Melk Melk (; older spelling: ) is a city of Austria, in the federal state of Lower Austria, next to the Wachau valley along the Danube. Melk has a population of 5,257 (as of 2012). It is best known as the site of a massive baroque Benedictine monastery ...

and

Dachau , , commandant = List of commandants , known for = , location = Upper Bavaria, Southern Germany , built by = Germany , operated by = ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) , original use = Political prison , construction ...

before being liberated. By war's end, he and thousands of other prisoners were forced to march westward in front of the Soviet thrust forward. He was rescued from imprisonment by the operation undertaken by the

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

Red Cross The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is a Humanitarianism, humanitarian movement with approximately 97 million Volunteering, volunteers, members and staff worldwide. It was founded to protect human life and health, to ensure re ...

and the

Danish government The Cabinet of Denmark ( da, regering) has been the chief executive body and the government of the Kingdom of Denmark since 1848. The Cabinet is led by the Prime Minister. There are around 25 members of the Cabinet, known as "ministers", all of wh ...

in the spring of 1945 referred to as the

White Buses White Buses was a Swedish humanitarian operation with the objective of freeing Scandinavians in German concentration camps in Nazi Germany during the final stages of World War II. Although the White Buses operation was envisioned to rescue Scan ...

(''Hvite busser''), which brought home several thousand prisoners from former concentration camps.

Post-war years

In 1945 he wrote the book ''Men noen kom fra det'' to document his experiences in Nazi concentration camps. His book ''Du skal leve'' came out in 1979, and was a bestseller in 1980. The book builds on the experience described in ''Men noen kom fra det''. Later he was very concerned with conveying facts about this period in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

's history, including as a witness guide in the organization, White Buses to Auschwitz (''Stiftelsen Hvite busser til Auschwitz''). This is a Norwegian foundation that organizes travel for school students to former Nazi concentration camps.

Family

Erling Bauck was a grandson of General Ivar Bauck, former Commanding General of the Norwegian Armed Forces.

References

External links

"Men noen kom fra det" with scanned documents

Hvite Busser Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bauck, Erling 1924 births 2004 deaths People from Vefsn Norwegian resistance members Grini concentration camp survivors Sachsenhausen concentration camp survivors Majdanek concentration camp survivors Auschwitz concentration camp survivors Dachau concentration camp survivors Norwegian memoirists Mauthausen concentration camp survivors 20th-century memoirists

War years

Post-war years

Family

References

Further reading

External links