Hanna Kristine Kvanmo (June 14, 1926 – June 23, 2005) was a Norwegian politician for the Socialist Left Party. She served as a

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...

from 1973 to 1989, representing the county of

Nordland Nordland (; smj, Nordlánnda, sma, Nordlaante, sme, Nordlánda, en, Northland) is a county in Norway in the Northern Norway region, the least populous of all 11 counties, bordering Troms og Finnmark in the north, Trøndelag in the south, ...

, as the first parliamentary leader of the Socialist Left Party from 1977 to 1989. She was a member of the

Norwegian Nobel Committee The Norwegian Nobel Committee ( no, Den norske Nobelkomité) selects the recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize each year on behalf of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel's estate, based on instructions of Nobel's will. Five members are appointed by ...

from 1991 to 2002, and served as the committee's vice chair from 1993 to 1998. During her term on the Nobel committee, she participated in the decisions to award the Nobel Peace Prize to individuals such as

Aung San Suu Kyi Aung San Suu Kyi (; ; born 19 June 1945) is a Burmese politician, diplomat, author, and a 1991 Nobel Peace Prize laureate who served as State Counsellor of Myanmar (equivalent to a prime minister) and Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2 ...

Nelson Mandela Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (; ; 18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013) was a South African anti-apartheid activist who served as the first president of South Africa from 1994 to 1999. He was the country's first black head of state and the ...

Yasser Arafat Mohammed Abdel Rahman Abdel Raouf al-Qudwa al-Husseini (4 / 24 August 1929 – 11 November 2004), popularly known as Yasser Arafat ( , ; ar, محمد ياسر عبد الرحمن عبد الرؤوف عرفات القدوة الحسيني, Mu ...

and

Kofi Annan Kofi Atta Annan (; 8 April 193818 August 2018) was a Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh secretary-general of the United Nations from 1997 to 2006. Annan and the UN were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize. He was the founde ...

. She worked for the thoroughly nazified

German Red Cross The German Red Cross (german: Deutsches Rotes Kreuz ; DRK) is the national Red Cross Society in Germany. With 4 million members, it is the third largest Red Cross society in the world. The German Red Cross offers a wide range of services withi ...

in the ending years of the

Second World War 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 opposi ...

, and she was convicted for treason following her repatriation to Norway in 1947. By profession, she was a teacher.

Early life

Hanna Kvanmo grew up in a working-class family in the Norwegian town Harstad. Her father was a fisherman and her mother was a factory worker. Her parents were divorced, and she was brought up mostly by her mother. As an 18-year-old (in 1944), Kvanmo joined the

as a nursing student. She was stationed for some time on the Eastern Front, and in the last days of the war, she worked as a

practical nurse A licensed practical nurse (LPN), in much of the United States and Canada, is a nurse who cares for people who are sick, injured, convalescent, or disabled. In the United States, LPNs work under the direction of physicians, mid-level practi ...

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitu ...

. After the German defeat, she was interned in the

British sector British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

of Germany; she was returned to Norway in late 1947 where she was tried and convicted for treason. She received an 8-month prison sentence and a ten-year suspension of her rights as a citizen; the prison sentence was suspended after an appeal to the

Supreme Court A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

Career

After several years as a

single mother A single parent is a person who has a child or children but does not have a spouse or live-in partner to assist in the upbringing or support of the child. Reasons for becoming a single parent include divorce, break-up, abandonment, becoming wi ...

working as a cleaning lady and cook, she married and passed the university entrance exam (examen artium) with distinction and worked as a gymnasium teacher at Rana Gymnasium from 1962 to 1973. Kvanmo joined local politics in Rana, and in 1973 she was elected to the

Storting The Storting ( no, Stortinget ) (lit. the Great Thing) is the supreme legislature of Norway, established in 1814 by the Constitution of Norway. It is located in Oslo. The unicameral parliament has 169 members and is elected every four years ...

, representing the Socialist Left Party (SV). From 1977 she served as the parliamentary leader for the party. In 1975 and 1981 she was also a delegate to the UN general assembly. From 1985 to 1989, her ''vararepresentant'' was Asle Amundsen. She retired from parliament in 1989. From 1991 to 2002, she was a member of the

, serving as the committee's vice chairman 1993-1998. Her activities during the war were often questioned later in her political career in the Socialist Left Party. She described her perspective and her reasons for joining the German war effort in a book in 1990. The book sold approximately 83,000 copies in Norway, and was considered a best-seller. Kvanmo was an opponent of the EU. After her retiring from parliament she moved with her husband to southern Norway and the town of Arendal.

Views

She was highly critical of

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning the North Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via a land bridg ...

ian President

Anwar Sadat Muhammad Anwar el-Sadat, (25 December 1918 – 6 October 1981) was an Egyptian politician and military officer who served as the third president of Egypt, from 15 October 1970 until his assassination by fundamentalist army officers on 6 ...

and

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

i Prime Minister

Menachem Begin Menachem Begin ( ''Menaḥem Begin'' (); pl, Menachem Begin (Polish documents, 1931–1937); ''Menakhem Volfovich Begin''; 16 August 1913 – 9 March 1992) was an Israeli politician, founder of Likud and the sixth Prime Minister of Israel. ...

for their efforts of negotiating Israeli–Egyptian peace in the late 1970s. The Socialist Left Party, with Hanna Kvanmo as its leader, was the only party in the Norwegian Parliament that advocated recognizing the

Palestine Liberation Organization The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO; ar, منظمة التحرير الفلسطينية, ') is a Palestinian nationalist political and militant organization founded in 1964 with the initial purpose of establishing Arab unity and sta ...

in the 1980s. She later wished to withdraw the Peace Prize awarded to Israeli Prime Minister

Shimon Peres Shimon Peres (; he, שמעון פרס ; born Szymon Perski; 2 August 1923 – 28 September 2016) was an Israeli politician who served as the eighth prime minister of Israel from 1984 to 1986 and from 1995 to 1996 and as the ninth president of ...

Books

*''Derfor'' (1985) *''Glis'' (1986) *''Dommen'' (1990) *'' Anders Langes saga'' (1993, with A. Rygnestad).

References

External links

Aftenposten news article
on her death, in English {{DEFAULTSORT:Kvanmo, Hanna 1926 births 2005 deaths People from Harstad Norwegian women in World War II German Red Cross personnel World War II nurses People convicted of treason for Nazi Germany against Norway Norwegian schoolteachers Socialist Left Party (Norway) politicians Members of the Storting Norwegian World War II memoirists 20th-century Norwegian politicians