Erik Gjems-Onstad

Erik-Ørn Gjems-Onstad was born in Kristiania (modern-day Oslo) to jurist and civil servant Olaf Gjems-Onstad (1882–1945) and architect Ågot Urbye (1886–1959).

Erik-Ørn Gjems-Onstad, MBE (22 February 1922 – 18 November 2011) was a Norwegian resistance member, officer, lawyer, sports official, politician, author and anti-immigration activist.

He worked at sea as a cabin boy in 1937, and went to port in both Africa and Asia.

In late 1939, he was asked to teach these skills in a volunteer military training program.

He later replaced the scout leader who was called up to fight in the Winter War.

Due to the war in Europe, scouting exercises were treated seriously, and Gjems-Onstad claims the movement played an important role in the early organisation of Norwegian resistance.

In the winter of 1939/40, Gjems-Onstad commenced training in nighttime orienteering and signaling.

The weekend before the invasion, he and a friend "prepared" for war by sleeping in a tent in the snow in the forest.

Gjems-Onstad joined the Norwegian resistance movement after Nazi Germany invaded Norway in 1940.

He finished his secondary education in 1940.

Gjems-Onstad had been active in the Boy Scouts, where he learned navigation and map-reading.

On 9 April 1940, Nazi Germany invaded and occupied Norway as a part of the Second World War.

Gjems-Onstad became aware of the German presence when he and his family saw German planes flying right over their home.

They received no notification of what was happening, and music was the only thing playing on the radio.

Gjems-Onstad took his bike and cycled to his school, the Oslo Cathedral School, only to find it closed and in chaos.

He then went to the city centre and Karl Johans gate, where he witnessed the Germans marching through.

Either that day or the day following, a German Junkers plane crashed near him and his friend when they were on their way from Lysaker to get a closer view of the captured Fornebu Airport.

They attempted to rescue the Germans trapped inside the plane, but the heat was unbearable, and the Germans told them to run to safety just moments before the plane exploded.

The proclamation by Norwegian Prime Minister Johan Nygaardsvold on 10 April (that rejected the German claim to appoint Vidkun Quisling as Norwegian Prime Minister), was according to Gjems-Onstad received with great disappointment by him and his friends.

He thought it contained nothing but verbiage, with no remarks about mobilisation, defence, fighting or war.

He thereafter wanted to join the resistance, but on his way met a man who told him that he would be rejected if he had not been through recruit training, and he thus returned home.

He was arrested in Sweden for his involvement with Norwegian resistance activity in the country in 1941, and was sent to the United Kingdom where he joined the Norwegian Independent Company 1 (Kompani Linge) and received British military training.

He was deployed to Norway in 1943 as part of Lark, assigned with establishing radio connection with London.

He led Lark in Trøndelag between 1943 and 1945, which constituted the leadership of Milorg in the region.

His other activities included assisting with weapons smuggling, preparing for the sinking of the German battleship Tirpitz, and plotting to assassinate Nazi collaborator Ivar Grande.

He also founded the Durham organisation for conducting psychological warfare towards the end of the war, and he took part in blowing up railway tracks.

Gjems-Onstad's efforts during the Second World War led him to become one of Norway's highest decorated war heroes.

He joined the Norwegian Home Guard after the war, where he served as a captain.

He completed his education in law, and also worked as a judge and lawyer.

He ultimately reached the rank of colonel in the military, as military lawyer of the Royal Norwegian Air Force.

For some years he was CEO of a project that planned to develop the Vaterland neighbourhood in Oslo.

Gjems-Onstad also had a career in sports, representing the sports club SK Rye in cycling and racewalking.

He later worked as a sports official, as a board member, and as chairman of various national sports bodies.

A former member of the Conservative Party and the libertarian organisation Libertas, Gjems-Onstad joined Anders Lange's Party when it was founded in 1973 and became the party's deputy leader.

He was elected a Member of Parliament in the 1973 parliamentary election, and became the party's parliamentary leader following Anders Lange's death in 1974.

Many of his views and proposals caused controversy, and he was in conflict with the new leadership of the party, which was eventually headed by Carl I. Hagen.

Gjems-Onstad was expelled from the party in 1976, and finished his term as an independent.

He also became known for criticising the Norwegian government's policy in Africa, and for defending the governments of countries such as Rhodesia and South Africa.

In the 1980s he worked as an attorney for several anti-immigration activists, and from the late 1980s he became involved in anti-immigration politics himself.

He stood in election for the Stop Immigration party in 1989 and for the Fatherland Party in 1991, and he was later involved in the People's Movement Against Immigration and Stop Islamisation of Norway.