Freedom Fighter: Jakob Johan Dreyer Jr.

Jakob Johan Dreyer Jr.

Diagram showing where the Sidselrud's fit into the author's family tree.

Dachau records listing Jacob Dreyer

Obituary of Jacob Dreyer

Shortly before WW2, my grandfather Howard Engh’s cousin, Kari Sidselrud, married an enterprising man named Jakob Johan Dreyer (Jr). The couple moved to Stavanger, where they had two boys. Germany invaded in April 1940, but Jakob, Kari, and Kari’s siter Lisbeth were not content to allow the Nazis to commit evil against their beautiful country.

Jakob, a director in his family’s printing company, according to family letters after the war, organized secret forces for the Norwegian resistance. A printer by trade, he also published anti-Nazi materials throughout the Stavanger area. These efforts dealt a serious blow to the German occupation, and Gestapo agents were sent to Stavanger to catch these brave freedom fighters. After an anonymous tip by a Quisling (Nazi sympathizer), Jakob was arrested by the Gestapo in November 1942.

In a family letter after the war, his sister-in-law Lisbeth Sidselrud wrote that Jakob “was considered very dangerous by the occupiers and sent to the terrible Natzweiler-Struthof Concentration Camp in Germany.” [POW Nr. 5243. This camp is currently in Bas-Rhin, France]. Jakob’s wife Kari suffered terribly during this time, not knowing the condition of her husband. She moved in with her sister Lisbeth. They also began to support Norwegian Resistance efforts, aiding paratroopers who landed in Norway.

Kari and Lisbeth were also arrested by the Germans in November of 1944. They learned later that one of the paratroopers, under Gestapo torture, had revealed* the names of those who had given aid. The two sisters were sent to Grini concentration camp outside Oslo. The rules were harsh, but the conditions never reached the barbarity of other camps in Germany and eastern Europe.

[*this story is disputed in other family accounts. In another scenario, Lisbeth and Kari were turned in by a Nazi-sympathetic neighbor.] Their mother, Andrea Elisabeth Engh Sidselrud (Arnt Engh’s sister), took the news of her daughters’ arrests poorly. Because of her family connection, she was arrested by the Nazis but released due to her poor health. After a prolonged illness, Elisabeth died in February 1943.  Kari’s husband Jakob had by now been moved to Dachau concentration camp in Bavaria (prisoner number 110903). He spent nearly three years as a POW, in the cruelest conditions. His health broke down rapidly. According to Dachau archives, Jakob was imprisoned for much of those three years in its subcamp Blaichach, where his 7-day-per-week “job” was to make airplane parts for Bavarian Motor Works (BMW).

According to a letter from Lisbeth, after the war, Prince Folke Bernadotte of Sweden learned about the plight of Jakob and interceded using his “White Busses” humanitarian program. Because of Sweden’s neutrality, he was able to persuade the Nazis to release Jakob, due to his illness.

Kari was granted two weeks leave from Grini prison (presumably at the request of Prince Bernadotte) at the end of April to look for Jakob, who had been evacuated to Denmark. War ended before her leave came to an end, so she was not required to return to Grini.

According to correspondence from Kaare Dreyer, Kari’s son, “Mother often told us how moved she was when she walked through the Grini gates (for the last time), and the Norwegian prisoners’ chief representative ordered all fellow prisoners, about two thousand, to stand in attention, in her honour.”

Finally reunited with her husband Jacob, Kari accompanied him back to Oslo, where they hoped an emergency operation might save his life. Due to years of starvation and extreme conditions, Jakob had contracted typhus, tuberculosis, and dysentery. In spite of a couple of operations and the best care they could give him, he died in June 1945, weeks after the armistice, aged 34. Lisbeth later reported that Jakob’s death was a terrible, “shocking blow to Kari,” who had always been “the life and soul of the party.”

Lisbeth was released from Grini on May 8, 1945. After the war, Lisbeth described the

horrific aftermath in letters to family in America. She documented how the Nazis had taken over their beautiful home in Stavanger, stealing everything of value.

Kari spent months in hospital, suffering repeated bouts of influenza and pneumonia. She and her sister Lisbeth cared for the two boys, but post-war life was extremely difficult. Even those with ready money could not find available food and even basic clothing to purchase. They wrote to family in America, asking for any old clothing that could be spared. From 1945 to 1948, many packages were sent overseas from Arnt and Howard Engh to relatives in Norway, filled with skirts, pants, shirts, socks, shoes, underwear, and packages of dried fruit.

Lisbeth died in 2001. Kari lived in Stavanger until she died in April 2011, at nearly 95.

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Notes from Paul Stout:

My cousin, Marcie Carter Allphin, initially rediscovered these family connections while doing family history work and writing the life story of Howard and Anna Fern Engh. Marcie corresponded with Kaari, the son of Kari Sidselrud Dreyer. But the details of our relatives’ Norwegian Resistance efforts and subsequent imprisonment in concentrations camps was obscured by time. There was also a general reluctance on the part of resistance members to talk about their activities after the war.

With my background in journalism, I knew there was a larger story to discover. I found letters between Lisbeth Sidselrud and Howard Engh, with vague references to imprisonment and post-war privations. But there were no details. I even found a letter to my mother, then a teenager, from Lisbeth. 

After a lengthy Internet search, I discovered a decade-old post about another resistance member in Stavanger, posted by a granddaughter. It showed a clipping from the Stavanger Aftenblat newspaper, with a blurry picture and words that could not be read. I contacted the newspaper, but no archives of the newspaper existed. I responded to the old post and eventually got a response that she did not have the original. But she remembered that someone in America did. She found an old email address. I wrote to the address and shockingly received an answer within minutes. They had the original newspaper, but no digital copy to send me. It turned out they were in Ogden, Utah, just 15 minutes from me in Kaysville! I called them and explained how to take pictures of the newspaper article and text them to me. Within minutes, I had pieced together the full article from 1947.

The article listed Jacob Dreyer Jr, along with his picture. It mentioned his arrest in 1942, and that he was sent to Dachau. With that information, I wrote to Dachau and eventually received a response confirming his incarceration, along with his prisoner number.

Once I had this number, I was able to write to an international non-profit called Arolsen Archives. This organization captures information from all WW2 POW camps. They emailed me a 56-page PDF of every artifact available, from several camps and subcamps, where Jacob Dreyer’s name was included. About 10% of this information was in Norwegian, which I do not speak. But the rest was in German, written and recorded by Nazi personnel. Having served a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Switzerland and Germany, I am fluent in German. I was like a kid in a candy store, pouring over these records.

The yellowed papers included every move Jacob made, from one location to another, checked and double checked by camp officials along the way. Many papers included items owned by the prisoners. Jacob had a wristwatch with a leather band, a few Norwegian Kroner, his Norwegian ID card, and a few cigarettes. The Nazis had also conducted a thorough background questionnaire and health history. They were extremely detailed and precise. Often, I found the original form in long-hand, along with a typed-up version with the same information.

Combining this information with Marcie’s knowledge, I was able to write the brief history of the resistance efforts and subsequent imprisonment of this remarkable family.

Completing the temple ordinances for deceased relatives is an important and sacred responsibility for members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Marcie and others had completed most of this work, but Jacob’s temple work had been blocked. After correspondence with the temple department, I discovered that because Jacob Dreyer was in Dachau, he had been tagged as a Jewish Holocaust victim. We have an agreement in place with Jewish organizations that we will not perform temple work for these individuals without descendants’ approval. I was able to submit documentation showing that Jacob is a relative, along with the information from Dachau. This allowed us to complete his family temple work.