Henry Oliver Rinnan (14 May 1915 – 1 February 1947) was a notorious Norwegian

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 ...

agent in the area around

Trondheim Municipality Trondheim ( , , ; ), historically Kaupangen, Nidaros, and Trondhjem (), is a city and List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. As of 2022, it had a population of 212,660. Trondheim is the third most populou ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

during

World War II 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 ...

. Rinnan led a group called '' Sonderabteilung Lola''. This group, known as ''Rinnanbanden'' among Norwegians, had fifty known members. Among them were Karl Dolmen, Arild Hjulstad-Østby and Ivar and Kitty Grande.

Biography

Born in Levanger on 14 May 1915, Rinnan was the eldest of eight children in an impoverished family. Standing at , he was unusually short for a Norwegian man. He was a loner during his childhood. He worked briefly for his uncle, but was sacked for theft. During the

Winter War The Winter War was a war between the Soviet Union and Finland. It began with a Soviet invasion of Finland on 30 November 1939, three months after the outbreak of World War II, and ended three and a half months later with the Moscow Peac ...

, Rinnan tried to enlist with the

Finns Finns or Finnish people (, ) are a Baltic Finns, Baltic Finnic ethnic group native to Finland. Finns are traditionally divided into smaller regional groups that span several countries adjacent to Finland, both those who are native to these cou ...

to fight against the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

, but was rejected due to his poor physique. During the Norwegian Campaign in 1940, he drove a truck for the

Norwegian Army The Norwegian Army () is the land warfare service branch of the Norwegian Armed Forces. The Army is the oldest of the Norwegian service branches, established as a modern military organization under the command of the King of Norway in 1628. The ...

. According to Rinnan, he was recruited by the

in June 1940. His parents were members of

Nasjonal Samling The Nasjonal Samling (, NS; ) was a Norway, Norwegian far-right politics, far-right political party active from 1933 to 1945. It was the only legal party of Norway from 1942 to 1945. It was founded by former minister of defence Vidkun Quisling a ...

, but it is uncertain if he ever was a member. After the war, former members of Nasjonal Samling attempted to disassociate themselves from the group, which was seen as a pro-German unit.70 år siden henrettelsen av Norges mest fryktede nazist (70 years since the execution of Henry Rinnan)
Text, images and video by NRK Published February 1, 2017 Beginning in September 1943, the ''Rinnanbanden'' had its headquarters in Jonsvannsveien 46 in Trondheim, known as ''Bandeklosteret'' ("gang monastery"). Rinnan worked closely with the German

Sicherheitspolizei The often abbreviated as SiPo, is a German term meaning "security police". In the Nazi Germany, Nazi era, it referred to the state political and criminal investigation security agency, security agencies. It was made up by the combined forces of ...

in Trondheim, where his main contacts were Gerhard Flesch and Walter Gemmecke. During this decade the private residence of the Rinnan family was in the captured house of Landstads Vei 1, located approximately one kilometre from the gang's headquarters. The members of the independent Gestapo unit '' Sonderabteilung Lola'' infiltrated the resistance movement by engaging people in conversation in buses, trains, cafés, etc., encouraging them to talk about their attitudes toward the Nazi occupation. Having identified people who they thought were in the resistance, Rinnan's agents worked to build trust with them and penetrate their networks. The Rinnan gang was responsible for the death of at least a hundred people in the Norwegian resistance and the British

Special Operations Executive Special Operations Executive (SOE) was a British organisation formed in 1940 to conduct espionage, sabotage and reconnaissance in German-occupied Europe and to aid local Resistance during World War II, resistance movements during World War II. ...

, for torturing hundreds of prisoners, for more than a thousand arrests, for compromising several hundred resistance groups, and in some cases, for deceiving people into carrying out missions for the Germans. Rinnan operated with impunity and almost no interference from his German taskmasters, often using murder and torture as sanctioned means. During the war Rinnan was appointed '' SS- Untersturmführer der Reserve'', and received the

Iron Cross The Iron Cross (, , abbreviated EK) was a military decoration in the Kingdom of Prussia, the German Empire (1871–1918), and Nazi Germany (1933–1945). The design, a black cross pattée with a white or silver outline, was derived from the in ...

2nd grade in 1944. After Germany's capitulation in May 1945, Rinnan and a band of followers tried to escape into

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

, but were caught. On 24 December he escaped from prison again and gathered some followers, but they were again apprehended after a few days. In the course of two trials after the war, forty-one members of the Rinnan group were convicted and sentenced. Twelve received sentences of

execution by firing squad Execution by firing squad, in the past sometimes called fusillading (from the French , rifle), is a method of capital punishment, particularly common in the military and in times of war. Some reasons for its use are that firearms are usually rea ...

from the Frostating Court of Appeal on 20 September 1946. Ten of those death sentences were carried out. Eleven other defendants were sentenced to lifelong forced labour (later pardoned), while the rest were given long prison sentences. Rinnan was sentenced for personally murdering thirteen people, but the real number may be higher. Four hours after midnight on 1 February 1947, Rinnan was taken from his cell in Kristiansten Fortress. A guard blindfolded him and led him outside, where he was tied to a pole. He showed no emotion. At 04:05, Rinnan was executed by firing squad. He was cremated, and later unofficially buried at the Levanger Cemetery in an unmarked grave.executedtoday.com, Henry Rinnan, Norwegian collaborator
/ref> Forty percent of the people executed as a result of Norwegian war crimes trials after the Second World War were connected to Sonderabteilung Lola.

References

External links

Rinnanbanden.no
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rinnan, Henry Oliver 1915 births 1947 deaths Norwegian mass murderers Norwegian people convicted of murder Norwegian people convicted of war crimes Executed Norwegian collaborators with Nazi Germany Gestapo agents People from Levanger People convicted of torture People convicted of murder by Norway Executed mass murderers