ENGLISH TOURIST WHO HELPED JEWS FLEE THE NAZIS

Trapped in Norway by the shock German invasion of April 1940, Myrtle Wright joined a daring underground resistance group to help smuggle hundreds of Jews to safety

- By Robert Ferguson

UNSUSPECTING Myrtle Wright, 37, arrived in Oslo in April 1940 on her way to a Quaker meeting in Copenhagen. Three days later, the Nazis invaded Norway and, despite many legal attempts to leave, the Englishwoman was trapped in the country.

What happened next changed the course of history for hundreds of Jews whom she helped escape almost certain death. Stranded and alone, Myrtle swept her fears aside to become part of the underground resistance that was largely run by women, including key figure Sigrid Helliesen Lund, a 48-year-old mother of two. The daring group received coded messages which allowed them to warn their Jewish neighbours and help women and children to safety while jeopardising their own.

It’s one of the little-known tales about the Norwegian resistance which I tell in my new book Norway’s War: A People’s Struggle Against Nazi Tyranny, 1940-1945.

And Myrtle, who was awarded King Haakon VII's Freedom Cross for her outstanding services to the country in 1946, is one of its unassuming but heroic figures.

A practising Quaker and full-time member of the Society of Friends in England, Myrtle was on her way to talks with the Danish Society of Friends when her journey was held up by bad weather. Within three days the Germans had invaded and life would never be the same again.

Not able to comprehend the horrors and dangers that lay in store living under Nazi rule, she made several fruitless attempts to leave the country legally. During her dealings with the German bureaucracy, her passport was taken and severe restrictions placed on her travel.

Other than that, Myrtle was left to her own devices. Given the patronising chivalry adopted by the national socialists, no woman not even an Englishwoman was considered a potential danger to the planned Nazi revolution in Norway.