Sylvia Salvesen (25 January 1890 – 1973) was a member of the high society in Norway, and a resistance pioneer 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 arrested 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 Germany. She witnessed at the

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

in 1946, and wrote a memoir book documenting her wartime experiences.

Biography

Sylvia Salvesen was married to medical professor at

Rikshospitalet Oslo University Hospital, Rikshospitalet is one of the four main campuses of Oslo University Hospital in Oslo, Norway. It was an independent hospital, ''Rigshospitalet'', later spelled ''Rikshospitalet'' ("The National Hospital"), from 1826 to 2009 ...

in Oslo,

Harald Salvesen Harald Astrup Salvesen (7 January 1889, in Larvik – 22 January 1972)DIS Gravminner was a Norwegian medical doctor and Internal medicine, internist, a professor at Rikshospitalet in Oslo. His publications were mainly in the field of physiologica ...

. She was a member of the high Society in Oslo, and a friend of the

King King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...

's family. In 1938 Salvesen travelled to the United Kingdom along with Queen Maud, where she also visited Scotland in order to study women's preparedness. Back in Norway she founded the organization ''Blåklokkene'', which organized

first aid First aid is the first and immediate assistance given to any person with either a minor or serious illness or injury, with care provided to preserve life, prevent the condition from worsening, or to promote recovery. It includes initial in ...

courses and other initiatives. The organization developed into what was called "K.B." (abbreviation for ', or en, The King's Messengers). Among their activities were helping people who wanted to continue fighting in Northern Norway, with their travel via Sweden. The group also distributed pictures of King Haakon all over the country. According to her memoirs, the group had 800 contacts throughout Norway late 1940.

Gunnar Sønsteby Gunnar Fridtjof Thurmann Sønsteby DSO ( 1918 – 10 May 2012) was a member of the Norwegian resistance movement during the German occupation of Norway in World War II. Known by the nickname "Kjakan" ("The Chin") and as "Agent No. 24", ...

mentions that Salvesen had supported his first effort to reach the United Kingdom by boat. Salvesen was first arrested in January 1942, being among the "King hostages", and spent one night at the prison

Møllergata 19 Møllergata 19 is an address in Oslo, Norway where the city's main police station and jail was located. The address gained notoriety during the German occupation from 1940 to 1945, when the Nazi security police kept its headquarters here. This is ...

and one week 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 ...

. She was arrested a second time in September 1942, when she was held in isolation at Grini until June 1943. She was then transferred with the ship SS ''Monte Rosa'' to Aarhus, and further by train transport via Hamburg to the

in Germany. In Ravensbrück, she was assigned a position at the "hospital" (german: Revier). While in Ravensbrück she was contacted by Wanda Hjort, with whom she was remotely related. The families Hjort and Seip had received a letter from professor Harald Salvesen at

, asking whether they could get his wife Sylvia's signature on a document and deliver a packet to her. Wanda Hjort and her brother Johan travelled to Ravensbrück, where they received the signature. Later, Wanda managed to achieve a from a higher SS officer in Berlin, and with this document she was presented to her "aunt", Ravensbrück prisoner 20,837 Sylvia Salvesen. Salvesen was later able to send a complete list of the Norwegian female prisoners in Ravensbrück, brought by a German nurse to the people in

Gross Kreutz Gross may refer to: Finance *Gross Cash Registers, a defunct UK company with a high profile in the 1970s *Gross (economics), is the total income before deducting expenses Science and measurement *Gross (unit), a counting unit equal to 144 i ...

. The information was transmitted to Stockholm and to

Folke Bernadotte Folke Bernadotte, Count of Wisborg (2 January 1895 – 17 September 1948) was a Swedish nobleman and diplomat. In World War II he negotiated the release of about 31,000 prisoners from German concentration camps, including 450 Danish Jews fr ...

. According to numbers given by the Germans, there were 13 Norwegian and 2 Danish prisoners in the Ravensbrück camp, while the Gross Kreutz group could document that there were 92 Norwegian and 20 Danish prisoners in Ravensbrück.

Post-war activities

Salvesen returned from Germany with the Swedish

Red Cross The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is a Humanitarianism, humanitarian movement with approximately 97 million Volunteering, volunteers, members and staff worldwide. It was founded to protect human life and health, to ensure re ...

and their

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 ...

operation. In 1946, she witnessed at the Ravensbrück Trials in Hamburg. Her testimony both described the general conditions in the camp, and more specific incidents at the . These incidents included the practice of induced abortion of pregnancy, treatment of newborn babies in a way that resulted in death of most of them, experimental surgery on patients, "selection for transports" to the gas chambers, and sterilizing of gypsies. Salvesen was the first witness to testify at the trial, from the afternoon 5 December 1946, continuing morning and afternoon on 6 December, and ending after cross examinations 7 December 1946. The next witnesses were Helene Dziedziecka from Poland and Neeltje Epker from the Netherlands, and later

Odette Sansom Odette Sansom (28 April 1912 – 13 March 1995), also known as Odette Churchill and Odette Hallowes, code named Lise, was an agent for the United Kingdom's clandestine Special Operations Executive (SOE) in France during the Second World War. S ...

and

Violette Lecoq Violette Lecoq (1912 – 2003) was a French nurse, illustrator, and a resistance member during World War II. She is known for her drawings from the Ravensbrück concentration camp, which were also used as evidence at the first Ravensbrück Tria ...

. In 1947 she published a memoir, ' ( en, Forgive - but do not forget). She was awarded the

King's Medal of Merit The King's Medal of Merit (Norwegian: ''Kongens fortjenstmedalje'') is a Norwegian award. It was instituted in 1908 to reward meritorious achievements in the fields of art, science, business, and public service. It is divided in two classes: gold ...

in gold in 1965.

References

Footnotes

Bibliography

* * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Salvesen, Sylvia 1890 births 1973 deaths Grini concentration camp survivors Ravensbrück concentration camp survivors Female resistance members of World War II Norwegian World War II memoirists Norwegian resistance members Norwegian women in World War II Women memoirists 20th-century Norwegian women writers