Lecture by Ingeborg Solbrekken about her book “Jøden og jorden”. The lecture is part of the program item on Norwegian anti-Semitism on Sunday 3 September at 12.00. Solbrekken also participates in the conversation on the same topic at 1 p.m. led by Snorre Valen.

The book is based on a previously unknown and shocking story about a Jewish farmer who was persecuted by villagers in Valdres. Here, Solbrekken tells about the deep anti-Semitism in the village of Vang in Valdres, which went beyond the secular Jewish farmer Hans Salomon and his wife Gunvor. Hans Salomon’s fate differs from the experiences of most other Norwegian Jews. Hans Salomon was a secular, Danish Jew and moved to Vang with his non-Jewish wife Gunvor to run a farm. From the beginning until well after the war, they faced resistance. They were powerless against the hatred they were exposed to, many times in a cunning way. For example, that he was attacked for desecrating his farm, without the accusers taking into account the fact that he had been persecuted, imprisoned and lived in exile.

In the book, she tells, among other things, that Salomon’s bank account was robbed during the Second World War while Salomon was a refugee in Sweden, and how the bank denied her access to the bank account when she was working on the book. After many newspaper reports, Solbrekken was finally given limited access, which showed that no account had been taken of large sums that had been removed from the bank account.

Through accounts left behind and various document finds, the dramatic and painful story of Hans Salomon unfolds.

Solbrekken shows that anti-Semitism in Norway did not end with the fall of Hitler and Quisling.

“… a harrowing tale of a Jewish family’s struggle against village animals with and without a solar cross.”

(Dice roll 5) Sven Egil Omdal, Stavanger Aftenblad

“In Jøden og jorden, Solbrekken gives us vital knowledge about ourselves, our history – and some very good advice for the way forward.”

Jonas Bals, “Book of the week” in Klassekampen

Ingeborg Solbrekken (b. 1961) is a non-fiction writer. Her books about Kirsten Flagstad and extrajudicial aspects of the Norwegian court settlement have been widely discussed. She has also researched extrajudicial aspects of the settlement after the Second World War in Norway.

In 2018 Solbrekken published the book Gestapo’s most wanted Norwegians. The fear of communism and the start of the Cold War made it difficult to promote the communist-led resistance movement after the war.

But it was almost as big as Milorg and had the largest illegal newspaper network during the war.