Wilfred Jensenius (1911-1999)
Wilfred Kristian Jensenius was born on 10 January 1911 in Oslo, Norway. He was an illustrator, caricaturist and theatre director, and was married to the artist Gerd Jensenius, née Rogne. Their daughter Elisabeth was born in 1939. When the German Wehrmacht occupied Norway in April 1940, Wilfred Jensenius and his family fled to neutral Sweden. In exile, he drew political cartoons for a newspaper.
In Sweden, he joined an organisation known as the Kvarstad Group, which included Norwegian resistance fighters. In April 1942, the Kvarstad Group attempted to break the German naval blockade of Sweden with ten Norwegian merchant ships and reach the United Kingdom. Only two of the ships made it to Britain. Six of the ships were sunk by their crews to prevent them falling into German hands. Two ships turned back and returned to Gothenburg, Sweden. Most of the crews were taken prisoner by the Germans.
Wilfred Jensenius was deported to the German Reich under the Night and Fog Decree, along with 7,000 other Western Europeans who were allegedly or actually involved in resistance to the German occupation during the war. On arrival, deportees usually faced sentencing or internment without their families being informed. Wilfried Jesenius was sentenced to six years’ imprisonment by the Kiel special court for “aiding and abetting the enemy” and for the production of critical drawings.
From Sonnenburg prison, he was sent to Wolfenbüttel prison in July 1944. He was imprisoned in Detention House I with two other Norwegian prisoners in a small 8 square metre cell. Wilfred Jensenius was assigned to the factory of Voigtländer & Sohn, a Brunswick-based optical appliances company, which had been producing telescopic rifle scopes and binoculars for the Wehrmacht in Wolfenbüttel prison since 1943, using almost exclusively Night and Fog prisoners. The disused church and the cellar of the prison building were converted to workplaces. After their liberation, Wilfred Jensenius reported that they worked 11-hour days and were forced to do extra work such as cleaning vegetables for a canning factory.
On 8 April 1945, three days before the liberation of Wolfenbüttel prison by American troops, Wilfred Jensenius was put on a transport with all the other Night and Fog prisoners held there. After a first stop in Magdeburg, the transport continued to Brandenburg-Görden prison, where the Red Army liberated the prisoners on 27 April 1945. From there, Wilfred Jensenius first went to the United Kingdom, where he spent some time in a convalescent home before returning to his family in Norway. He recorded his memories of his time in captivity in numerous drawings.
Back in Norway, he resumed his work as a graphic artist and theatre director. He founded a cartoon film studio and worked for the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK). His son Jorgen was born in 1946.
Wilfred Jensenius died in Oslo on 23 March 1999 at the age of 88.
