[1] When Nazi Germany invaded and subsequently occupied Norway in 1940, Universitetets Aula was originally used for Norwegian prisoners of war.
German Wehrmacht officer Theodor Steltzer was to be involved in the arrest,[5] and managed to leak the news to Norwegian resistance member and former University of Oslo research fellow Arvid Brodersen in Hjemmefrontens Ledelse on 29 November.
[6] After pressure from both the Norwegian resistance, people associated with Nasjonal Samling and even instructions from Berlin, about half of the 1,166 were released[7] whereas 644 were sent to Germany.
In 1949, it surfaced that the fire was started by Norwegian resistance members, specifically people working with the illegal newspaper London-Nytt.
[4] Petter Moen was arrested for illegal press activity in 1944, and died when shipwrecked in the prisoner transport SS Westfalen.
[9] Material traces of the fire were still visible as of 2008, when the ceremony hall underwent a lengthy restoration for the university's bicentennial anniversary in 2011.