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 (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, survivor from the

Ravensbrück concentration camp Ravensbrück () was a Nazi 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 of 1 ...

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

Personal life

Lise Alnæs was born in

Kristiania Oslo ( or ; ) 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 1,064,235 in 2022, an ...

, 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 M ...

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 Oslo Nye ...

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 Grini prison camp (, ) was a Nazi concentration camp in Bærum, Norway, which operated between 1941 and May 1945. Ila Detention and Security Prison is now located here. History Grini was originally built as a women's prison, near an old croft ...

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 lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

, with MS ''Monte Rosa'' from

Oslo Oslo ( or ; ) 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 1,064,235 in 2022 ...

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

, and further with railway transport to

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

. After a short stay at the Hütten Gefängnis in Hamburg she ended up as

Nacht und Nebel ''Nacht und Nebel'' ( German: ), meaning Night and Fog, also known as the Night and Fog Decree, was a directive issued by Adolf Hitler on 7 December 1941 targeting political activists and resistance "helpers" in the territories occupied by Na ...

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 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 Sc ...

organized by the

Swedish Red Cross The Swedish Red Cross ( Swedish: ''Svenska Röda Korset'') is a Swedish humanitarian organisation and a member of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. Founded in 1865, its purpose is to prevent and alleviate human suffering wher ...

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 () is one of Norway's largest newspapers and is published in the Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid format. It has 1,400,000 daily readers on mobile, web and paper. Traditionally it was considered the main liberal newspaper of Norway, with a ...

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 Norwegian women memoirists