Man who foiled Nazi nuclear plan dies aged 99

[sandensea]

Source: Reuters

The leader of a daring World War Two raid to thwart Nazi Germany’s nuclear ambitions has died aged 99, Norwegian government officials said on Sunday.

Joachim Roenneberg, serving behind enemy lines in his native Norway during the German occupation, in 1943 blew up a plant producing heavy water, or D2O, a hydrogen-rich substance that was key to the later development of atomic bombs.

Picked by Britain’s war-time Special Operations Executive to lead the raid when he was only 23 years old, Roenneberg was the youngest member of Operation Gunnerside, which penetrated and destroyed key parts of the heavily guarded Norsk Hydro plant.

The subject of books and documentaries as well as movies and a TV drama series, the attack took place without a single shot fired.

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-norway-roenneberg/man-who-foiled-nazi-nuclear-plan-dies-aged-99-idUSKCN1MV0R1

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Joachim Rønneberg, 1919-2018.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. Watch the excellent miniseries "The Heavy Water War,"

available on (I think) Amazon Prime and/or Netflix - it's all about how the Nazis were trying to develop a bomb and how the heavy water plant was destroyed to prevent it.

[sandensea]

5. Will do.

Thank you!

[nycbos]

2. There is a BBC program on Netflix called...

Last edited Sun Oct 21, 2018, 07:44 PM - Edit history (1)

... "Churchill's Secret Agents The new recruits."


They put modern people from different walks of life through SOE training. This operation was referenced.

[sandensea]

6. Thanks for the heads up!

Will check it out.

[Algernon Moncrieff]

3. Old School Antifa

Rest in Peace, good sir!

[sandensea]

14. +1

I'm sure he had some choice words for Cheeto.

[paleotn]

4. A real hero.

A defender of freedom.

[ck4829]

7. But... but... but the Nazis had a permit!

[sandensea]

8. And were very fine people besides.

[underpants]

9. 23 years old. The story of the mission are amazing

Sounds like a Bond movie opening.

Thank you Sir.

[LakeSuperiorView]

10. I love the movie Heros of Telemark.

Except that everywhere in Norway is apparently downhill by cross country skis. I'm so jealous, because here in the US, every hill you ski down, you have to ski back up...

[iluvtennis]

11. Thank you Joachim Roenneberg for what you did to thwart the evil Nazi's. Rest In Peace.

[TomVilmer]

12. Teachers was the real heroes of Norway

The Norwegian teachers, through nonviolent resistance, defended their youth from being subjected to fascist curriculum and protected Norway from sliding into a fascist state:

... In April 1940, the Nazis invaded Norway and occupied the country. In 1942, as part of an attempt to implement a fascist curriculum in the schools, Minister-President Vidkun Quisling, a Norwegian collaborator, disbanded the existing teachers’ union and required all teachers to register with the new Norwegian Teachers’ Union.

Between 8,000-10,000 of Norway’s 12,000 teachers responded by signing a letter of refusal to cooperate. The Quisling government panicked and closed the schools, sending the children home to their parents. 200,000 of these annoyed parents wrote letters of protest to the government. Norwegian teachers began to hold classes in secret, in defiance of orders.

The government ordered the arrest of a thousand teachers, five hundred of whom were sent to a prison camp in the Arctic. As the trainloads of teachers were shipped north, students and families gathered along the tracks, singing and offering food to the teachers as they passed. Once in prison, the teachers formed choirs and offered lectures to one another.

In November the Quisling government released all the teachers and abandoned their earlier plans!

The Norwegian Teachers’ Defense of Education offers pearls of strategic wisdom for us as we see a rise of bigotry and hatred in the United States. Resist and organize amongst your professional colleagues. It was not an individual’s action that produced such a successful campaign, but rather collective action through an entire profession, supported by students and parents.

Like the Norwegian teachers, each of us – in our profession and personal lives – forms a line of defense in the heart of our culture. Here we can wage a nonviolent struggle for compassion, respect and dignity. ...

http://www.riverasun.com/got-fascism-the-1942-norwegian-teachers-nonviolent-resistance-to-nazis-has-answers/
https://nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu/content/norwegian-teachers-prevent-nazi-takeover-education-1942

[Blue_Tires]

13. What, you mean there was a time when Nazis were actually fought and not coddled?