Leif Olav Foss (28 August 1899 – 1982) was a Norwegian trade unionist and politician for the Communist Party. He spent his early working career at sea, and from 1919 as a docks worker at

Akers Mekaniske Verksted Akers mekaniske Verksted (often abbreviated ''Akers mek. Verksted'' or ''Akers Mek.'') was a workshop, later a shipyard which was established in Fossveien by the Aker River in Oslo in 1841. In 1854 the company moved to Holmen on the west side of P ...

. He was organized, first through the '' Norsk matros- og fyrbøterunion'', then through the Union of Iron and Metalworkers, chairing the sub-union ''Dokkarbeidernes forening'' from 1922 to 1925. He was a supervisory council member in ''Oslo faglige samorg'' from 1923 to 1930, and a national board member of the Union of Iron and Metalworkers from 1925 to 1929. He joined the

Norwegian Labour Party The Labour Party ( nb, Arbeiderpartiet; nn, Arbeidarpartiet; A/Ap; se, Bargiidbellodat), formerly The Norwegian Labour Party ( no, Det norske Arbeiderparti, DNA), is a social-democratic political party in Norway. It is positioned on the centr ...

in 1920, and then the Communist Party. He became party secretary for trade affairs, and was a delegate at the

Red International of Labour Unions The Red International of Labor Unions (russian: Красный интернационал профсоюзов, translit=Krasnyi internatsional profsoyuzov, RILU), commonly known as the Profintern, was an international body established by the Comm ...

Congress in 1930. Here he was elected to the RILU executive committee, and moved to Moscow. He returned to Norway after a few years. During the occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany, he was arrested two times for resistance. The first time he was imprisoned in Møllergata 19 from 15 August to 2 September 1940. On 12 September 1941 he was arrested for the second time, after the milk strike. He was incarcerated in Grini concentration camp until 3 April 1942, when he was sent to Sachsenhausen concentration camp. He was sent further to many camps, first Lichterfelde, then Hamburg-Fuhlsbüttel,

Neuengamme 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 ...

, Hamburg-Fühlsbuttel again,

Königswartha Königswartha, in Sorbian Rakecy, is a municipality in the east of Saxony, Germany. It belongs to the district of Bautzen and lies 20 km north of the eponymous city. The municipality is part of the recognized Sorbian settlement area in Sa ...

, Bautzen, Leipzig and Eisenach. He was freed at the war's end. After the war, from 1945 to 1949 he was the secretary in the Union of Iron and Metalworkers.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Foss, Leif 1899 births 1982 deaths Norwegian trade unionists Labour Party (Norway) politicians Communist Party of Norway politicians Norwegian expatriates in the Soviet Union Norwegian resistance members Grini concentration camp survivors Sachsenhausen concentration camp survivors Neuengamme concentration camp survivors