Milly Elise "Lise" Børsum (18 September 1908 – 29 August 1985) was a Norwegian resistance member 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 ...

, survivor from 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 ...

, and known for her writings and organizing work after the war.

Personal life

Lise Alnæs 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 pianist and composer

Eyvind Alnæs Eyvind Alnæs (29 April 1872 – 24 December 1932) was a Norwegian composer, pianist, organist and choir director. Personal life Alnæs was born in Fredrikstad, as the son of headmaster Johannes Jørgen Lauritz Alnæs (1835–1916) and Elise Ma ...

and his wife Emilie Thorne. She was married to physician Ragnar Børsum from 1930 to 1949, and was mother of actress

Bente Børsum Bente Børsum (born 21 June 1934) is a Norwegian actress, probably best known for her roles in the movies "''Mors hus''" (1974) and "''Reisen til julestjernen''" (1976). Børsum had her debut in the movie "''Jakten''" in 1959, and worked at Osl ...

World War II

During World War II, Børsum was active in warning and helping Jews that risked deportation to German camps, and came to be member of a network which helped people escape to Sweden. She was arrested in April 1943, and incarcerated at the Grini concentration camp for two months. 28 June 1943 she was sent to

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, with MS ''Monte Rosa'' from

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 of ...

Århus Aarhus (, , ; officially spelled Århus from 1948 until 1 January 2011) is the second-largest city in Denmark and the seat of Aarhus Municipality. It is located on the eastern shore of Jutland in the Kattegat sea and approximately northwest ...

, and further with railway transport to

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

. After a short stay at the Hütten Gefängnis in Hamburg she ended up as Nacht und Nebel prisoner at the

, a camp specifically for women. She was held at Ravensbrück until 8 April 1945, when the surviving Scandinavian prisoners were transported home with the White Buses organized by the Swedish Red Cross.

Postwar career

After World War II Børsum wrote books on her experiences as a prisoner and on the characteristics of concentration camps. Her ''Fange i Ravensbrück'' ("Prisoner in Ravensbrück") was published in 1946, and ''Speilbilder'' in 1947. In 1951 she published a book on Soviet concentration camps, ''Fjerndomstol Moskva. Fra dagens Berlin og Sovjets fangeleirer''. Børsum was co-founder of the organization ''Nasjonalhjelpen for krigens ofre'' in 1947, and headed the organization from 1966 to 1978. She was a member of the ''Commission Internationale Contre le Régime Concentrationnaire'' from its establishment in 1950. She was also a freelance writer for the newspaper

Dagbladet ''Dagbladet'' (lit.: ''The Daily Magazine'') is one of Norway's largest newspapers and is published in the tabloid format. It has 1,400,000 daily readers on mobile, web and paper. Traditionally ''Dagbladet'' is considered the main liberal newsp ...

for many years. In 2006 actress

performed a monologue based on the life of her mother Lise, at Cafeteatret in Oslo.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Borsum, Lise Female resistance members of World War II Writers from Oslo Norwegian resistance members Grini concentration camp survivors Ravensbrück concentration camp survivors 1908 births 1985 deaths Night and Fog program Norwegian women in World War II Norwegian World War II memoirists 20th-century Norwegian writers 20th-century Norwegian women writers People who rescued Jews during the Holocaust Women memoirists