Silent Refuge

In Oslo, Norway, eleven-year-old Margrit Rosenberg and her parents have been living in safety since fleeing from Nazi Germany in 1938. When Germany invades and occupies Norway in April 1940, the Rosenbergs escape the city and shelter in the small, remote village of Rogne. But anti-Jewish perse­cution intensifies throughout the country, and the Rosenbergs must find an even more secluded refuge – a small, rudimentary cabin in the mountains. At first, in a landscape frozen in time, the isolation offers relative security and tranquility. But in 1942, as the Nazis begin to arrest and deport the Jews of Oslo, the Rosenbergs are forced to make a fateful decision to trust the Resistance and plan a dangerous escape from Nazi-occupied Norway to neutral Sweden.

Introduction by Robert Ericksen

At a Glance
Germany; Norway; Sweden
Escape
Hiding
Postwar Norway
Arrived in Canada in 1951
Educational materials available: Margrit Stenge Activity

272 pages, including index

Recommended Ages
11+
Language
English

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Photo of Margrit Rosenberg Stenge

About the author

Margrit Rosenberg Stenge was born in Cologne, Germany, on December 27, 1928. After the war, Margrit moved back to Oslo with her family and got married. She and her husband, Stefan, immigrated to Canada, settling in Montreal, in 1951. Margrit worked in administration for forty years, after which she translated six books from Norwegian to English, including Counterfeiter: How a Norwegian Jew Survived the Holocaust by Moritz Nachtstern (2008). Margrit Rosenberg Stenge passed away in 2021.

Explore this story in Re:Collection

News travels fast in the countryside, and when I started school many of the villagers knew that we were Jewish, although they really did not know what that meant.