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Kjell Staal Eggen (October 30, 1919 - March 22, 1999 in Skien, Norway) was a Norwegian resistance fighter during World War II, primarily operating in and around the lower regions of Telemark county.

Early life

Kjell Staal Eggen’s parents were Doctor Olaf Staal Eggen, M.D. and Anna Eggen. Kjell grew up with 3 brothers at Falkum in Skien. Kjell's youngest brother and best friend, Ulf, died from rheumatic fever on July 4, 1933 at the age of 12. Kjell took his Artium in Skien and embarked on technical education in the neighboring city of Porsgrunn, Telemark prior to the onset of World War II.

World War II

On April 9, 1940 Germany attacked Norway and Denmark (Operation Weserübung). The young Kjell showed up at the local police station to volunteer for service. When he requested weapons and ammunition, the police officer on duty told Kjell to go home and stay out of trouble. Kjell then turned to illegal underground resistance to fight against the occupant.

Adolf Hitler had named Josef Terboven as Reichskommissar (commissioner) for the German military occupation of Norway. Terboven led a brutal and tyrannical regime that was much hated and despised in Norway. Within weeks of Germany's initial attack on Norway, Terboven's organization requested the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation's list of Jewish residents of Norway, which they promptly received. All Jews residing in Norway were then ordered to turn in their radio apparatuses. Listening to the radio became a severe crime punishable by death for Norwegian Jews, and later for the population in general. Members of the Nazi party Nasjonal Samling, led by the Norwegian traitor Vidkun Quisling were excepted from this requirement.

During the summer of 1942, Nazi authorities began rounding up and arresting Jews using an all too willing Norwegian police force to do their dirty work. Out of roughly 1,800 Jews living in Norway at that time, nearly 800 were arrested over a period of 4-5 months and eventually shipped off to concentration camps on the European continent. Of the unfortunate 800, only about 25 escaped extermination and returned to Norway after the war.

There were only 6 Jews in Skien in 1942; all members of the Becker family. The father, David Becker, and his brother, Louis, were arrested on June 2, 1942, kept in Sem Labor Camp outside the city of Tønsberg in the county of Vestfold, before being shipped to concentration camps on the European continent with fellow Jews at the end of November 1942. David and Louis Becker managed to survive for only a few months before their lives were tragically ended.

Kjell Staal Eggen and his friend Kjell Batzer from Porsgrunn managed to keep the rest of the Becker family hidden from the Nazis for several months. The wife Signe Becker and here 3 young children were eventually transported in secret to neutral Sweden, where they remained safe until the end of the war.

During the war, Kjell Staal Eggen became one of Telemark's most aggressive and unrelenting resistance fighters. He was involved with weapons training for local resistance fighters, and high risk sabotage operations (notably the successful theft of Gestapo's archives in Skien/Porsgrunn and the blowing up of the Svartufs railroad bridge). He was also the editor of one of Norway's largest, underground printing presses for war related news.

Post-war life

Shortly after Germany's capitulation on May 8, 1945, Kjell moved to Karlskoga in Sweden. He later spent 3 years in the United States and Canada with his uncle Theodor Eggen(1950 - 1953).

Kjell returned to Norway and married Torun Wien in 1959. They raised 3 sons in the township of Heistad 4 miles south of Porsgrunn at the Eidangerfjord. In 1970, Kjell was critically injured from being hit by a speeding car while walking across a street. Due to the severity of his injuries, he had to retire from regular work. Norway granted him war pension shortly thereafter.

Kjell joined the Telemark Krigsinvalideforbund (War Veteran's Association of Telemark), and was eventually elected this organization's leader, a position he held for several years. During his tenure, he helped former resistance fighters obtain war pensions from the Norwegian state. However, growing increasingly frustrated that members often appeared less concerned with helping legitimate war heroes obtain support from the state and more interested in using the association as a social platform for personal benefits, Kjell Staal Eggen eventually resigned from his leadership position during the early 1980s, and withdrew his membership for good.

During the late 1970s and the first half of the 1980s, Kjell wrote about 30 articles that he sold to local and national newspapers in Norway. The contents of the articles were primarily based on his own experiences as a resistance fighter. Proceeds were spent helping old war comrades in need. Articles concerning Norway's treatment of its Jews during the war were critical and in stark contrast to the officially accepted version of Norwegian war history. The articles were received very well amongst the readership, but certain people who desired to glorify Norway's treatment of its Jews during the war were less than pleased. The newspapers received numerous anonymous requests not to accept any more articles from Kjell Staal Eggen regarding the war. This type of censorship did not work, and Kjell continued with his articles.

During the latter years of the 1980s and the early 1990s, Kjell compiled his experiences in an attempt to publish them in a book format. Norway's largest publisher rejected his submittal, asserting that the readers may not yet be ready for such a controversial version of the historical events of the war.

Kjell Staal Eggen suffered a massive stroke in April of 1997 that left him paralyzed and unable to speak. Another stroke nearly 2 years later led to his death on March 22, 1999.

Kjell's oldest son found a manuscript hidden in an old shoebox in December of 2007. By October of 2008, the book "Skammen" (the Shame) was published by Norgesforlaget with foreword by the Norwegian author and political correspondent Jahn Otto Johansen, and while the afterword was written by Sigurd Becker, one of the Norwegian Jews saved by Kjell Staal Eggen and his friends during the war. The book's official launch took place at the Holocaust Center in Oslo, and describes how Norwegian Jews were betrayed by Norwegian authorities during World War II.

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