26 November 2022 at 10:53 The last Linge soldier is dead The resistance man and politician August Petro Theodor Olsen Rathke died on Friday evening, aged 96. He was the last surviving Kompani Linge soldier. Rathke fell asleep quietly with those closest to him at Engen nursing home in Bergen on Friday evening, his son, Lars Rathke, told NTB. August Rathke was the leader of the communist youth movement in the Bergen area and editor of the NKP’s illegal newspaper Fortroppen. On 24 January 1945 he fled to Great Britain when he was wanted by the Gestapo. There he was enrolled in Kompani Linge as a 19-year-old. Last year Forsvarets Forum and Bergens Tidende wrote that Rathke was the last surviving Kompani Linge soldier. Then Erling Lorentzen and Asbjørn Fjeld had passed away at short intervals. – It’s sad. Especially because we had a very strong veterans’ organisation, Rathke told Forsvarets Forum. – After the war, I had a close relationship with many great personalities who were in Kompani Linge. One had to be the last. It became me. It is sad, he told BT. (NTB)
ttn-69
The last Linge soldier is dead – Latest news – news
