Hi,
Her english wiki is really poor, and she has no german wiki.
Sonja Wigert was a famous norwegian actress, young and beautiful. Her brother was also actor. He joined the english forces and the famous norwegian "Linge company".
She married a swedish journalist acquiring the swedish nationality also in 1940.
In july 42 she joiend the swedish inteliigence service who recruited her. In august she had dinner with Terboven, n1 nazi in Norway. She managed him to free her father in september. She revealed the identity of 2 gestapo headmen in Sweden : Finke and von Gossler who were expelled from Sweden.
She then became a double-agent : she made Terboven believe that she was working for him in Sweden. Only von Gossler suspected her, and threatened to send her father back in jail. After that, she managed to send her family safe in Sweden.d to wait
When the war ended, her brother was celebrated as a hero, but she was despised and was never allowed to come back in Norway again !
As early as 1945 she claimed to have been a swedish spy, but nothing changed.
It took 25 years after her death (in 1980) for the swedish services to reveal officially the truth : she was in deed a swedish spy.
My question is : WHY waiting 25 years ??? Such a shame !
Sonja Wigert, famous norwegian actress, swedish spy in Norway
-
DavidFrankenberg
- Member
- Posts: 1235
- Joined: 11 May 2016, 02:09
- Location: Earth
Re: Sonja Wigert, famous norwegian actress, swedish spy in Norway
many people played the double team game, maybe some still had stuff that needed kept hidden, and not recognizing her, was a way
-
DavidFrankenberg
- Member
- Posts: 1235
- Joined: 11 May 2016, 02:09
- Location: Earth
Re: Sonja Wigert, famous norwegian actress, swedish spy in Norway
People needs scapegoat within a period of crisis. Sometimes you are a jew, sometimes you are a resistant, sometimes you are a collaborator...
Even if it just seems that you were a collaborator, so you have to pay for that...
The post-war gvt should have been more coward than courageous by letting Snoja being defamed that way.
Even if we can understand the post-war context, it still be very hard !
Even if it just seems that you were a collaborator, so you have to pay for that...
The post-war gvt should have been more coward than courageous by letting Snoja being defamed that way.
Even if we can understand the post-war context, it still be very hard !
Re: Sonja Wigert, famous norwegian actress, swedish spy in Norway
Your wrong in some of Your statements
She was i Norway after the war, also working. She never MOVED back to Norway, not denied.
From wikipedia, using translator
regards
stril
https://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonja_Wigert
Resistance during the war
Sonja Wigert in the Swedish film Fallet Ingegerd Bremssen from 1942 , starring as a rape victim . [6]
Wigert acknowledged in 1945 that from 1941 she had cooperated with the Norwegian resistance movement and from 1942 she was a Swedish spy with the cover name "Bill". The Swedish intelligence service gave her little practical training in espionage, but equipped the actress with script. Her goal was to get her father released from Grini , as well as secure a departure permit for her brother Knut Wigert who served in Kompani Linge . [7] On several occasions, she was sent back to Norway as a double agent to try to gain entry among leading German officers in August of the same year, among other Deputy Commissioner Josef Terboven. Wigert mastered Swedish almost as well as Norwegian, as well as English, German, Italian and French and used to deal with several diplomats in Stockholm. [8] From information she revealed, the Swedes could reveal Gestapo's top manager in Sweden and a central agent, August Finke and baron von Gossler, respectively. Sonja Wigert recruited Alfhild Hovdan at the Norwegian Legation in Stockholm in 1943 . Hovdan was to obtain military information from Norway. [9] Throughout the war, Wigert was a particular opponent of NS.
Her parents and younger brother came to Sweden at the end of June 1943. After Wigert took part in a political meeting led by Martin Tranmæl in September 1943 , the Germans suspected that she could not be trusted and launched black campaigns which Wigert failed to purge from after the war. Some of the rumors were that Wigert would become the leading actress at the planned German theater in Oslo, or that she should travel to Germany to pursue a career. On November 18, 1944, the Swedish newspaper revealed Expressen Sonja Wigert as a spy. This happened shortly after the Swedish intelligence service revealed and expelled a top manager in Gestapo thanks to information Wigert had provided. [10]She died in 1980 and the extent of the spying was not elaborated until 25 years later, when the Swedish security police Säpo's archives were released.
In 1942 , she also began working for the United States through a liaison at the American Legation in Stockholm, serving from the 1944 Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the later CIA .
During the war years, Wigert had a relationship with Anders Jahre , the Hungarian diplomat Andor Gellert and Bernt Balchen .
After the War
Sonja Wigert never moved back to Norway, and married on June 11, 1945 in Stockholm with the Danish aviator Niels Viggo Halfdan de Meza von Holstein-Rathlou (1910-1949). During the war he had spent some time in Stockholm and worked as head of a Danish aviation department. The couple settled in Copenhagen, but they had a few happy years together and he died in a plane crash as early as 1949. Wigert traveled to Oslo because she had an annual contract with the Central Theater, and then had a brief affair with her former lover lawyer Helge Schjærve , before she again traveled to Stockholm.
As the roles awaited and her finances deteriorated, she and actress-friend Ulla Zetterberg took over a gas station in downtown Stockholm in 1954. They had it decorated to their liking, and had constant visits from celeb friends. During these four months, they served the customers themselves and filled gasoline.
Wigert received the Charlie Award for his achievement in Counting the Happy Moments just in 1944 . Throughout her career, she was at the theater. she was associated with the National Theater for several years. She also played in several pieces in Norway, as well as in Denmark and Finland. For a time she also played revue at the Blanche theater where she, among other things. sang, danced and parodied. She received very good criticism as Blanche DuBois in A Tram to Lust at Trøndelag Theater in 1949. In 1959 she was a guest actor at Chat Noir .. After a stay in the USA where she had seen the play Night of the iguanaShe traveled to Sweden in 1961 and played in the Swedish production of the play at the Wasateatern. She continued to take various theater jobs for the next decade. In the winter of 1968/1969 she stayed in Oslo to record an episode of NRK's Artist Portrait . Also next winter she lived in Oslo, but then chose to retire and move to Spain.
She spent her last years living in Spain, and this is where she is also buried. All her life she did photography, drawing and dancing, and at an adult age she started yoga. She loved animals and even had a dog for many years. She had no children of her own.
She was i Norway after the war, also working. She never MOVED back to Norway, not denied.
From wikipedia, using translator
regards
stril
https://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonja_Wigert
Resistance during the war
Sonja Wigert in the Swedish film Fallet Ingegerd Bremssen from 1942 , starring as a rape victim . [6]
Wigert acknowledged in 1945 that from 1941 she had cooperated with the Norwegian resistance movement and from 1942 she was a Swedish spy with the cover name "Bill". The Swedish intelligence service gave her little practical training in espionage, but equipped the actress with script. Her goal was to get her father released from Grini , as well as secure a departure permit for her brother Knut Wigert who served in Kompani Linge . [7] On several occasions, she was sent back to Norway as a double agent to try to gain entry among leading German officers in August of the same year, among other Deputy Commissioner Josef Terboven. Wigert mastered Swedish almost as well as Norwegian, as well as English, German, Italian and French and used to deal with several diplomats in Stockholm. [8] From information she revealed, the Swedes could reveal Gestapo's top manager in Sweden and a central agent, August Finke and baron von Gossler, respectively. Sonja Wigert recruited Alfhild Hovdan at the Norwegian Legation in Stockholm in 1943 . Hovdan was to obtain military information from Norway. [9] Throughout the war, Wigert was a particular opponent of NS.
Her parents and younger brother came to Sweden at the end of June 1943. After Wigert took part in a political meeting led by Martin Tranmæl in September 1943 , the Germans suspected that she could not be trusted and launched black campaigns which Wigert failed to purge from after the war. Some of the rumors were that Wigert would become the leading actress at the planned German theater in Oslo, or that she should travel to Germany to pursue a career. On November 18, 1944, the Swedish newspaper revealed Expressen Sonja Wigert as a spy. This happened shortly after the Swedish intelligence service revealed and expelled a top manager in Gestapo thanks to information Wigert had provided. [10]She died in 1980 and the extent of the spying was not elaborated until 25 years later, when the Swedish security police Säpo's archives were released.
In 1942 , she also began working for the United States through a liaison at the American Legation in Stockholm, serving from the 1944 Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the later CIA .
During the war years, Wigert had a relationship with Anders Jahre , the Hungarian diplomat Andor Gellert and Bernt Balchen .
After the War
Sonja Wigert never moved back to Norway, and married on June 11, 1945 in Stockholm with the Danish aviator Niels Viggo Halfdan de Meza von Holstein-Rathlou (1910-1949). During the war he had spent some time in Stockholm and worked as head of a Danish aviation department. The couple settled in Copenhagen, but they had a few happy years together and he died in a plane crash as early as 1949. Wigert traveled to Oslo because she had an annual contract with the Central Theater, and then had a brief affair with her former lover lawyer Helge Schjærve , before she again traveled to Stockholm.
As the roles awaited and her finances deteriorated, she and actress-friend Ulla Zetterberg took over a gas station in downtown Stockholm in 1954. They had it decorated to their liking, and had constant visits from celeb friends. During these four months, they served the customers themselves and filled gasoline.
Wigert received the Charlie Award for his achievement in Counting the Happy Moments just in 1944 . Throughout her career, she was at the theater. she was associated with the National Theater for several years. She also played in several pieces in Norway, as well as in Denmark and Finland. For a time she also played revue at the Blanche theater where she, among other things. sang, danced and parodied. She received very good criticism as Blanche DuBois in A Tram to Lust at Trøndelag Theater in 1949. In 1959 she was a guest actor at Chat Noir .. After a stay in the USA where she had seen the play Night of the iguanaShe traveled to Sweden in 1961 and played in the Swedish production of the play at the Wasateatern. She continued to take various theater jobs for the next decade. In the winter of 1968/1969 she stayed in Oslo to record an episode of NRK's Artist Portrait . Also next winter she lived in Oslo, but then chose to retire and move to Spain.
She spent her last years living in Spain, and this is where she is also buried. All her life she did photography, drawing and dancing, and at an adult age she started yoga. She loved animals and even had a dog for many years. She had no children of her own.
-
DavidFrankenberg
- Member
- Posts: 1235
- Joined: 11 May 2016, 02:09
- Location: Earth
Re: Sonja Wigert, famous norwegian actress, swedish spy in Norway
Wiki.no is intriguing : it states that after the war "Sonja Wigert never moved back to Norway". But it also states that she palyed in many pieces of theatres in Norway after the war.
Re: Sonja Wigert, famous norwegian actress, swedish spy in Norway
Sonja Wigert did live and work as an actress in Norway for many years after the war, but her career never reached the heights it had before the war when she was one of the biggest movie stars in Scandinavia.
Here is a post I wrote about her for another forum:
Sonja Wigert was born in an upper-class family near Oslo in 1913. She first wanted to be a fashion designer, but later moved to France to study trade, languages and dance. Sonja was very intelligent and spoke five languages fluently. After wining a talent competition to be "the next Greta Garbo" she became a movie- and theatre actress at age 21. She became a sucessful movie actress in Norway, but after marrying a Swedish writer she moved to Sweden in 1939. When Norway was invaded by Germany in 1940 she was already established as an actress in Sweden. During the war she was one of the most famous Scandinavian movie stars.
Sonja Wigert was safe in Sweden, but her father was taken as a hostage by the Germans. When there were sabotage, assassinations or raids against the Nazi occupiers, randomly chosen hostages in prison camps were executed. Sonja went back to Norway to secure her father's release and travel documets for the whole family to neautral Sweden. As a movie star she quickly came in contact with the nazi leadership in her homeland, including Josef Terboven. He was the Gauleiter, the de facto Nazi viceroy of Norway. She was perfectly open about what she wanted, and a deal was struck that her family could go if she sat between Terboven and the visiting Propaganda Minister Himmler at a big party. She didn't show up because she couldn't bring herself to do it. This was a major scandal and she had to write a humiliating letter of apology.
After cultivating her contacts some more, Sonja managed to get her father's released and the whole family were allowed to move to Sweden. Her brother Knut (who was also an actor) went on to the Soviet Union, Palestine, Suez and by ship around Africa to Britain. He joined the Company Linge (Special Operations Executive) and also took officer training at Sandhurst. Knut also took part in the Måløy commando raid. After the war he continued as an actor, including working with Sean Connery in "Ransom" in 1975.
Knut Wigert
Back in Sweden the secret services there wanted Sonja Wigert to go back to Norway as their agent. C-byrån (C-agency, the Swedish military inteligence agency) wanted her to develop her contacts among nazi leaders in Norway and get information from them. Her cover name in communications and documents was "Bill". She went to Oslo, and getting access was easy. She was so famous the orchestra at the Oslo Grand Hotel played "her song" every time she arrived at their restaurant, much like in the movie Casablanca. Gauleiter Terboven, just like Himmler in Berlin, was a big fan of movies and beautiful movie actresses. Sonja became Terboven's mistress, but her relationship to him was "entirely of an horisontal nature", in other words she was what the Russians call a "sparrow" . Terboven called her "Bella Donna" and sent her love letters. She was a very successfull spy and she helped identify the Gestapo station chief in Stocholm and one of his best agents in Sweden, a baron. The baron kept sending Sonja flowers for the rest of the war, clueless that she was the one who "burnt" him. Instead he suspected Zarah Leander, a Swedish movie star and Hitler favourite who was actually working for the Soviet NKVD!
Terboven:
Sonja Wigert
After some time the Germans asked Sonja to spy for them in Sweden. After consulting with C-Agency she accepted, in effect becoming a double agent. She passed information to the Germans that was cleared by Swedish inteligence, usually things that were outdated, misleading or not really important. From 1942 she worked with the Americans too, and from 1944 she was working with the Office of Strategic Services (the WWII American inteligence agency) . By 1943 the Germans understood she was working for the allies. The nazis planted a story about her in the Swedish press and started a smear campaign against her. In 1944 she was exposed as a double agent in the Swedish newspaper Expressen. In the spring of 1945 she recieved a letter from the Gestapo ordering her to meeting with a contact of theirs. If she didn't a hundred Norwegian hostages would be executed, including three relatives of hers. We don't know if she met the contact.
Both the Swedish and Norwegian public knew of her close ties with leading nazis, but they didn't realize who she was really working for. She was seen as "striped" (in the sense of "not of true colours") and even worse, a "tyskertøs" ("German's slut"). Sonja was shunned by patriotic Norwegians at the end of the war and very few knew of her secret work.
After the German defeat she gave an interview with the major Norwegain conservative newspaper "to stop all rumours" and several members of the resistance who knew of her patriotic work also came forward to defend her honour. But they kind of reputation was very hard to shake off and Sonja carried the suspicions against her the rest of her life. She married a Danish pilot and nobleman, but he died few years later. Sonja Wigert had a good career in movies and the theatre after the war, but she never regained the popularity she enjoyed before and during the war. She died a lonely death in Spain in 1980. The Swedish inteligence made their archives from the war public in 2005 and her name was finally clared.
Here is a post I wrote about her for another forum:
Sonja Wigert was born in an upper-class family near Oslo in 1913. She first wanted to be a fashion designer, but later moved to France to study trade, languages and dance. Sonja was very intelligent and spoke five languages fluently. After wining a talent competition to be "the next Greta Garbo" she became a movie- and theatre actress at age 21. She became a sucessful movie actress in Norway, but after marrying a Swedish writer she moved to Sweden in 1939. When Norway was invaded by Germany in 1940 she was already established as an actress in Sweden. During the war she was one of the most famous Scandinavian movie stars.
Sonja Wigert was safe in Sweden, but her father was taken as a hostage by the Germans. When there were sabotage, assassinations or raids against the Nazi occupiers, randomly chosen hostages in prison camps were executed. Sonja went back to Norway to secure her father's release and travel documets for the whole family to neautral Sweden. As a movie star she quickly came in contact with the nazi leadership in her homeland, including Josef Terboven. He was the Gauleiter, the de facto Nazi viceroy of Norway. She was perfectly open about what she wanted, and a deal was struck that her family could go if she sat between Terboven and the visiting Propaganda Minister Himmler at a big party. She didn't show up because she couldn't bring herself to do it. This was a major scandal and she had to write a humiliating letter of apology.
After cultivating her contacts some more, Sonja managed to get her father's released and the whole family were allowed to move to Sweden. Her brother Knut (who was also an actor) went on to the Soviet Union, Palestine, Suez and by ship around Africa to Britain. He joined the Company Linge (Special Operations Executive) and also took officer training at Sandhurst. Knut also took part in the Måløy commando raid. After the war he continued as an actor, including working with Sean Connery in "Ransom" in 1975.
Knut Wigert
Back in Sweden the secret services there wanted Sonja Wigert to go back to Norway as their agent. C-byrån (C-agency, the Swedish military inteligence agency) wanted her to develop her contacts among nazi leaders in Norway and get information from them. Her cover name in communications and documents was "Bill". She went to Oslo, and getting access was easy. She was so famous the orchestra at the Oslo Grand Hotel played "her song" every time she arrived at their restaurant, much like in the movie Casablanca. Gauleiter Terboven, just like Himmler in Berlin, was a big fan of movies and beautiful movie actresses. Sonja became Terboven's mistress, but her relationship to him was "entirely of an horisontal nature", in other words she was what the Russians call a "sparrow" . Terboven called her "Bella Donna" and sent her love letters. She was a very successfull spy and she helped identify the Gestapo station chief in Stocholm and one of his best agents in Sweden, a baron. The baron kept sending Sonja flowers for the rest of the war, clueless that she was the one who "burnt" him. Instead he suspected Zarah Leander, a Swedish movie star and Hitler favourite who was actually working for the Soviet NKVD!
Terboven:
Sonja Wigert
After some time the Germans asked Sonja to spy for them in Sweden. After consulting with C-Agency she accepted, in effect becoming a double agent. She passed information to the Germans that was cleared by Swedish inteligence, usually things that were outdated, misleading or not really important. From 1942 she worked with the Americans too, and from 1944 she was working with the Office of Strategic Services (the WWII American inteligence agency) . By 1943 the Germans understood she was working for the allies. The nazis planted a story about her in the Swedish press and started a smear campaign against her. In 1944 she was exposed as a double agent in the Swedish newspaper Expressen. In the spring of 1945 she recieved a letter from the Gestapo ordering her to meeting with a contact of theirs. If she didn't a hundred Norwegian hostages would be executed, including three relatives of hers. We don't know if she met the contact.
Both the Swedish and Norwegian public knew of her close ties with leading nazis, but they didn't realize who she was really working for. She was seen as "striped" (in the sense of "not of true colours") and even worse, a "tyskertøs" ("German's slut"). Sonja was shunned by patriotic Norwegians at the end of the war and very few knew of her secret work.
After the German defeat she gave an interview with the major Norwegain conservative newspaper "to stop all rumours" and several members of the resistance who knew of her patriotic work also came forward to defend her honour. But they kind of reputation was very hard to shake off and Sonja carried the suspicions against her the rest of her life. She married a Danish pilot and nobleman, but he died few years later. Sonja Wigert had a good career in movies and the theatre after the war, but she never regained the popularity she enjoyed before and during the war. She died a lonely death in Spain in 1980. The Swedish inteligence made their archives from the war public in 2005 and her name was finally clared.
-
DavidFrankenberg
- Member
- Posts: 1235
- Joined: 11 May 2016, 02:09
- Location: Earth
Re: Sonja Wigert, famous norwegian actress, swedish spy in Norway
Great photos ! Thank you.
Re: Sonja Wigert, famous norwegian actress, swedish spy in Norway
Sonja Wigert and her second and last husband, Niels Viggo Halfdan de Meza von Holstein-Rathlou. In september 1949 he crashed to death with his plane at the Øresund. Here ships are searcing right after the tragedy.
Source: Henning Sebastian Jahre
Source: Henning Sebastian Jahre
- Attachments
-
- 1.jpg (17.43 KiB) Viewed 28184 times
-
- 2.jpg (32.96 KiB) Viewed 28184 times
Sota ei päätä kuka on oikeassa, vain sen että kuka on jäljellä.
War does not decide who is right but only those who are left.
War does not decide who is right but only those who are left.
Re: Sonja Wigert, famous norwegian actress, swedish spy in Norway
Sonja Wigert
- Attachments
-
Sota ei päätä kuka on oikeassa, vain sen että kuka on jäljellä.
War does not decide who is right but only those who are left.
War does not decide who is right but only those who are left.
Re: Sonja Wigert, famous norwegian actress, swedish spy in Norway
Sonja Wigert
- Attachments
-
Sota ei päätä kuka on oikeassa, vain sen että kuka on jäljellä.
War does not decide who is right but only those who are left.
War does not decide who is right but only those who are left.
Re: Sonja Wigert, famous norwegian actress, swedish spy in Norway
Terboven had a good eye for beauty. Danish television is featuring the movie about Wiggert tonight. I'm looking forward to it. I remember Berit Nøkleby also wrote Terboven had a relationship with his Jewish secretary at Skaugum, not knowing her confession. Once it was out in the open, presumably discovered by Rediess/the SS, she returned to Germany, was provided for and survived the war. Then there was a Finnish opera singer..... an eye for artists too.