A small group of people from Eidanger had gathered outside the church. Everyone had come to see the commemoration for Liberation Day, yet they had different reasons for coming here.
– I haven’t been very good at going to the May 8 marking before, but now I found out that I could come. I’ve only lived after the war, so I’ve had a good time. But I thought it was appropriate to come here especially now, considering all that is happening elsewhere in the world, says Inger Engen.
She had also brought her husband Oddvar (81). He was born during the war, but does not remember much from that time.
– But I had an uncle who was borderless and followed fugitives across the border in Finnskogen. He eventually ended up at Grini, and he was probably very affected by it afterwards, he says.
89-year-old Synnøve Haugersveen, on the other hand, was five years old when the Germans came, and she remembers it well. Lately, it has especially been the TV image of people fleeing war outside the world that has brought up old memories.
– We had to immigrate in exactly the same way. I remember it even though I was only five years old. We lived in Kristiansand when the war started, and we were only told that we had to escape, she says.
They had to travel long distances on foot with their belongings packed in sacks on their backs. Finally, a random truck driver offered to give them a ride to their destination.
– My father was a bus driver along Otra and had some friends there. They had said to just come if we needed help. We stayed there for a long time and continued to have contact with them for a long time afterwards.
– A man came to the door
It is because of her old uncle that Haugersveen comes to the May 8 celebration every year.
– He and his wife were in the “Olsengjängen”, but he was caught and shot at Grini. I feel that I am honoring him by coming here, she says.
It was an exciting (but dangerous) life that the uncle and aunt had.
– Once a man came to my aunt’s door. He said he was from the Red Cross and that he would help, but she only replied that she didn’t have time and would have to come back later. But my aunt was suspicious. So after he left, she made the maid follow. And the man went straight into where Henry Rinnan lived, says Haugersveen.
Lots of heavy people
Bjørn Tore Larsen (77) has throughout his life engaged in what he calls “attitude travel”, both via his own companies and as an employee of Hvite Busser. He has personally met many people who experienced the war.
– It is out of respect for all the time witnesses I have known that I am here. I come to the commemoration both here at Eidanger and in Brevik every year, says Larsen.
– I have traveled with many heavy people, and had the pleasure of traveling to incredible historical places in Sweden, Finland and old Czechoslovakia.
He has also taken Tveten secondary school to the Auschwitz concentration camp five times.
– I would have liked to have been there once, comments Haugersveen.
