Henriette Bie Lorentzen (18 July 1911 – 23 August 2001), born Anna Henriette Wegner Haagaas, was a Norwegian journalist, humanist, peace activist, feminist, co-founder of the

Nansen Academy The Nansen Academy – Norwegian Humanistic Academy ( no, Nansenskolen – Norsk Humanistisk Akademi) is a folk high school in Lillehammer, Norway. History Nansen Academy was founded as a humanist and anti-totalitarian institution. The school was ...

, resistance member and

concentration camp Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simpl ...

survivor 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 opposing ...

, and publisher and editor-in-chief of the women's magazine ''

Kvinnen og Tiden ''Kvinnen og Tiden'' (meaning ''Woman and Time'' in English) was a Norwegian magazine for women published between 1945 and 1955. History and profile ''Kvinnen og Tiden'' was started in 1945 with Henriette Bie Lorentzen and Kirsten Hansteen as ...

'' (1945–1955).

Background

Born in Vestre Aker (now

Oslo Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population ...

), Anna Henriette Wegner Haagaas was the eldest daughter of the private school owner Theodor Haagaas. She was married to the businessman and historian Øyvind Bie Lorentzen, a member of the Lorentzen family. She earned the degree Magister in

history of literature The history of literature is the historical development of writings in prose or poetry that attempt to provide entertainment, enlightenment, or instruction to the reader/listener/observer, as well as the development of the literary techniques ...

at the

Royal Frederick University The University of Oslo ( no, Universitetet i Oslo; la, Universitas Osloensis) is a public research university located in Oslo, Norway. It is the highest ranked and oldest university in Norway. It is consistently ranked among the top universit ...

in 1937, with a dissertation on Henrik Ibsen and

Christian Friedrich Hebbel Christian Friedrich Hebbel (18 March 1813 – 13 December 1863) was a German poet and dramatist. Biography Hebbel was born at Wesselburen in Dithmarschen, Holstein, the son of a bricklayer. He was educated at the ''Gelehrtenschule des Johann ...

Humanism and the Nansen Academy

She was introduced to the liberal theologian and humanist (and later Bishop of Hamar) Kristian Schjelderup by her fellow student

Nic. Stang Nicolay Milberg Stang (21 April 1908 – 15 July 1971) was a Norwegian academic art historian, classical philologist, editor and author. Biography Nicolay Stang was born at Kristiansand in Vest-Agder County, Norway. He was the son of Jo ...

in the mid 1930s, and they became lifelong friends. She became involved in the establishment of the humanist

in 1937 and was one of its three original teachers, together with Schjelderup and

Anders Platou Wyller Anders Platou Wyller (24 April 1903 - 2 October 1940) was a Norwegian philologist and humanist. Biography Wyller was born at Stavanger in Rogaland, Norway. He was the son of Thomas Christian Wyller (1858-1921) and Birgitte Platou (1862-1922). His ...

, until it closed in 1940. She also succeeded Stang as assistant editor of Schjelderup's journal '' Fritt Ord'' in 1938, as the journal became the official publication of the Nansen Academy. According to

Bjørn Egge Bjørn Egge CBE (19 August 1918 – 25 July 2007) was a Major General of the Norwegian Army and President of the Norwegian Red Cross (1981–1987). He served as deputy head of the NATO Defence College (1976–1980). Egge was a soldier during th ...

, she was "the main practical force" in the establishment of the Nansen Academy. The Nansen Academy was founded to promote the humanist philosophy in an era of

totalitarianism Totalitarianism is a form of government and a political system that prohibits all opposition parties, outlaws individual and group opposition to the state and its claims, and exercises an extremely high if not complete degree of control and regu ...

on the right and left. Schjelderup and Wyller were both Christian humanists, while Bie Lorentzen was an agnostic, but they emphasized that humanism unites across religious lines. Bie Lorentzen lectured particularly on literature and women's issues. She also lectured extensively on humanism and the Nansen Academy around the country, and also lectured in local housewife associations and women's associations, believing it to be especially important for women and mothers who spent most of the time in the home to experience and learn something new. In May 1939, she initiated the Nansen Academy's first course—"What is humanism?"—aimed at women.

Second World War

During the Second World War, she became involved, along with her husband and first cousin

Henrik Groth Henrik Johan Florentz Groth (11 October 1903 – 10 August 1983) was a Norwegian publisher and essayist, who was managing director of the Cappelen publishing company from 1947 to 1973. Biography Groth was born and grew up in Kristiania (now Oslo) ...

, in 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 ...

. She had herself met

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...

in a student pub in Germany in 1934 where Hitler was giving a speech. In 1943 she was arrested and tortured by the

Gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one orga ...

at Arkivet, even though she was pregnant, while her husband escaped to Sweden. The torture scene is reconstructed in the museum at Arkivet. She was then transferred to

Grini detention 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 Söderm ...

. She was told her unborn child would be sent to Germany for forced adoption, and attempted to take her own life. As a result of the intervention of an anti-Nazi Austrian military doctor, her newborn daughter was instead given to her father and sister. As a

Nacht und Nebel ''Nacht und Nebel'' (German: ), meaning Night and Fog, was a directive issued by Adolf Hitler on 7 December 1941 targeting political activists and resistance "helpers" in the territories occupied by Nazi Germany during World War II, who were to ...

political prisoner, she was sent to Ravensbrück concentration camp where she remained until the end of the war. On 8 May 1945, she and around 100 other female Scandinavian concentration camp prisoners were rescued by 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 ...

, and she was reunited with her husband in Sweden.

Publisher of ''Kvinnen og Tiden''

After returning from the concentration camp, she believed women should have a central role in rebuilding the country, and founded the women's magazine ''

'' (translated as ''Woman and Time'' in English) together with

Kirsten Hansteen Kirsten Hansteen (5 January 1903 – 17 November 1974) was a Norwegian editor and librarian. She was appointed Minister of Social Affairs with Gerhardsen's First Cabinet in 1945 and was the first female member of cabinet in Norway. Biography S ...

, the first Norwegian female member of cabinet. Bie Lorentzen and Hansteen served as joint editors-in-chief and publishers of ''Kvinnen og Tiden'' for ten years between 1945 and 1955. Originally, the magazine was published by

J.W. Cappelens Forlag J.W. Cappelens Forlag, usually referred to as Cappelen, was one of the oldest publishing houses of Norway. J.W. Cappelens Forlag was founded in 1829 by Jørgen Wright Cappelen, of the distinguished Cappelen family. Torger Baardseth was the dire ...

, which was led by Bie Lorentzen's first cousin

, but Cappelen terminated the cooperation over Hansteen's communist background, and from 1947 it was published by a limited company owned by Bie Lorentzen and Hansteen, Kvinnen og Tiden AS, with significant financial support from the liberal Swedish politician and heiress Elisabeth Tamm, a member of one of Sweden's wealthiest families. She bequeathed her large fortune as well as Fogelstad Castle to the magazine and established a trust for this purpose with Bie Lorentzen, Hansteen, Gerda Evang,

Eva Kolstad Eva Severine Lundegaard Kolstad (born Eva Severine Lundegaard Hartvig; 6 May 1918 – 26 March 1999) was a Norwegian politician and government minister for the Liberal Party. A major figure in the history of liberal feminism and the development of ...

, Honorine Hermelin and a Swedish lawyer as trustees. Despite the support from Tamm, the circulation fell from a peak of 12,000 subscribers in 1947 to just 900 in 1955. Bie Lorentzen and Hansteen therefore decided to close the magazine, and asked Tamm to change her will. Many of the most prominent female public figures of the postwar years served on the editorial board of ''Kvinnen og Tiden'', among them Liberal Party leader and cabinet minister

, women's rights activist

Margarete Bonnevie Margarete Ottilie Bonnevie (née Skattebøl) (13 December 1884— 28 March 1970) was a Norwegian author, women's rights advocate and politician for the Liberal Party of Norway. A liberal feminist, she served as the 13th President of the Norwegian ...

, poets

Inger Hagerup Inger Hagerup (née Halsør; 12 April 1905, in Bergen – 6 February 1985, in Fredrikstad) was a Norwegian writer, playwright and poet. She is considered one of the greatest Norwegian poets of the 20th century. Life and career Inger Johanne Ha ...

and Halldis Moren Vesaas, child psychiatrist

Nic Waal Nic Waal, born Caroline Schweigaard Nicolaysen in Kristiania, Norway (1 January 1905 – 28 May 1960) was a Norwegian psychiatrist, noted for her work among children and adolescents in Norway where she is known as "the mother of Norwegian pediatr ...

, Labour cabinet minister Aaslaug Aasland, physician and women's rights activist Gerda Evang, and social psychologist

Harriet Holter Harriet Holter (11 April 1922 – 18 December 1997) was a Norwegian social psychologist. Career She graduated with the cand.oecon. degree in 1946, and was eventually hired as a research fellow at the Norwegian Institute for Social Research, ...

Later life and legacy

From 1951 until her retirement in 1978, she worked as a lecturer in Norwegian language and literature as well as

drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has b ...

at the National Teachers College for Arts and Crafts, Oslo (now

Oslo and Akershus University College Oslo and Akershus University College ( no, Høgskolen i Oslo og Akershus, abbr. HiOA) was the largest state university college in Norway from its establishment in 2011 until 2018, when it was transformed into Oslo Metropolitan University, the young ...

). In the early postwar years, she was active in the

Norwegian Association for Women's Rights The Norwegian Association for Women's Rights ( no, italic=no, Norsk Kvinnesaksforening; NKF) is Norway's oldest and preeminent women's and girls' rights organization and works "to promote gender equality and all women's and girls' human rights thr ...

, and she was also active in Amnesty Norway and the

anti-nuclear The anti-nuclear movement is a social movement that opposes various nuclear technologies. Some direct action groups, environmental movements, and professional organisations have identified themselves with the movement at the local, nationa ...

organisation Bestemødre mot atomvåpen in the 1980s and 1990s. She chaired the Norwegian Ravensbrück committee for several years and was involved with the International Ravensbrück Committee. She was interviewed in the film ''Mørketid – kvinners møte med nazismen'' (1994) by

Karoline Frogner Anne Karoline Frogner (born February 3, 1961) is a Norwegian filmmaker, photographer, writer and lecturer. She is one of Norway's foremost documentary filmmakers and is a stills photographer for the image agency Samfoto. She is the director of pro ...

. She received

's highest award, the Medal of St. Hallvard, in 1995, for her educational work on women and peace. The Henriette Bie Lorentzen House at

(where the Faculty of Social Sciences is located) is named in her honour. In 2013, she was selected as one of the "100 most important women" in Norwegian history by the newspaper ''

Verdens Gang ''Verdens Gang'' ("The course of the world"), generally known under the abbreviation ''VG'', is a Norwegian tabloid newspaper. In 2016, circulation numbers stood at 93,883, having declined from a peak circulation of 390,510 in 2002. ''VG'' is n ...

''. Henriette Bie Lorentzen was featured, as one of three Norwegians (alongside

Jens Christian Hauge Jens Christian Hauge (15 May 1915 – 30 October 2006) was a Norwegian who was leader within the World War II resistance—and one of the two incumbent Milorg Council members in May 1945. Njølstad p.125 He served as Minister of Defence from 19 ...

and

Vidkun Quisling Vidkun Abraham Lauritz Jonssøn Quisling (, ; 18 July 1887 – 24 October 1945) was a Norwegian military officer, politician and Nazi collaborator who nominally list of heads of government of Norway, headed the government of Norway during t ...

), in the 2015 exhibition "1945 – Defeat. Liberation. New Beginning" of the

German Historical Museum The German Historical Museum (german: Deutsches Historisches Museum), known by the acronym DHM, is a museum in Berlin, Germany devoted to German history. It describes itself as a place of "enlightenment and understanding of the shared history ...

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

on the end of the second world war in 12 countries. In his opening speech, Foreign Minister

Frank-Walter Steinmeier Frank-Walter Steinmeier (; born 5 January 1956) is a German politician serving as President of Germany since 19 March 2017. He was previously Federal Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2005 to 2009 and again from 2013 to 2017, as well as Vice Chan ...

said that Bie Lorentzen "after the war played a central role in rebuilding her home country Norway as publisher of the women's magazine ''Woman and Time''. She developed the idea to create this magazine while imprisoned in Ravensbrück concentration camp near Berlin!"Speech by Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier at the opening of the exhibition “1945 – Defeat. Liberation. New Beginning” at the Deutsches Historisches Museum (German Historical Museum)
Foreign Office

Publications

*''Hebbel og Ibsen'', 1937, mag.art. dissertation in history of literature *''Barn i norsk diktning'', 1957 *"Hver av oss kan gi sin skjerv til lyset," in Andreas Skartveit: ''Vi valgte det vi ikke kjente'', Forum, 1995 (pp. 117–140) *Autobiographical chapter in Kari Skjønsberg (ed.), ''Hvor var kvinnene? Elleve kvinner om årene 1945–1960'', 1979, ;Translations *Olga Knopf: ''Kunsten å være kvinne''. Gyldendal Norsk Forlag, 1938 *

Heinrich Mann Luiz Heinrich Mann (; 27 March 1871 – 11 March 1950), best known as simply Heinrich Mann, was a German author known for his socio-political novels. From 1930 until 1933, he was president of the fine poetry division of the Prussian Academy ...

: ''Den blå engel''. Cappelen, 1939 *Benedikt Kautsky: ''Djevler og fordømte. Erfaringer og erkjennelser fra 7 år i tyske konsentrasjonsleirer'', 1949 *Mieczysław Jastrun: ''Mickiewicz: Polens nasjonalskald'', '' Frisprog'', 1955 (with

)

References

Literature

* Lise Børsum: Fange i Ravensbrück, 1946 * Kristian Ottosen: "Henriette," in ''Kvinneleiren'', pp. 126–133, Aschehoug, 1991 {{DEFAULTSORT:Bie Lorentzen, Henriette 20th-century Norwegian women 1911 births 2001 deaths Female resistance members of World War II Lorentzen family Night and Fog program Norwegian activists Norwegian Association for Women's Rights people Norwegian feminists Norwegian magazine founders Norwegian resistance members Norwegian torture victims Norwegian women activists Norwegian women in World War II Journalists from Oslo Ravensbrück concentration camp survivors