In 1938 nine-year-old Siegmund Korn and his twin brother Norbert arrived in Norway, along with around 20 other Jewish children from Vienna and Czechoslovakia. The Jewish community in Oslo placed them with temporary foster parents, and they then moved into a newly established Jewish orphanage.
German troops occupied the country in April 1940. On November 25, 1942, the head of the children’s home Nina Hasvoll was warned of the children’s planned arrest. She immediately prepared their escape, and took them out of the building without arousing suspicion. Gerda Tanberg, also active in the resistance, hid the children for several days. They were then taken to a location near the Swedish border. After a night’s sleep and an eight-hour march, they reached Sweden.
The brothers returned to Norway in the fall of 1945 and learned that their parents had survived in Italy and wanted to emigrate to Palestine. The twins decided to remain in Norway, however.