Ottar Lie (5 March 1896 – 1 March 1943) was a Norwegian communist and resistance member. He was born in

Løten Municipality Løten is a municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Hedemarken. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Løten. Other villages in the municipality include Ådalsbruk, Heim ...

, to a father from

Vang Municipality Vang is a municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Valdres. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Vang i Valdres. Other villages in Vang include Hænsgardane, Nystuen, � ...

and a mother from

Ås Municipality Ås is the Scandinavian language word for an esker, a ridge of sand and gravel. Ås may also refer to: People *Ås (surname) *Berit Ås (born 1928), a Norwegian politician and Professor Emerita of social psychology at the University of Oslo *O ...

. He was married twice, last to Inga, née Knutsen. He had two children, and lived in Oslo. He was originally a member of the

Norwegian Labour Party The Labour Party (; , A or Ap; ), formerly The Norwegian Labour Party (, DNA), is a Social democracy, social democratic List of political parties in Norway, political party in Norway. It is positioned on the centre-left of the political spectru ...

. In 1921 he was hired as county secretary in

Hedmark Hedmark () was a Counties of Norway, county in Norway from 1 January 1919 to 31 December 2019, bordering Trøndelag to the north, Oppland to the west, Akershus to the south, and Sweden to the east. The county administration is in Hamar. Hedmar ...

. At the time he was also active in the

Young Communist League The Young Communist League (YCL) is the name used by the youth wing of various Communist parties around the world. The name ''YCL of ountry' originates from the precedent established by the Communist Youth International. Examples of YCLs includ ...

(until 1923 the Labour Party youth wing). In 1923, at the founding of the Communist Party, Lie became Hedmark's representative in the central board. He continued as party secretary in Hedmark until 1927, then in

Oslo Oslo ( or ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of 1,064,235 in 2022 ...

for the party nationwide. Before it was stopped in 1940, Lie was also a board member of the newspaper ''

Arbeideren ("The Worker") was a daily newspaper published in Oslo, Norway. It was started on 2 November 1929 as the official party newspaper from the Communist Party. It lent its name from a Hamar-based newspaper of the same name, which had gone defunct ...

''. He was a member of the

Communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...

resistance movement A resistance movement is an organized group of people that tries to resist or try to overthrow a government or an occupying power, causing disruption and unrest in civil order and stability. Such a movement may seek to achieve its goals through ei ...

, as Norway was occupied by Nazi Germany from 1940. In the now-illegal Communist Party he was one of the leading figures together with Henry W. Kristiansen,

Just Lippe Just Lippe (13 January 1904 – 24 March 1978) was a Norwegian journalist and politician for the Communist Party of Norway, Communist Party. He was born in Bergen as the son of Jakob von der Lippe (1870–1954). He was related to the von der Lip ...

Johan Strand Johansen Johan Strand Johansen (3 February 1903 in Aafjord - 12 February 1970 in Moscow) was Norwegian Minister of Labour in 1945. From 1945-1949 and later from 1954-1957 he represented the Communist Party of Norway in the Parliament of Norway. His imp ...

and Emil Løvlien. He was held imprisoned in

Møllergata 19 Møllergata 19 is an address in Oslo, Norway, where the city's main police station and jail was located. The address gained notoriety during the German occupation from 1940 to 1945, when the Nazi security police kept its headquarters here. This ...

from August to September 1940. Eventually, together with

Arne Gauslaa Arne Gauslaa (8 February 1913 – 30 October 1942) was a Norwegian communist, newspaper editor and resistance member. Biography He was born in Solum, to a mother from Solum and a father from Herefoss. His father Olav Gauslaa was a member of Solum ...

he led the party's organizational centre which had contact with communist resistance members who hid in the mountains. The centre was moved from

Steinsfjorden Steinsfjorden is a branch of the lake Tyrifjorden located in Buskerud, Norway. It has a length of about eight kilometers, stretching from the sound Kroksund at Sundvollen northwards to Åsa, in the municipalities of Ringerike and Hole ...

Vikersund Vikersund is a town of 3,232 (in 2020) inhabitants in the municipality capital of Modum, in the county of Buskerud, Norway. Overview Vikersund is located 30 kilometers south of Hønefoss and 40 kilometers northwest of Drammen. The village is l ...

in October 1942. The centre was blown after former resistance member Karsten Sølvberg had cracked during

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 ...

torture, become a Gestapo agent and ratted them out. Already on 30 October 1942 the centre in Vikersund was surrounded by Gestapists. Gauslaa and another person were shot to death. Lie was arrested and tortured. He was held at Møllergata 19 from 30 October 1942, then in

Grini detention camp Grini prison camp (, ) was a Nazi concentration camp in Bærum, Norway, which operated between 1941 and May 1945. Ila Detention and Security Prison is now located here. History Grini was originally built as a women's prison, near an old croft ...

from 24 February 1943. He was transferred to

Trandum Trandum leir is a former army camp Ullensaker, 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 a ...

on 1 March 1943 and executed at

Trandumskogen Trandumskogen is a forest located in Ullensaker, Akershus county, Norway. It was the site of one of the first discoveries in May 1945 of German mass graves in Norway. The German executioner Oskar Hans was the officer in command of the unit perfo ...

. He was buried in Oslo. His brother Ivar Lie was also a communist resistance member, who managed to flee to Sweden.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lie, Ottar 1896 births 1943 deaths People from Løten Hedmark politicians Labour Party (Norway) politicians Communist Party of Norway politicians Norwegian resistance members Grini concentration camp prisoners Communists executed by Nazi Germany Resistance members killed by Nazi Germany Norwegian civilians killed in World War II Norwegian torture victims Norwegian people executed by Nazi Germany People executed by Nazi Germany by firing squad