Elise Barring Berggren

In Search of Lost Homes: Post-Holocaust Restitution in Norway 1945–1950s

In my PhD thesis, I research the post-Holocaust restitution of homes and businesses in Norway, focusing on the greater human significance of property and return. Through this lens, I examine the larger topics of Jewish Norwegians’ rebuilding of their post-Holocaust lives and the post-war Norwegian government’s response to the genocide.

I exploit the unique methodological opportunities of the Norwegian case, posing it as an especially opportune case for Holocaust research. Because of the small size of the Norwegian-Jewish minority, I have been able to examine the life stories and applications for restitution of every single one of the little over 2 000 Norwegian Jews. Working within digital humanities, I have created a database with information on every person and the restitution of their property, containing 300 000 cells of data. Using this unique tool, I combine qualitative close readings with quantitative analyses. In all, my approach allows for shedding light on topics otherwise lost to time and people who otherwise have not left significant source material.

My research reveals a system of restitution that was severely unfavorable to Norwegian Holocaust survivors. The restitution laws failed to take their needs as victims of a genocide into account when designing the laws and prioritized victims of traditional war damages and resistance fighters. This outcome was sealed when the restitution institutions almost consistently used their room for maneuver to make cuts in Jewish applicants’ restitution.

Furthermore, I argue that for survivors, restitution was not about money – it was about reinstating their means of existence, returning home, rebuilding family businesses and communities, property’s connection to loved ones and memories, re-establishing daily lives, and the quest for justice. While restitution was a way to pursue these aims, it was also a process that burdened those very same things – taking up resources, hindering rebuilding, barring fulfilment of justice and recognition, and evoking painful memories. In the face of their post-Holocaust difficulties, the survivors exhibited great persistence in their immense effort to rebuild their lives.

Articles and books

• “Grini Prison Camp and the Holocaust in Norway: Grini’s Role in the Persecution of Norwegian Jews 1941–1945,” Historisk tidsskrift 102,1 (2023): 27–43, https://doi.org/10.18261/ht.102.1.3.
• (with Bjarte Bruland, and Mats Tangestuen) Rapport frå ein gjennomgang av ‘Hva visste hjemmefronten?’. Oslo: Dreyer, 2020.

Other

• “På bar bakke – Da staten ranet jødene (2:3),” [Podcast] NRK radio, August 23, 2023, https://radio.nrk.no/podkast/radiodokumentaren/sesong/da-staten-ranet-joedene.
• “Nazistene tok alt: Kleskjeden hans er bygd opp fra ingenting,” [Interview] NRK, September 13, 2023, https://www.nrk.no/trondelag/nazistene-tok-alt-fra-robert-klein-jodiske-familiebedrift-i-holocaust-1.16532401.
• “Dagens: 80 år siden deportasjonen,” [Interview] NRK radio, November 25, 2022, https://radio.nrk.no/serie/dagens/sesong/202211/DMVD03023522.
• “På sporet av tapte heimar,” [Newspaper Article] Dag og tid, February 25, 2022, https://www.dagogtid.no/samfunn/pa-sporet-av-tapte-heimar-6.3.24967.095a88b030.
• Interviews in the Norwegian newspapers and journals Vårt Land, Apollon and Dag og tid on the findings of my MA thesis Exclusion by Ignorance: Lawmakers’ Lack of Attention to Norwegian-Jewish Needs in Restitution Legislation 1945–1947, 2022.
• Interviews and articles in Norwegian newspapers, journals, radio, and TV, including Aftenposten, NRK, TV2, Vårt Land, Klassekampen, Dagsavisen, and Dag og tid, on the historical debate following the publication of Rapport fra ein gjennomgang av ‘Hva visste hjemmefronten?’, 2020-2021.
• “Antisemittisme på trykk,” [Newspaper Book Review] Westlie, Bjørn. Det norske jødehatet: propaganda og presse under okkupasjonen. Oslo: Res Publica, 2019. Dag og tid, November 29, 2019, https://www.dagogtid.no/meldingar/bok/antisemittisme-pa-trykk-6.3.13452.31e4fc535f.

• “Post-Holocaust Restitution of Businesses: The Unique Opportunities of the Norwegian Case,” Doing Business in the Public Interest, Annual Meeting of the Business History Conference (BHC), Providence, RI, March 14-16, 2024.
• Participation and paper presentation at the Holmgang Workshop, Harvard, MA, 2023.
• “På sporet av tapte hjem: Restitusjonen av norsk-jødisk eiendom 1945–1955,” panel I kjølvannet av Holocaust: Pressedekning, antisemittisme og restitusjon at the Norske historiedagar [Norwegian History Days], Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, Sogndal, September 8-10, 2023.
• “På sporet av tapte hjem: Etter Holocaust,” invited lecture at Dypdykk i 2. Verdenskrig, organised by the House of Literature in Oslo, the Norwegian Center for Holocaust and Minority Studies, and the University of Tromsø, Oslo, October 26, 2023.
• “A Mosaic of Individual Stories: The Post-Holocaust Restitution of Norwegian-Jewish Property 1945–1955,” presentation at the conference Jewish Cultural Heritage: Practices, Perspectives, Challenges, Polin Museum of the History of Polish Jews, Warsaw, October 19-20, 2023.
• “Den norsk-jødiske minoriteten: Før og etter Holocaust,” presentation at the Summer School of Scandinavian and Central European History, Univerzita Karlova, Prague, June 29, 2023.
• “Holocaust i Norge: Et totalt angrep på en liten minoritet,” presentation at the Summer School of Scandinavian and Central European History, Univerzita Karlova, Prague, June 28, 2023.
• “På sporet av tapte hjem: Restitusjonen av norsk-jødisk eiendom 1945–1950-tallet,” invited lecture at the Krigshistorisk forum, University of Tromsø, March 30, 2023.
• “Grini fangeleir: Et norsk åsted for Holocaust,” presentation at the Summer School of Scandinavian and Central European History, Univerzita Karlova, Prague, June 24, 2022.
• “Grini: Fangeleirens rolle i Holocaust,” invited lecture at the Oslo Jewish Museum, Oslo, June 1, 2022.
• “I kjølvannet av Holocaust: Restitusjonen,” invited lecture at the Oslo Jewish Museum, Oslo, February 24, 2022.
• “Skadene ved passivitet: Lovgivernes manglende hensyn til jødiske behov i restitusjonsoppgjøret 1945–1947,” invited lecture at HL-Senteret [The Norwegian Center for Holocaust and Minority Studies], Oslo, June 16, 2021.