In the fall of 1942, hundreds of Jews went into hiding in Norway in an attempt to evade deportation. This situation gave rise to Norway’s largest rescue campaign, under the codename of Carl Fredriksen Transport. The campaign was organized by the former police officer Alf Pettersen and his wife Gerd, along with their friends Rolf Syversen and Reidar Larsen. Over six weeks from December 1942 to January 1943, this private network took a total of 1,000 people to the Swedish border.
Alf Pettersen always travelled with them, in the first of the two trucks carrying around 20 refugees each from Oslo five times a week. The refugees crossed the unfenced border on foot. On at least one occasion, Pettersen had to force a nervous driver to continue the journey at gunpoint.
The escape aid network was betrayed early in 1943, and Pettersen himself had to flee. Although he managed to escape, the past months had affected him deeply. He suffered from nightmares for the rest of his life.