[1] With the rise of the Nazi party, Nansenhjelpen, the Nansen Aid, was established in 1936 to help get vulnerable groups out of Central Europe and into Norway.
Through the work of recently arrived psychiatrist Leo Eitinger and Nora Lustig (who was later detained, deported, and immediately murdered in Auschwitz concentration camp) from Brno, Nansenhjelpen applied on humanitarian grounds to admit 100 Czech Jewish children who otherwise faced a grim future under the Nazi regime.
[1] The first director of the orphanage, Nina Hasvoll (née Hackel), was recruited by Norwegian psychiatrist Nic Waal after they had become acquainted in Berlin while attending the Kinderseminar (Seminar on Children) run by Wilhelm Reich.
[4] By the time the Nazi authorities ordered the detention and deportation of all Jews in Norway in November 1942, there were nine boys and five girls in the home.
Though Sigrid Helliesen Lund had the foresight to burn the entire list of Czech Jewish refugees on April 9, 1940, German and Quisling authorities eventually caught up with the home.
[1] On November 25, 1942, Helliesen Lund received a tip that the Nazis were coming to take away Jewish Children in Norway, including in the orphanage.
[1] On November 26, 1942, Hasvoll woke up the children of the orphanage early telling them to wear 2 pairs of their finest clothing, including underwear, socks, jackets, etc.
[1] 14 children made it to Tanberg's house where they were on strict rations and had to crawl to move around, all the while keeping very silent as to not alert anyone to their presence.