Born in St. Petersburg, the Jewish child psychologist Nina Hackel settled in Berlin in 1918. She met the Norwegian doctor Caroline (Nic) Hoel there, who helped her to emigrate to Norway in 1936.
To obtain a residency permit, Nina Hackel made a marriage of convenience with the Norwegian journalist Bertold Hasvoll. In 1938 she took on the management of a home for 20 Jewish refugee children in Oslo.
From October 26, 1942, Jewish women had to register in Norway; Nina Hasvoll had to report to a police station once a day. At the end of November 1942, she was warned of the impending arrest of Jewish women and children in Oslo. Nina Hasvoll and Nic Waal managed to take the children to a hiding place overnight. Thanks to their contacts to the resistance, the three helpers Sigrid H. Lund, Nic Waal, and Nina Hasvoll were later able to arrange the children’s escape to Sweden.
Nina Hasvoll married again in Sweden and moved to Denmark after the war.