Anne Knudsdatter "Lille" Graah (22 January 1908 – 19 January 2001) was a Norwegian journalist, radio announcer and reporter. She worked for the

Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation NRK, an abbreviation of the Norwegian ''Norsk Rikskringkasting AS'', generally expressed in English as the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation, is the Norwegian government-owned radio and television public broadcasting company, and the largest ...

for more than thirty years, and is particularly known from the popular radio program ''

Ønskekonserten ''Ønskekonserten'' ( en, Listeners' choice) is a radio program produced by the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK). It has been broadcast weekly since January 1950. The signature tune is ''Entry March of the Boyars'', composed by Johan Halvor ...

''.

Personal life

Graah was born in

Kristiania 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 of ...

as the daughter of Knud Andreas Graah (1866–1908) and nurse Marie Blehr. She was the granddaughter of industrialist

Knud Graah Knud Graah (13 June 1817 – 27 March 1909) was a Danish born, Norwegian industrialist and pioneer in the Norwegian textile industry. Biography Graah was born in Thisted, Denmark. He moved to Christiania (now Oslo) in 1833, where he first took ...

Career

Graah finished her secondary education in 1927, and then spent some years helping her mother who was running a children's pensionary in

Eidsvoll Eidsvoll (; sometimes written as ''Eidsvold'') is a municipality in Akershus in Viken county, Norway. It is part of the Romerike traditional region. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Sundet. General information E ...

. She then worked as a governess in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

. In Moscow she also studied theatre with Vsevolod Meyerhold at the

Vakhtangov Theatre Yevgeny Bagrationovich Vakhtangov (also spelled Evgeny or Eugene; russian: Евге́ний Багратио́нович Вахта́нгов; 13 February 1883 – 29 May 1922) was a Russian-Armenian actor and theatre director who founded the ...

. From 1937 she was a journalist for the Oslo magazine ''Hallo-Hallo!'', and worked for '' Norsk Lovtidend'' from 1940. 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 ...

she was a member of an underground newspaper group and was arrested 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 organi ...

in 1942. She was imprisoned at

Grini Grini is a district in northeastern Bærum, Norway. Concentration camp The name Grini is best known from the concentration camp of the same name, but this camp lay further west and had no actual connection to the Grini area. History The name ...

, and sent to the

Ravensbrück concentration camp Ravensbrück () was a German concentration camp exclusively for women from 1939 to 1945, located in northern Germany, north of Berlin at a site near the village of Ravensbrück (part of Fürstenberg/Havel). The camp memorial's estimated figure o ...

in 1943. From 1945 she worked for the

, as a radio program announcer. Among her responsibilities was the program ''

'', the most popular radio show in Norway ever. She worked for the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation for more than thirty years, from 1961 as a reporter for the local chapter Østlandssendingen. She founded the organization Norsk-Tsjekkoslovakisk Hjelpeforening in 1948, helping refugees after the

Czechoslovak coup d'état of 1948 Czechoslovak may refer to: *A demonym or adjective pertaining to Czechoslovakia (1918–93) **First Czechoslovak Republic (1918–38) **Second Czechoslovak Republic (1938–39) **Third Czechoslovak Republic (1948–60) **Fourth Czechoslovak Repub ...

. She received the

Medal of St. Hallvard The Medal of St. Hallvard ( no, St. Hallvardsmedaljen) is the highest award of the City of Oslo, Norway. It is awarded to people who have made a particularly noteworthy contribution to the City of Oslo. It is named after the city's patron, Saint ...

in 1977.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Graah, Lille 1908 births 2001 deaths Writers from Oslo NRK people Ravensbrück concentration camp survivors Norwegian women writers 20th-century Norwegian journalists