The young actor Kåre Wicklund came from the north of Norway and moved to Oslo in 1936. Via fellow artists, he came into contact with the Jewish lawyer Leo Hersson, who presumably arranged several marriages for Jewish women at risk of expulsion. Kåre Wicklund declared himself willing to marry the Berlin Jew Annie Sachs at the end of 1938. Communication was difficult; Kåre nudged Annie every time she had to say “I do” during the wedding ceremony.
After their marriage, the two of them did not initially stay in contact.
One day they met by chance on a tram. Annie was learning Norwegian and the common language brought them together. The couple moved into an apartment together in 1939.
Through a financial guarantee, Kåre also enabled Annie’s mother Ida to join them in Norway. After he was stationed in Narvik as a medical orderly, the three of them left Oslo.
When the two Jewish women were obliged to report to the local police station twice a day from October 1942, Annie, Kåre, and Ida laid plans to escape. After a long march at freezing temperatures and overnight car and boat journeys, they finally reached Sweden in a horse-drawn sleigh.