Eskild Jensen (28 April 1925 – 1 April 2013) was a Norwegian civil servant and politician for the Labour Party. He was born in

Vestre Aker Vestre Aker (Western Aker) is a List of boroughs of Oslo, borough of the city of Oslo, Norway. It has a population of 50,157 as of 2020. The previous Aker Municipality was merged into the city of Oslo in 1948. The borough of Vestre Aker was org ...

as a son of executive Eskild Jensen Sr. (1876–1955) and teacher Elizabeth Kobro (1889–1985). In 1957 he married civil servant Inger Aarskog. He enrolled at Oslo Commerce School, but as 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 ...

commenced in the same year, Jensen soon prioritized to work in the

Norwegian resistance movement The Norwegian resistance (Norwegian language, Norwegian: ''Motstandsbevegelsen'') to the German occupation of Norway, occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany began after Operation Weserübung in 1940 and ended in 1945. It took several forms: *As ...

. He distributed an illegal newspaper compiled from BBC radio reports; listening to these was also illegal. He was caught by

Gestapo The (, ), Syllabic abbreviation, abbreviated Gestapo (), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of F ...

in 1942, tortured, and imprisoned in the concentration camps

Grini Grini is a district in northeastern Bærum, Norway. Concentration camp The name Grini is best known from the concentration camp of the same name, but this camp lay further west and had no actual connection to the Grini area. History The name ...

and from May 1943 to 1945 Sachsenhausen. After the war Jensen graduated in economics from the

University of Oslo The University of Oslo (; ) is a public university, public research university located in Oslo, Norway. It is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation#Europe, oldest university in Norway. Originally named the Royal Frederick Univ ...

. In 1961 he was hired in the

Ministry of Finance A ministry of finance is a ministry or other government agency in charge of government finance, fiscal policy, and financial regulation. It is headed by a finance minister, an executive or cabinet position . A ministry of finance's portfoli ...

. He worked for the

Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation The Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad) is a directorate under the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It is primarily concerned with offering development aid to international partners, but in matters regarding Norway's Inter ...

from 1962 to 1967 and 1969 to 1974. In 1974 he was appointed deputy under-secretary of state in the Ministry of Transport and Communications before serving as State Secretary in the Office of the Prime Minister from 1976 to 1980, as part of the Nordli's Cabinet. From 1980 to 1992 he served as director of the Norwegian Directorate of Public Roads.

References

1925 births 2013 deaths Norwegian resistance members Norwegian torture victims Grini concentration camp survivors Sachsenhausen concentration camp survivors University of Oslo alumni Norwegian state secretaries Labour Party (Norway) politicians Politicians from Oslo Directors of government agencies of Norway Directorate of Public Roads people {{Norway-road-stub