Simen Skjønsberg (2 September 1920 – 26 December 1993) was a Norwegian journalist and writer. He was born in

Øyer Øyer is a municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Gudbrandsdal. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Tingberg. The two largest villages in the municipality are Granrud ...

. 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 the ...

he was arrested by the Nazi authorities following the

1943 University of Oslo fire The 1943 University of Oslo fire ( no, aula-brannen) was a fire in the ceremony hall (''Universitetets Aula'') of the University of Oslo in 1943. Its direct consequences were the closing of the university, and the arrest of 1,166 people; these were ...

. After being initially imprisoned in

Stavern Stavern is a small water-side town in Larvik municipality in Vestfold County, Norway. It is south of the city of Larvik. Currently there are around 3,000 inhabitants in Stavern. It is a small town where tourism is one of the most important sour ...

he was shipped to German camps, where he was incarcerated in Sennheim and

Buchenwald Buchenwald (; literally 'beech forest') was a Nazi concentration camp established on hill near Weimar, Germany, in July 1937. It was one of the first and the largest of the concentration camps within Germany's 1937 borders. Many actual or su ...

until the liberation. He finally graduated as cand.mag. in 1950. He was hired as a journalist in ''

Dagbladet ''Dagbladet'' (lit.: ''The Daily Magazine'') is one of Norway's largest newspapers and is published in the tabloid format. It has 1,400,000 daily readers on mobile, web and paper. Traditionally ''Dagbladet'' is considered the main liberal newspa ...

'' in 1954, and was its cultural editor from 1959 to 1978. He was succeeded by

Hans Fredrik Dahl Hans Fredrik Dahl (born 16 October 1939) is a Norwegian historian, journalist and media scholar, best known in the English-speaking world for his biography of Vidkun Quisling, a Nazi collaborationist and Minister President for Norway during the ...

. He published several novels, including ''Der bommene senkes'' (1971), ''Fuglebrettet'' (1973), ''Gitter i lyset'' (1975) and ''Ingen friplass på karusellen'' (1977). He also wrote poetry, his collections including ''Vi er blitt fremmede'' (1965), ''Dag for reisende'' (1967), ''Dikt. Norwegian-German'' (translated and edited by Hans Däumling, 1969), ''Flyttedag'' (1969), ''I realismesalen'' (1984) and ''Grensevakter'' (1987). He was awarded the

Mads Wiel Nygaards Endowment Mads Wiel Nygaard's Endowment is an annually awarded literary prize from the publishing house Aschehoug. The prize is a recognition of superior literary work. The publisher's editorial management makes the award based on their collective judgement ...

in 1970 and the

Gyldendal's Endowment Gyldendal's Endowment was a literature prize which was awarded in the period 1934–1995 by the Norwegian publisher Gyldendal Norsk Forlag. The prize was awarded to significant authors, regardless of which publisher the author was associated w ...

in 1984.

References

1920 births 1993 deaths People from Øyer 20th-century Norwegian novelists 20th-century Norwegian poets Buchenwald concentration camp survivors Dagbladet people Norwegian male novelists Norwegian male poets Sennheim concentration camp survivors University of Oslo alumni 20th-century Norwegian male writers 20th-century Norwegian journalists {{norway-writer-stub