The Diary
They came for the teachers today. The Quisling government has ordered that all teachers must register with the Nazi 'Teachers' League' and teach the curriculum of the New Order. I will not.
December 5, 1941
We have organized. Half the teachers in Oslo have signed a protest letter refusing membership. The Germans are furious—Hitler himself is said to have raged that a small country of fishers and farmers dares defy him.
January 20, 1942
Arrests began. My colleague Johan was taken this morning. They came in the night, as they always do. His wife was not told where he was going. We know: Grini concentration camp, outside Oslo.
February 4, 1942
I have been questioned. The Gestapo officer was young, barely older than the students I teach. He asked me why I hated Germany. I told him I did not—I simply loved Norway more. He struck me with his glove. I counted this as a victory.
March 15, 1942
A thousand teachers are now arrested. I am hiding with my sister in the countryside. We conduct classes in barns and churches, teaching the true history, the true literature. The children come through the snow, carrying forbidden books wrapped in cloth.
May 1942
The Germans have deported 500 teachers to Kirkenes, in the Arctic. They are building roads with picks and shovels in permafrost. I have heard that two have died already.
November 1942
I have been arrested. I am writing this from a cell in Grini. Tomorrow I go north, to forced labor. I do not know if I will survive. But I know this: the children will remember what we taught them. The truth lives in them now.
[Anne-Cath Vestly survived her internment and returned to teaching in 1945. She received no official recognition, as the Norwegian government considered teacher resistance to be 'civil disobedience' rather than military resistance. She died in 1991. Her diary was published in 2005.]
December 5, 1941
We have organized. Half the teachers in Oslo have signed a protest letter refusing membership. The Germans are furious—Hitler himself is said to have raged that a small country of fishers and farmers dares defy him.
January 20, 1942
Arrests began. My colleague Johan was taken this morning. They came in the night, as they always do. His wife was not told where he was going. We know: Grini concentration camp, outside Oslo.
February 4, 1942
I have been questioned. The Gestapo officer was young, barely older than the students I teach. He asked me why I hated Germany. I told him I did not—I simply loved Norway more. He struck me with his glove. I counted this as a victory.
March 15, 1942
A thousand teachers are now arrested. I am hiding with my sister in the countryside. We conduct classes in barns and churches, teaching the true history, the true literature. The children come through the snow, carrying forbidden books wrapped in cloth.
May 1942
The Germans have deported 500 teachers to Kirkenes, in the Arctic. They are building roads with picks and shovels in permafrost. I have heard that two have died already.
November 1942
I have been arrested. I am writing this from a cell in Grini. Tomorrow I go north, to forced labor. I do not know if I will survive. But I know this: the children will remember what we taught them. The truth lives in them now.
[Anne-Cath Vestly survived her internment and returned to teaching in 1945. She received no official recognition, as the Norwegian government considered teacher resistance to be 'civil disobedience' rather than military resistance. She died in 1991. Her diary was published in 2005.]