When anti-Semitic attacks increased in Bratislava, nine-year-old Edgar’s parents decided to send him to Norway. A Norwegian foundation known as Nansen Relief for refugees and stateless persons placed children with host families. To make it easier for Edgar to leave, Max and Rea Brichta told him the trip was an exciting vacation to the “land of the Vikings.”
In October 1939, Edgar and eight other children arrived in Bergen, where their host families were waiting for them in a hotel. Agnes and Arne Normann, a couple with no children, took Edgar into their home in Laksevåg, where he was able to stay even after Norway’s occupation by German troops. The country was becoming increasingly dangerous for Jews, however.
Edgar left the family at his own request in the fall of 1942. Former staff of the now-banned Nansen Relief found a series of new hiding places for him. Edgar experienced the end of the war in Bergen.
Not until decades after the war did Edgar Brichta learn he was the only survivor in his family.