The former police officer Reidar Larsen was a department manager in a large transport company in Oslo. During the cold winter of 1941/42, he and his colleague Alf Pettersen stole large amounts of potatoes from German storage facilities and distributed them to people in need. Larsen knew that Pettersen helped Jews to escape, and he supported him by giving him time off.
At the end of 1942, they began helping many more people to escape. They called their network Carl Fredriksen Transport – a reference to the given name of Norway’s King Haakon VII. Over six weeks, around 1,000 people were able to escape to Sweden.
Reidar Larsen was in charge of the trucks and drivers, and the permits required to use the route from Oslo to the Swedish border.
At the beginning of January 1943, the German security police became aware of the escape network. Reidar Larsen insisted on organizing one last tour, this time in a private car. The next night, he fled to Sweden with three other helpers, in a severe snowstorm. The car broke an axle shortly after crossing the border.
In 2016 Reidar Larsen was posthumously honored by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations.