The teacher Aslaug Blytt from Bergen headed her local Nansen Relief group for refugees and stateless persons. She spent months collecting donations and looking for foster parents for Jewish refugee children. In the fall of 1939, 37 children arrived in Norway from Bratislava and Prague. Nine of them went to Bergen, including Edgar Brichta.
When Norway was occupied by German troops in 1940, the Jewish children were no longer safe in the country. Aslaug Blytt and her fellow activists tried to get the children to Sweden, but did not receive exit permits. In November 1942, Nansen Relief had to cease its activities in Oslo.
A month later, Aslaug Blytt organized eight children’s illegal escape to Sweden. Edgar Brichta was to follow them at a later date. The plan did not work, since Aslaug Blytt was arrested in 1943 for other resistance activities and imprisoned in Grini concentration camp. Aslaug Blytt survived her imprisonment and went on to work as an art historian.