Olav Arnold Brunvand (7 January 1912 – 15 February 1988) was a Norwegian newspaper editor and politician for the Labour Party. He was born in

Kristiansand Kristiansand is a city and Municipalities of Norway, municipality in Agder county, Norway. The city is the fifth-largest and the municipality is the sixth-largest in Norway, with a population of around 116,000 as of January 2020, following th ...

as the son of tailor Olav Brunvand, Sr. (1878–1944) and Anna Olsen (1878–1952). In 1936 he married Åsta Bergliot Strømme (1915–1988). His father was a

Social Democratic Social democracy is a Social philosophy, social, Economic ideology, economic, and political philosophy within socialism that supports Democracy, political and economic democracy and a gradualist, reformist, and democratic approach toward achi ...

ballot candidate in the

Market towns of Vest-Agder and Rogaland counties The Market towns of Vest-Agder and Rogaland counties () was an electoral district for Stortinget, parliamentary elections in Norway. It comprised the Kjøpstad, market towns () of Flekkefjord (town), Flekkefjord, Kristiansand (town), Kristiansand a ...

for the 1921 general election but was not elected. He worked as a journalist in ''

Sørlandet Southern Norway (; lit. "The Southland") is the geographical List of regions of Norway, region (''landsdel'') along the Skagerrak coast of southern Norway. The region is an informal description since it does not have any governmental function ...

'' from 1934, and in ''

Bergens Arbeiderblad ''Bergensavisen'' (lit. "the Bergen newspaper"), usually shortened to ''BA'', is the second largest newspaper in Bergen, Norway. The paper is published in tabloid format. The newspaper's webpage ba.no is Bergen's largest local newspaper webpage. ...

'' from 1939. These newspapers belonged to the Labour Party, and were thus subject to repression during the

occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany The occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany during the Second World War began on 9 April 1940 after Operation Weserübung. Conventional armed resistance to the German invasion ended on 10 June 1940, and Nazi Germany controlled Norway until th ...

from 1940 to 1945; Brunvand was imprisoned by the Germans from 1941 to 1945. He was arrested in October 1941, spent time in

Ulven concentration camp Ulven detention camp (German: ''Polizeihäftlingslager Ulven,'' ("''Ulven"'' means "the wolf")) was a concentration camp in Norway that was located in what was Os Municipality in Hordaland county (now part of Bjørnafjorden Municipality in Ves ...

in November before being sent via

Bergen Bergen (, ) is a city and municipalities of Norway, municipality in Vestland county on the Western Norway, west coast of Norway. Bergen is the list of towns and cities in Norway, second-largest city in Norway after the capital Oslo. By May 20 ...

to Hamburg-Fuhlsbüttel in December. In August 1943 he was transferred to

Rendsburg Rendsburg (, also ''Rensborg'', , also ''Rensborg'') is a town on the Eider (river), River Eider and the Kiel Canal in the central part of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is the capital of the ''Kreis'' (district) of Rendsburg-Eckernfoerde, Rends ...

, later to Dreibergen. During his stay in German prisons he made notes which were later published in newspaper articles, and issued in 1968 as the book ''Smil og tårer i tukthus''. The manuscript was written on toilet paper and smuggled out by

Hiltgunt Zassenhaus Hiltgunt Margret Zassenhaus (10 July 1916 – 20 November 2004) was a German philologist who worked as an interpreter in Hamburg, Germany during World War II, and later as a physician in the United States. She was honoured for her efforts to a ...

, who buried it and sent it to Brunvand after he had returned to Bergen in 1945. In 1945 he was promoted to subeditor in ''Bergens Arbeiderblad''. He was then the editor and manager of the

news agency A news agency is an organization that gathers news reports and sells them to subscribing news organizations, such as newspapers, magazines and All-news radio, radio and News broadcasting, television Broadcasting, broadcasters. A news agency ma ...

Arbeidernes Pressekontor from 1949 to 1952 and 1954 to 1978. From 1952 to 1954 he served as State Secretary in the

Ministry of Defence A ministry of defence or defense (see American and British English spelling differences#-ce.2C -se, spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is the part of a government responsible for matters of defence and Mi ...

as a part of the Labour cabinet Torp. He was the father of Per Brunvand.

References

1912 births 1988 deaths Norwegian newspaper editors Norwegian state secretaries Labour Party (Norway) politicians Ulven concentration camp survivors Politicians from Kristiansand 20th-century Norwegian writers {{Norway-writer-stub