Erling Welle-Strand
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Erling Welle-Strand (25 October 1916 – 24 May 2013)[1] was a Norwegian writer and resistance member. He was born in Bergen. His father was as novelist and journalist who was known to be anti-semitic. However, Welle-Strand, belonged to a radical wing of the Norwegian Labour Party before World War II. When Norway was invaded by the Germans in 1940, Welle-Strand left school and fought for his country until it was occupied, then fled for Shetland in 1941, where he worked as a journalist for the Norwegian government-in-exile for eight months before attending military college. After graduating from military college and some officer cadet training, Welle-Strand served in the Norwegian resistance. For his service, he was decorated with the Defence Medal 1940–1945, the War Medal and the Haakon VII 70th Anniversary Medal. After the war, he resumed his studies and graduated with a degree in history, and began working in travel industry as a freelance writer. Welle-Strand wrote several books about tourism and, for fifteen years, edited the road map issued by the Norwegian Automobile Federation. In his later career, he also wrote books about the Second World War.
He was born in Bergen as a son of novelist and journalist Edvard Welle-Strand (1884–1964) and teacher Elsa Kielland, née Lindhé (1888–1979).[2] Erling's father was a sub-editor in a local newspaper, Bergens Aftenblad, and was also known to some as an anti-Semitic writer.[3]: 44–6 Himself, Erling Welle-Strand belonged to the "radical wing of the Labour Party" before World War II.[4]: 36 He grew up in Bergen and finished his secondary education at Bergen Cathedral School in 1935. He worked briefly as a press secretary for the theatre Den Nationale Scene before studying at the University of Oslo.[2]
