They have no choice, the policemen who are lined up with their guns pointed out into the night. The rest of the city sleeps, unaware that lives will be lost approximately every five minutes. The mission is gruesome, but necessary. The people, the judiciary and the police all agree on that. At least they agreed on that. Now, two years after World War II, opposition to the reinstatement of the death penalty has begun to grow. The officers at the police chamber in Trondheim are among those who oppose it. They would have liked to have let go of this mission. Illustration: Nikolai Lockertsen Five meters in front of the ten selected policemen stands a blindfolded man. In a car just beyond, seven others are sitting in a queue. The reward waiting at the end of the queue is ten bullets in the chest. The police are facing a mass execution, the only one that has taken place in Norway’s recent history. There is likely to be a bloodbath at Kristiansten fortress in Trondheim. The hard justice Presis at 09:30 on 30 April 1946, the court is declared to be seated. It’s quite a turnout. Outside the courtroom, spectators from Trondheim stand to see the hated gang up close. Journalists and photographers from both home and abroad are also present, the trial must be followed closely. Finally, the Rinnanbande’s cruel actions must be uncovered and punished. The violent gang made a name for themselves as good helpers for the Nazis. They became experts at infiltrating the resistance movement by posing as resistance fighters. Members of the Rinnan gang on the prosecution bench in the Frostating Court of Appeal. Photo: NTB scanpix In reality they worked under the swastika banner, and were no less ruthless than their German masters. Gross torture. Dismemberment of corpses. Murder of civilians and innocents. Indication. Betrayal. The list of accusations is as long as it is sinister. But the list of vengeful Norwegians is longer. “Everyone” wants to see the “rats” and traitors in the Rinnan gang receive the most severe punishment: The death sentence. Photo: Archive / NTB Despite the gross accusations and the hateful atmosphere, the gang members do not seem particularly affected by the atrocities they are confronted with. The main character himself, Henry Oliver Rinnan, sits in the back of the courtroom with his usual crooked smile and nods to his gang. In the first pool, there are 30 gang members who will be tried before the court. If the court links any of the members to murder or torture, the death sentence is virtually guaranteed. Rinnan, for his part, knows that he is basically staring the man with the scythe in the white of his eye. His hope is that he will be seen as an invaluable piece in the fight against communism, and thus be spared an unpleasant encounter with the executioner. Nevertheless, when the verdict is read out, few are surprised by the outcome. On 20 September 1946, Judge Gunnar Brun Nissen declares: “Henry Oliver Rinnan is sentenced to … death”. Photo: news He brings ten of his band members with him: Bjarne Jenshus, Aksel Julius Mære, Harry Rønning, Olaus Salberg-Hamrum, Per Sigurd Wiik, Per Fredrik Bergeen, Harry Hofstad, Kristian Randahl, Harald Grøtte, and Sigurd Rivrud. The people and the press cheer. The death sentence was the only thing Rinnan and his cruel gang deserved. An incipient reluctance But death waits, the traitors do not give up. All are appealing the verdict to the Supreme Court. Rinnan is the first to have his fate sealed, when his death sentence is unanimously upheld on Christmas Eve in 1946. On 1 February of the following year, he is tied up at Kristiansten Fortress and blindfolded. Illustration: Nikolai Lockertsen On the way from the cell to the place of execution, Rinnan had to be overpowered and calmed down. He won’t die. But a few minutes later he is hanging lifeless from the ropes after ten bullets have passed through his chest. He also receives a mercy shot in the temple from resistance hero Odd Sørli. The rest of the gang members sentenced to death face a similar departure if their appeals are rejected. At the same time, the police in Trondheim find out that they don’t want any more. The police chamber in Trondheim after liberation in 1945. The staff was significantly smaller in 1947, when they were given the task of executing the members of the Rinnan gang. Photo: PRIVAT They have already had to execute two Norwegians: Rinnan and a gang member named Hans Egeberg. Although they have shot hated men, the strain is great on the policemen in the firing squad. Having to execute ten more is a potential trauma none of them want to deal with. Illustration: Nikolai Lockertsen A desperate application The board of the Trondheim Police Association thus sends a clear message to the Norwegian Police Association on 16 April 1947: “Trondheim Police Association is of the opinion that the execution of death sentences is unworthy of the state and not in accordance with the task of the police in society”. They specify that it is urgent, and that they want to see the matter taken up with the Minister of Justice. Illustration: Nikolai Lockertsen The heartfelt desire to not have to execute more Norwegians is crystal clear, and so are the arguments: “It will not be possible to keep hidden, neither from the public nor the other police officers, who participates in the firing squad. One thinks it will be difficult to get people for this service here, as the atmosphere is now. The death sentences are many and the strain is great on the constables who can be considered as members of the execution squad.” But getting the task delegated to someone else is easier said than done. From before, it has been decided that the court settlement will be carried out by the same agency throughout the process. When the investigation is carried out by the police, they are also the ones who have to carry out the sentence. Nevertheless, on 21 April, the Police Chamber in Trondheim receives positive feedback: Photo: Swedish National Archives “The issue was dealt with in the working committee’s meeting today. The matter has been decided to be taken up in the Ministry of Justice. The team will be notified as soon as the results of the discussions are available.” Their concern seems to be taken seriously. That the case should be taken all the way to the Ministry of Justice was exactly what the police were hoping for. And they have a bad time, because two weeks later the rope is tightened further: on 13 May 1947, the appeals from eight of those sentenced to death in the Rinnan gang are rejected in the Supreme Court. Only two people, Per Sigurd Wiik and Sigurd Rivrud, have their death sentences commuted to life imprisonment. The rest are rapidly approaching the police’s hesitant guns. Uncertainty and doubt Valuable time passes, and the police do not hear back from either the Ministry of Justice or the Police Association. They make one last attempt, and on 24 May send a reminder to officer Nils Toppe in the association: Photo: Arkivverket “As you know, it was [s]ended up making a recommendation to the Norwegian Police Association to take up the matter with the Department. One has not heard any result yet. But in the coming week, someone here at the corps may be faced with the execution of 8 – eight people – who are to be executed”. They specify that Toppe knows the atmosphere at the corps, and knows what must be done to spare them the mission. The members of the Rinnanbanden have also played their last card. They have applied for a pardon from the King, even though they know that their cruel actions are not something that can be easily forgiven. King Haakon VII had the power to pardon people sentenced to death in the years after the war. Photo: NTB / NTB Even from the top, it is a race against time to get the case out of the world. Opposition to the death penalty has grown in strength since the trial began last year, the fierce desire for revenge after the war has subsided. In the Storting, more and more people are voting to abolish the penal method. Politician Gabriel Moseid, in one of the parliamentary debates, says that the death penalty is “a disgrace to our judicial culture and a cancerous wound on our society”. Nevertheless, on 11 July 1947 it is confirmed: The king does not pardon the eight condemned to death. All are to be executed. The gang members now just go and wait for death. The police in Trondheim do the same, they realize that the battle is lost. They are not going to escape this evil mission. Bloody night A few hours later, the policemen are reluctantly lined up at Kristiansten fortress. Illustration: Nikolai Lockertsen The first of those sentenced to death in the Rinnan gang stands tied up five meters in front of them. Just around the corner, the other band members sit and wait. It is 01:45, and doctor Carl Viggo Lange steps forward and attaches a piece of paper, a blinker, to the first man’s heart. Then he pulls back, and the ten policemen aim their guns at the flash. There is a loud bang as the bullets leave the gun barrels and tear the piece of paper on the band member, before the chest behind suffers the same fate. After a mercy shot to the head, the lifeless body is removed and placed in a prepared coffin. Illustration: Nikolai Lockertsen Blood and body fragments are quickly washed away before the next man is sent forward. The hideous mission is in earnest, and soon things go from bad to worse. One of the awaiting death row is so terrified and out of his mind that he has to be sedated with morphine. The drugged man is then carried on a stretcher to the place of execution. The police will shoot an unconscious person. The traitor never wakes up again before the bullets kill him. And there are still many more to be executed. Illustration: Nikolai Lockertsen / news The firing squad is far from finished with the night’s bloody work. In total, it only takes three quarters of an hour from the first to the last member of the doomed Rinnan gang to be shot. In the press afterwards, there is only a small notice that the job has been done. Photo: Tidens Krav The people don’t get to know more, the grim mission is kept a secret from the outside world. The details that remain hidden To this day, there is still much that is unknown about the night of 12 July 1947 at Kristiansten Fortress. Who was in the firing squad? Were any of them replaced along the way, or did the same ten have to shoot them all? In what order were the gang members shot? Was a stake or a shed used as a place of execution? Why did they have such a bad time? The secrecy surrounding the mission makes it difficult to know exactly what happened that night. The police officers present vowed never to speak of the mass execution again. – The reason for the secrecy was probably partly to protect those who helped carry out the executions, and partly to avoid the spread of details that could give the convicted martyr status. Historian Lars-Erik Vaale has written extensively about the court settlement after the war, with a focus on, among other things, Henry Oliver Rinnan and his gang. Photo: PRIVAT He believes it was urgent to have both Rinnan and his gang shot because the death penalty was becoming increasingly unpopular. – And the Rinnan case was a symbolic case, so it was very important to get it done in time. At the same time, there was probably a sense of shame attached to the scale of these executions. The death penalty was, after all, a form of punishment that was out of step with a modern rule of law. Despite the feeling of shame, the police still had to carry out the mass execution. How prudent was it to charge a small police cell with such a mission? Rinnan expert and historian Aage Georg Sivertsen believes it is an important question to ask, but at the same time asks what the alternatives should be. Photo: Sturlason AS Polyfoto – It is clear that it was very stressful for the police to have to execute everyone in one night, but what were they supposed to do? Would it have been better if, for example, they had shot one and one about every other week? I might not think so. Sivertsen specifies that the members of the Rinnan gang who were shot, seen from the eyes of the time, deserved the punishment they received. He still doubts that it made the situation any easier for the police. – There are probably many police officers who opposed the assignment, even though those who were to be shot were the worst. If I were a policeman I wouldn’t have joined either, then they could have put me in jail for refusing. Fortunately for the policemen in Trondheim, they do not have to oppose many more such missions. They have to execute one more Norwegian, Hermann Dragass in 1948, before the death penalty is abolished for good in 1950. For the officers in the Trondheim police chamber, the abolition should probably have come a few years earlier. Because in the end they never had a choice, the policemen who had to take eight lives in three quarters of an hour on the night of 12 July 1947.
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Eight members of the Rinnan gang become part of Norway’s last death row after the war, in one bloody night – news Vestland
