Grethe Bartram
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Maren Margrethe Thomsen, known as Maren Margrethe "Grethe" Bartram and "Thora" (23 February 1924 – January 2017), was a Danish woman who informed on at least 53 people from the
Danish resistance movement The Danish resistance movements () were an underground insurgency to resist the German occupation of Denmark during World War II. Due to the initially lenient arrangements, in which the Nazi occupation authority allowed the democratic govern ...
during the
Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, resulting in the early communist resistance groups being dismantled and many of their members being sent to
Nazi concentration camps From 1933 to 1945, Nazi Germany operated more than a thousand concentration camps (), including subcamp (SS), subcamps on its own territory and in parts of German-occupied Europe. The first camps were established in March 1933 immediately af ...
. Bartram informed on her brother, husband and close acquaintances. Bartram was sentenced to death for treason after the war. The sentence was commuted to life in prison in 1947. In 1956 she was released and moved to
Halland Halland () is one of the traditional provinces of Sweden (''landskap''), on the western coast of Götaland, southern Sweden. It borders Västergötland, Småland, Skåne, Scania and the sea of Kattegat. Until 1645 and the Second Treaty of Br ...
in Sweden where she lived under her married name.


Background

Grethe Bartram was born in
Aarhus Aarhus (, , ; officially spelled Århus from 1948 until 1 January 2011) is the second-largest city in Denmark and the seat of Aarhus municipality, Aarhus Municipality. It is located on the eastern shore of Jutland in the Kattegat sea and app ...
, and grew up in a poor household, the second of eight children; both her parents were members of the
Communist Party of Denmark The Communist Party of Denmark (, DKP) is a communist party in Denmark. The DKP was founded on 9 November 1919 as the Left-Socialist Party of Denmark (, VSP), through a merger of the Socialist Youth League and Socialist Labour Party of Denma ...
(DKP), as were the social circles of the family. Her father, Niels Peter Christopher Bartram (born 1896), was from southern Jutland and participated in
World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
on the German side. He suffered from shellshock from the war and found it difficult to work but managed to operate a small bicycle repair shop in Midtbyen,
Aarhus Aarhus (, , ; officially spelled Århus from 1948 until 1 January 2011) is the second-largest city in Denmark and the seat of Aarhus municipality, Aarhus Municipality. It is located on the eastern shore of Jutland in the Kattegat sea and app ...
. Bartram left school at 13 years old and started working until she became pregnant at 16 and was married on 12 July 1941 to a young machinist, Frode Thomsen (born 28 March 1920) from her workplace. The marriage did not last long, ending in the summer of 1943, and their son was put into foster care with her mother-in-law.


Informant

Bartram's family, including her older brother Christian Bartram, became involved with the resistance. In September 1942 the Danish police put up a DKK 1000 kr. reward for information regarding a sabotage fire in a shop in Fredericiagade in Aarhus. Through her brother, Bartram learned who had been involved and gave the information to the police. Five people were arrested, including her brother. One escaped and the remainder were sentenced to between one and ten years in prison. Thereafter, Bartram participated in illegal activities with people involved with the resistance movement. In March–April 1944, she was hired as an agent by the
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 ...
and in June the Samsing Group and an affiliated group of University students were arrested and eventually deported to
Neuengamme concentration camp Neuengamme was a network of Nazi concentration camps in northern Germany that consisted of the main camp, Neuengamme, and List of subcamps of Neuengamme, more than 85 satellite camps. Established in 1938 near the village of Neuengamme, Hamburg, N ...
. The communist resistance groups in Aarhus and across central Jutland were essentially neutralized. Resistance members still had high confidence in Bartram at the time and in August 1944 she was sent to
Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...
as a representative to establish new leadership for the resistance in Aarhus. The resistance subsequently became suspicious of her, so she arranged to be arrested and imprisoned in Frøslev Prison Camp to allay this. It did not help and the resistance attempted to kill her on several occasions, succeeding in wounding her. She was sent to Germany to recover. In March 1945 she was hired by the Gestapo in
Kolding Kolding () is a Denmark, Danish seaport city located at the head of Kolding Fjord in the Region of Southern Denmark. It is the seat of Kolding Municipality. It is a transportation, commercial, and manufacturing centre and has numerous industria ...
where she worked until the surrender of German forces in Denmark. On the day of surrender, 5 May, she was in the Gestapo headquarters in
Esbjerg Esbjerg (, ) is a seaport city and seat of Esbjerg Municipality on the west coast of the Jutland peninsula in southwest Denmark. By road, it is west of Kolding and southwest of Aarhus. With an urban area, urban population of 71,554 (1 January ...
where she was wounded when the resistance detonated bombs there. She recovered quickly and went by bicycle to Kolding to get help but the Gestapo had already evacuated. Bartram then went to Brejning where she was arrested on 10 May. Bartram, by her own account, received DKK 5-700 kr. per month but a witness from the Gestapo claimed she received 3/4 of money paid to informants which amounted to 1200–1500 a month.


Trial

During her trial, it was revealed that Grethe Bartram had informed on as many as 53 people. Of those, her information directly resulted in 15 being tortured during interrogation as well as 35 being transported to Nazi concentration camps in Germany, where eight ultimately died or were reported missing. Bartram pleaded guilty to the majority of counts she faced and was sentenced to death on 29 October 1946 by the Criminal Court of Aarhus, later affirmed by
Vestre Landsret The Vestre Landsret (High Court of Western Denmark) is one of Denmark's two High Courts, along with the Østre Landsret (High Court of Eastern Denmark). Both High Courts function both as a civil and criminal court of first instance and a civil an ...
on 22 February 1947 and the Danish Supreme Court on 4 September 1947. As with Anna Lund Lorenzen, the only other Danish woman sentenced to death after 1945 for war crimes, her sentence was commuted to life in prison by Minister of Justice Niels Busch-Jensen on 9 December 1947. Busch-Jensen gave as his reasons Bartram's young age at the time, that she had been raised in an "anti-religious, communist and materialistic spirit", and that she had had financial troubles. Bartram was released after ten years in prison on 26 October 1956, after which she moved to Sweden, where she lived under her married name. She became a Swedish citizen during the 1960s and died at Vessigebro, aged 92.


References


Literature

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External sources


Grethe Bartram
– biography in ''Dansk Kvindebiografisk Leksikon''

– Chapter 10 in Erik Haaests book, ''Udyr – eller hvad'' from 1977 in an updated e-version from 2006.
''Myter, Mordet i Højbjerg'', Marie Lock-Hansen, Forlaget Din Bog
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bartram, Grethe 1924 births 2017 deaths 20th-century Danish criminals People from Aarhus Danish expatriates in Sweden Danish female criminals Danish people convicted of war crimes Danish prisoners sentenced to death Danish spies for Nazi Germany Gestapo informants People convicted of spying for Nazi Germany Prisoners sentenced to death by Denmark Women sentenced to death