Wellen Einar

Wellen, Einar Einar Wellen, a 20-year-old student and a member of the Norwegian underground, helped rescue Margrit Rosenberg (later Stenge) and her parents Alice and Markus Rosenberg. Margrit’s parents came to Norway from Germany in September 1938. Markus Rosenberg, the owner of a paint manufacturing company with business ties in the Scandinavian countries was offered a position in a company in Oslo. The 10-year-old Margrit joined them in 1939. When the war broke out on April 9, 1940, in Norway the Rosenbergs left Oslo for Rogne, a village in the valley of Valdres. At first they rented a room with a family in Rogne but they later rented a house. Margrit went to school in the village. During the summers they rented a cottage high up in the mountains at Buahaugen. Throughout that time, Markus continued to receive a salary from his employer in Oslo. In the summer of 1942, they met their rescuer, Einar Wellen. He was a resident of Oslo, visiting his uncle who owned a summer cottage next to the Rosenbergs. One day, Wellen knocked at their door, introduced himself and told them that there were practically no Jews left in Norway, because they had either been deported or had left to Sweden. He said soon the Germans would search the countryside looking for Jews in hiding, that he was working for the underground in Oslo and he had come to offer his help. He promised to get in touch with the Rosenbergs. In the fall of 1942, the Rosenbergs returned to Rogne, but Margrit did not return to school. It was too risky. On the morning of January 14, 1943, Wellen appeared at the Rosenbergs’ door with a friend, saying that he had arranged an escape route for them. They left that evening, without identity papers, traveling by truck and then by train to Oslo. Wellen and his friend were on the same train. In Oslo, the Rosenbergs stayed with a minister for a day and were then brought at night to a barn where a truck was to take them along with a group of other escaping Jews to a pointnear the Swedish border. The last part of the journey across the Swedish border was negotiated on foot. After the war, the Rosenbergs returned to Norway and Markus contacted Wellen to express his gratitude. Margrit married Stefan Stenge, and moved to Canada, from where she remained in close touch with Wellen and his family. On October 29, 1995, Yad Vashem recognized Einar Wellen as Righteous Among the Nations.