Henry Wilhelm Kristiansen (12 February 1902 – 16 January 1942) was a Norwegian newspaper editor and politician for the

Communist Party A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. ...

. He served as party chairman from 1931 to 1934, and then as editor-in-chief of the party organ ''

Arbeideren ''Arbeideren'' ("The Worker") was a daily newspaper published in Oslo, Norway. It was started on 2 November 1929 as the official party newspaper from the Communist Party of Norway, Communist Party. It lent its name from a Hamar-based Arbeideren ( ...

'' from 1934 until 1940. Due to the Nazi German occupation of Norway, the newspaper was closed in 1940, and Kristiansen was deported together with his wife in 1941, and died in

Neuengamme concentration camp Neuengamme was a network of Nazi concentration camps in Northern Germany that consisted of the main camp, Neuengamme, and more than 85 satellite camps. Established in 1938 near the village of Neuengamme in the Bergedorf district of Hamburg, th ...

Early life

He was born in

Drammen Drammen () is a city and municipality in Viken, Norway. The port and river city of Drammen is centrally located in the south-eastern and most populated part of Norway. Drammen municipality also includes smaller towns and villages such as Konne ...

as the son of Martin Wilhelm Kristiansen and his wife Gina, née Olsen. He married the Russian Jew Mirjam Rathaus in 1928. The family settled in

Nordstrand Nordstrand may refer to: Places ;Germany * Nordstrand, Germany, a peninsula in Germany * Nordstrand (Amt), a former municipality in Nordfriesland, Germany ;Norway * Nordstrand, Norway, a borough in Oslo, Norway * Søndre Nordstrand, a borough in ...

. He joined the Norges Socialdemokratiske Ungdomsforbund in 1916, but at the Labour-Communist party split in 1923, he joined the

Young Communist League The Young Communist League (YCL) is the name used by the youth wing of various Communist parties around the world. The name YCL of XXX (name of country) originates from the precedent established by the Communist Youth International. Examples of Y ...

. He had a brief stint as chairman of the Young Communist League in 1923.

Political career

In 1925 he became a member of the

politburo. After a stay in the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

from 1929 to 1931, he returned to Norway in 1931 to become party chairman. He was removed in 1934 at the hands of Comintern. Instead, he became editor-in-chief of the official party newspaper ''

''. On 9 April 1940, Norway was

invaded An invasion is a military offensive in which large numbers of combatants of one geopolitical entity aggressively enter territory owned by another such entity, generally with the objective of either: conquering; liberating or re-establishing con ...

and occupied by Nazi Germany. The Communist Party and ''Arbeideren'' originally declared themselves neutral. On 16 August 1940, however, the Communist Party was outlawed, and the newspaper ''Arbeideren'' was shut down by the authorities. Kristiansen was arrested, but was released shortly thereafter. He continued as an underground member of the Communist Party, and is considered as the de facto party chairman during this period. Kristiansen was arrested on 22 June 1941, the same day as

Operation Barbarossa Operation Barbarossa (german: link=no, Unternehmen Barbarossa; ) was the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany and many of its Axis allies, starting on Sunday, 22 June 1941, during the Second World War. The operation, code-named after ...

commenced. In November 1941 he and

Johan Strand Johansen Johan Strand Johansen (3 February 1903 in Åfjord - 12 February 1970 in Moscow) was Norwegian Minister of Labour in 1945. From 1945-1949 and later from 1954-1957 he represented the Communist Party of Norway in the Parliament of Norway. His impor ...

were arrested and deported on the SS ''Donau'' to

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

. In December he was sent to

, where he died in January 1942. His

urn An urn is a vase, often with a cover, with a typically narrowed neck above a rounded body and a footed pedestal. Describing a vessel as an "urn", as opposed to a vase or other terms, generally reflects its use rather than any particular shape or ...

was sent to

Skien Skien () is a city and municipality in Vestfold og Telemark county in Norway. In modern times it is regarded as part of the traditional region of Grenland, although historically it belonged to Grenmar/Skiensfjorden, while Grenland referred the ...

and buried there. His wife Mirjam, identified as Jewish, was deported with him. She was

sent Sent is a former municipality in the district of Inn in the Swiss Canton of Graubünden. On 1 January 2015 the former municipalities of Ardez, Guarda, Tarasp, Ftan and Sent merged into the municipality of Scuol.

via Ravensbrück to Auschwitz where she was murdered in a gas chamber in May 1942. She had previously been married to Arvid G. Hansen 1921-1928. ''Arbeideren'' was not continued after the war's end in 1945. In 1948, during the

legal purge in Norway after World War II The purge in Norway after World War II was a purge that took place between May 1945 and August 1948 against anyone who was deemed to have collaborated with the German occupation of the country. Several thousand Norwegians and foreign citizens wer ...

, an indictment towards ''Arbeideren'' was considered because of the neutral alignment after 9 April 1940—however, since the editor-in-chief Kristiansen was deceased, the case was closed.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kristiansen, Henry Wilhelm 1902 births 1942 deaths Communist Party of Norway politicians Politicians from Oslo Norwegian newspaper editors Norwegian civilians killed in World War II People who died in Neuengamme concentration camp Norwegian expatriates in the Soviet Union Politicians who died in Nazi concentration camps People from Drammen 20th-century Norwegian writers Norwegian people who died in Nazi concentration camps Jewish Norwegian politicians Norwegian Jews who died in the Holocaust Jewish writers