Beate Asserson

Norwegian opera singer, 1913-2000. Living and working in Berlin, Germany, in the 1930s. With the outbreak of war, she remained at the Staatsoper in Berlin, while also secretly helping people who were hiding or fleeing from the Gestapo (jews and others who were destined for the concentration camps). In 1944 she was threatened to be turned in to the Gestapo by one of her assistants. As a member of the Staatsoper, she obtained a travel permit to go to her nazi occupied homeland (where she had also performed in 1941), but got off the train in neutral Sweden as a refugee. After the war she continued her career as a singer with concerts in Norway and other countries, as well as numerous performances on radio. Married Eivind Saxlund in 1972.