Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
105 – Jan Baalsrud and the Norwegian Resistance
37 Plays5 days ago
Jeff tells the incredible survival story of Jan Baalsrud and the courageous efforts of the Norwegian resistance during World War II.
Visit us on Linktree for the collection of links, Instagram, or email us at jeffandsamshow@gmail.com.
Sources
- Patrick McCarthy, The WWII Survival Story of Jan Baalsrud (Recoil Off Grid)
https://www.offgridweb.com/survival/the-wwii-survival-story-of-jan-baalsrud/ - Preikestolen365
https://preikestolen365.com - Norwegian Civil Resistance of the Nazi Occupation, 1940–1945
https://gns.wisc.edu/2025/08/27/norwegian-civil-resistance-of-the-nazi-occupation-1940-1945-2/ - Sound vs. Fjord: What's the Difference?
https://www.aurora-expeditions.com/blog/sound-vs-fjord-whats-the-difference - Jan Baalsrud Is the Man That Never Gave Up
https://nordnorge.com/en/artikkel/jan-balsrud-is-the-man-that-never-gave-up/ - Wikipedia – Sámi People
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%A1mi_people - ExplorersWeb – Great Survival Stories: Jan Baalsrud Evades Nazi Dragnet
https://explorersweb.com/great-survival-stories-jan-baalsrud-evades-nazi-dragnet/ - Wikipedia – Jan Baalsrud
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Baalsrud - Mayo Clinic – Gangrene: Symptoms and Causes
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/gangrene/symptoms-causes/syc-20352567 - MyHeritage – Jan Baalsrud
https://www.myheritage.com/names/jan_baalsrud - Bivrost – A Tale of Courage and Resilience: The Escape of Jan Baalsrud
https://www.bivrost.com/a-tale-of-courage-and-resilience-the-escape-of-jan-baalsrud/
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Setting the Tone
00:00:00
Speaker
Hello, Samantha. Hello, darkness.
00:00:24
Speaker
Hi, I love that darkness. Hello with your rainbow raccoon. Yeah. That's so cute. You look so gay.
00:00:35
Speaker
am I gay? I've got a news flash for you. You're gay and this is the Jeff and Sam show. The gay Jeff and Sam show. The very, very. Who are you? I'm Jeff.
00:00:48
Speaker
And I'm Sam. Or gay. Yeah, we are. Welcome to the Jeff and Sam show. This is basically the hot mess that you signed up to listen for. And it's too late because you've already hit that play button.
00:00:59
Speaker
And like, what's the point of stopping now? No going back. You can't go back. Just see where we go. Yeah, just see where we go. We're kind of hot messes. We promise you that. Kind of. cut Yeah, we're a lot of. That was really delicate. Very hotnesses, the two of us. you're sweet. Or the way you say it, the twos of us. The twos of us. Is that weird? You say it like that all the time. It's not weird. that weird? No. Oh, okay. The of All the time, the twos of us. The twos of them. The twos of them are walking down the street.
00:01:26
Speaker
I didn't know I did that. Yeah. The twos. This sounds the twos of them. as You didn't know you did that? No. I love that. those of us two The two don't like it without an S. No, you never said it without an S. You have never said it without an S. So what's new? What's going on? How are you?
Recording from Norway: Travel Experiences
00:01:41
Speaker
Well, I'm coming to you from Norway. So. That's right. I'm doing great. Yeah. Okay. having my best life. You're living your best life, right? i am having my best life. So I was doing some, like, we're recording this early on. This is not the 18th of June when we record it, but this show comes out on the 18th of June. So we're really messing with our brains here. So we're really messing with our brains here. And this show will come out at midnight.
00:02:09
Speaker
The Thursday, 18th of June. And that's like 6 o'clock in the morning for us because we're in Norway. Right? Oh, okay. Oh, but... Wait, I'm going to help.
00:02:22
Speaker
But it's going to come out midnight. Midnight on the eighteenth But it'll still come out midnight they' their time because... it comes out midnight Eastern time. Yeah. This time zone. Yeah. So that's like 6 a.m. m or 6 hours ahead in Norway. Norway. Dumbass.
00:02:39
Speaker
Me. So... Me too. I was like, wow, we're going to post it from Norway. We both are. And not I did this um ah thing where I was kind of Googling how to get from Stavanger to Ulensvang Hotel. ah yes, Ulensvang. Honey, let me tell you. no.
00:03:02
Speaker
Okay, first of all, Norwegian has three letters in their alphabet that English does not have, okay? And the first letter... on the first fjord that we're gonna drive by, is called it's a A with an O, ah like a so little circle over it.
00:03:17
Speaker
And I think that, I will be corrected probably, but that's O. So like, O-Kra-Fjord, for, well, that's a hard one. O-Kra-Fjorden.
00:03:28
Speaker
That's the first fjord that we're going to pass. and The second fjord that we're going to pass, because it is five hours of driving by fjords. Shut up! Has the second letter in their alphabet that we don't have, which is an O with a line through it. Yeah! So cool this is called Sur-Fjorden. So that it's that sound, right? O-Kra-Fjorden.
00:03:48
Speaker
oh Yeah. Something like that. Yeah. We're doing it very American, but you know, that's who we are. ah So, but these fjords are so long. So anyway, when this comes out, we'll be getting up to make that drive into the mountains of Norway, looking at the fjords as we drive along. It's not like it's my dream or anything. Yeah. It's going to be great. It's going to be gay. It's going to be gay.
00:04:10
Speaker
I'm down. Yeah. Right. So anyway, um yeah, there's that. So while you guys are waking up to go to work or waking up to do anything.
00:04:23
Speaker
Or whatever you do. Mow your lawn. Mow your lawn. Pick your weeds. Pick your weeds. Yeah. Edge your walkways. Yeah. While you guys are doing that, with our voices playing inside your ears, we'll be driving along shords that we can't pronounce.
00:04:39
Speaker
And I won't even try it. Who Because i feel like it'll be offensive. No, it won't be offensive. Trust me. um what else do we have?
Missing DC Pride: Reflections and Drinks
00:04:47
Speaker
Warblers. Oh, it's Pride Weekend. it is. Starting on the 19th. DC Pride Weekend. So for all of you who are going, have a blast for me. And I'm confused why it's so late this year, but I'm bummed I'm missing it.
00:05:03
Speaker
But I'm also not bummed because I'm in Norway. Sorry. The thing I Googled said Pride was from June 12th until the 20-something. But I guess it's really only a weekend, though, right?
00:05:15
Speaker
So the big the big shebang is only ever a weekend. But there's always, like, multiple different things that are happening throughout because they separate things out and they... they kind of dedicate certain days or or events to like the different groups within the pride LGBT community.
00:05:36
Speaker
So they'll do like pride for women of color, um pride that is your fridge is open. Oh no. Keep talking. I'm going to pretend like I'm still sitting here. um So yeah, it's, ah there's a lot of events that go on that don't get publicized as much as the the Pride March, the parade, and the like the festival.
00:06:03
Speaker
All right. But enjoy, everybody. That'll be fun. holyie We'll be far, far away in the land of the Viking. Okay, what are we drinking? ah Oh, I'm drinking bubbly.
00:06:19
Speaker
Coconut pineapple. Oh, I'm drinking a high noon peach salsa. Cheers queers. Cheers to all the queers. Yes, to all the queers.
00:06:30
Speaker
Sam, oh was that your funny bone? No. It wasn't funny, was it? No. There's a mustache on your can. Sorry. so So Sam was at work earlier after I finished working out, and I went to the store to buy us these drinks, and she texted me and said, what a...
00:06:47
Speaker
ah fucked up day it was at work and so i thought you know she needs a high noon because it's never bedtime for a nooner no i gave her the choice but i i texted her i said do you want this flavor this flavor this flavor then i walked through the whole store picked up the things i needed got back to the drink section and i was like holding my phone in my hand waiting for a response so i said i'm picking your drink for you you're getting peach And honestly, good choice, m'lady. You're a peach.
00:07:16
Speaker
yeah I am peach, aren't I? You are peach. No, but seriously, did you see the mustache? Uh-uh. On your can. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. So if I do it like this, that's so cute.
00:07:29
Speaker
Bubbly, this is good. This is coconut pineapple. Put it like your...
00:07:39
Speaker
so Oh, it looks a little Hitler-y. Yeah, it's a little too small. Bubbly. ah All right. Awkward silence, awkward laugh.
Childhood Stories and Family Adventures
00:07:53
Speaker
Okay, I got a story for you. Should we just go right into the story? Dive. Dive. Diving. Off of the high dive. Okay. With perfect form. Obviously, except this one time when I was in the fourth grade, I went to jump off the high dive because everybody would watch me because I could do flips and stuff off the high dive. Because you're an acrobat. And when I jumped off of the high dive, I didn't know, i didn't make up my mind before I took the plunge about what I was going to do. So I jumped off of the dive. This is fourth or fifth grade Jeff.
00:08:26
Speaker
Jumped off the high dive and I was like, uh-oh, what am I doing? And I didn't do anything. I just fell straight flat on my stomach from the high dive. Lesson learned. Make up your mind before you jump off the high dive.
00:08:40
Speaker
Know what you want to do. Before you jump off anything. God, it was like busted. i was so red, burning. oh Oh, it was painful.
00:08:51
Speaker
Yikes, man. From a high dive. And everybody was watching. mean, you didn't even think to like curl in on yourself, twist a little bit. I didn't have time. It just went so, it went so fast. It went so fast. Lesson learned.
00:09:02
Speaker
Okay. So, Samantha. Tell me this story. 2022, my family and I. Great year. took a trip up a... We but took a hike up a big mountain. It was a hard hike. And on the way up the mountain, it was rainy. It was so cold. i think I've told you this story before, but I haven't told them.
00:09:24
Speaker
So put oh I put this story within the story. So it was like cold and rainy and cloudy and... Like the terrain shifts, you pass through some swampland, you go up through some forest, then you come upon some stone stairways that are built by the Nepalese Sherpas. okay My brother-in-law, he's a black cloud, he says, he's not a black cloud, but he likes to joke that he's a black cloud. And he was like, you know, we're not gonna have a good view when we get to the top of the mountain. i just know that we're not, it's gonna be super cloudy, we're not gonna see this amazing view.
00:10:01
Speaker
So then Lena and i were like, we will take that energy and we will challenge the energy. We're going to have. Because you guys are just like personal sons. We're going to have the most beautiful weather when we get to the top. So every time Keith would make one of those statements, Lena and I would lock eyes and we'd be like, no, no, no, no.
00:10:22
Speaker
We're going to have an amazing view. So, and I've seen this view before. I've been on that hike before. It's phenomenal. So when we get to the top of the mountain to the 1,980 feet elev elevation, it's super cloudy.
00:10:38
Speaker
I mean, like you can't even, there's a cliff and then there's an end of the cliff and you can't see past the end of the cliff. So we're like, let's just sit down, let's eat, okay, because, you know, you have to eat or you get hangry.
00:10:54
Speaker
And as we're eating, literally the clouds part. they give way to what is probably one of the most beautiful views I've ever seen on Earth.
00:11:08
Speaker
And it's a 10,000 year old fjord is what they give way to. i mean, we're eating and the clouds open up. It was a moment, you know?
00:11:20
Speaker
So today, Samantha, for my story, I'm gonna take you to the land of the midnight sun, to the land of trolls, to the land of Vikings, and to the land of some of the longest fjords in the world.
00:11:38
Speaker
Norway.
Introducing Jan Balzrud's WWII Story
00:11:39
Speaker
And often when I explain to Norway to people and I'll say something about how magnificent the ford's fjords are, people have no idea what I'm talking about.
00:11:50
Speaker
So we also have the legendary Vikings to think for the word fjord, which means to travel across from the old Norse word. A fjord is an underwater valley carved by glaciers, generally narrow, with steep-sided mountains on either side. These U and B-shaped valleys were carved by ancient rivers of ice which have since disappeared.
00:12:14
Speaker
ala Because these valleys are below sea level, they have been inundated with seawater, creating the fjords that we see today. It's just a little backstory into the story that I'm about to tell. so just Just real quick timeout. So you're telling your little first story and you're at 1900 feet.
00:12:35
Speaker
The hike that we will be embarking on the day after this comes out is nearly 2900 feet. twenty nine hundred feet So the hike that I was talking about is Prekostolen.
00:12:48
Speaker
That's the preacher's pulpit is the translation to English. And it is, we were told like it's gonna take us two and a half hours to get to the top. There is no way. The Norwegian Marines take two and a half hours to get to the top. I ain't a Norwegian Marine. So it takes us like four hours to get to the top, maybe. Three and a half to four hours to get to the top.
00:13:13
Speaker
The hike that you and I are doing, total is about seven hours, maybe. so we're getting up before sunrise, right? So that the sun's still up when we start to des descend? Well, it's summertime, so the sun will be up until like 11 p.m., so we're good.
00:13:34
Speaker
Perfect. We can hike all day long. Okay, so you know that I love a survival story, and I love Norway, And I love any badass story relating to World War II. Okay. It's like you know me.
00:13:48
Speaker
You're missing one key thing here. What? Where's the lady? ah Well, we have it all, minus the lady. ah This is the story of the Norwegian resistance to Germany and the survival of Jan Balzrud.
00:14:05
Speaker
Okay. I used recoil off-grid. Why are you making that face? Okay. chris His name. um So I'm just going to call him Jan. Please.
00:14:15
Speaker
But the last name is balls rude. know I'm probably like, I'm going to fuck up every Norwegian word in this, but I'm just going to go with it. Just, just throw it out there. Cause I've been doing it for 30 something years.
00:14:27
Speaker
Yeah. But that's not how you say it. That's how I say it. So that's how I'm going to say it. It wouldn't even sound like that. Anyway, he's a hero. So Recoil Off Grid is one of the sources.
00:14:41
Speaker
Nord Norgah is one of the other sources. And there's a movie called The 12th Man that I watched. Not about the Seahawks fans? No. Okay.
00:14:51
Speaker
No. It was really good. You should put that on your list of movies. Okay, so it's April 9th, 1943, and Nazi Germany has just
A Mission Gone Wrong: The Escape Begins
00:15:01
Speaker
invaded Norway.
00:15:02
Speaker
This was a shock to Norway because of its neutral... It was neutral. Because it's Norway. It's Norway. Leave him So it was neutral during World War one Hitler, he didn't care.
00:15:14
Speaker
Norway had a stronghold in the North Atlantic and a lot of natural resources that were appealing to Germany. There was a small minority minority in Norway who welcomed the Nazis, and they were headed by Vidkun Kvisling.
00:15:28
Speaker
Kvisling was outspoken in his support for Hitler, so he landed a position as the head of state. But a lot of Norwegians bravely fought back against Hitler, and they did so with underground resistance groups.
00:15:40
Speaker
The Linga Company, headed by Captain Martin Linga, was one of those units that fought back. The Linga Company fought back in big ways by sabotaging plants that were used for making explosions. but the Plants, not like botanical plants, like...
00:15:57
Speaker
Like buildings buildings and boats and airplanes, stuff like that. So that was the big ways, right? right Well, they, um glycer glycerin, like there was a plant that was making glycerin because it was used as an explosive. yeah They would blow that plant up.
00:16:16
Speaker
Like sneaky stuff, right? Yeah. But there were also men and women who were regular everyday people of Norway that were also resisting but in very subtle ways. And a lot of these ways we'll just never know about because they didn't talk about it, right?
00:16:32
Speaker
So Linga and his man were supported by the British Special Forces and trained in Shetland, Scotland before they were to return. love everything about this. knew you would. I knew you would.
00:16:43
Speaker
So they were trained in Shetland, Scotland before they were to return to Norway to conduct raids and sabotage missions against the Nazis. So March 28th, 1943, group of four commandos from the Linke Company, along with eight other Norwegians embarked on Operation Martin.
00:17:03
Speaker
They set sail on the MS Bratholm. The goal of the operation was to sneak into into the town of Tromsø and use eight tons of explosives to destroy critical asset assets at a German airbase in the town of Bardafoss in the north of Norway.
00:17:19
Speaker
So when you're looking at a map, of norway Norway connects to Russia and to Finland. Sweden is below that connection. so the Eight tons is a lot of... Eight tons is a lot and it's on the MS Bratholm.
00:17:37
Speaker
So they're gonna, they take it it... makes it off of the boat, right? It's not gonna explode? Oh honey. So during this mission, one of the um the men on the boat attempted to make contact with the members of the resistance.
00:17:51
Speaker
But it turns out that the man that he ended up speaking to was a shopkeeper with the same name, but the shopkeeper was the Nazi sympathizer. No! Not the resistance. So the shopkeeper promptly reported the conversation to the Gestapo.
00:18:10
Speaker
Now the 12 men quickly returned to the MS Bratholm, the boat that had the eight tons of explosives on it, and they attempted to escape, but like the war the Nazi warships were coming around the fjord, right? And there's no way. It's just one way and Yeah, it's one way, one way only. So the Nazis were on to them. The German warship intercepted the Bratholm at Toftefjorden, which is near the island of Ribenesoya.
00:18:36
Speaker
The 12 men aboard the MS brought home had a decision. Now ultimately they decided to blow the ship up because of the secret information on it rather than to hand it over.
00:18:46
Speaker
So they lit a time-delayed fuse and with about two minutes until the explosion all 12 men jumped off of that ship onto a dinghy and that's a very small boat.
00:18:58
Speaker
and they tried to escape. Now, the Germans immediately opened up fire on the dinghy. They shot and killed one of the 12 men, and the dinghy sank. So 10 of the other men were captured. They were taken to Tromso, and they were handed over to the Gestapo and no executed.
Jan's Miraculous Escape and Villager Support
00:19:17
Speaker
Jan Balzrud, the last of the 12, was able to escape. He was the 12th man, which is what that movie is about. It is brutally...
00:19:29
Speaker
Well done. So good. So Jan was born in Christiania, which is now Oslo, which is Norway's capital city in 1917. And like the other boys of his time, he came from modest means. He was the son of an instrument maker. He completed his military compulsory military service when he was 19. He then finished school as a cartographical instrument maker in 1939. Okay.
00:19:54
Speaker
This means that he designed, calibrated, manufactured the precision tools used for surveying, navigation, and map making. So like he made compasses, right? Yeah. And when World War II broke out, he went to serve his country.
00:20:08
Speaker
In 1941, Jan reached Great Britain after having traveled through the Soviet Union, India, Africa, Brazil, and the United States. He's my kind of guy. Wow. He then joined the Norwegian company Linga in Shetland, Scotland.
00:20:23
Speaker
So here we are back in Scotland. Jan, who was 25 at the time, had been preparing to conduct an underwater demolition element of the Operation Martin. He would swim to the cold Norwegian water, through the cold Norwegian water, to sea plains and plant mines underneath the sea plain to destroy the plain.
00:20:44
Speaker
So it's reasonable to say that the preparation for this mission explains the first steps of his survival. So when the Germans opened fire on the dinghy, Jan dove into the frigid Arctic water and swam like yards to shore.
00:21:01
Speaker
During either his jump in or during the swim, he lost one of his boots and the sock. As he's swimming to the shore, his uniform is starting to freeze. Oh, my God. So it would make it heavier and harder for him to swim.
00:21:19
Speaker
As the bullets shoot and whiz past him, one of the bullets hits him in his, it grazes his toe, his big toe. Now, eventually, Jan, with his missing boot, you look cold. just imagined, he's terrible. He's poor guy. She's got her hands under her armpits, and she's like she's frozen looking. Okay, so the bullets shooting past One hits him in his big toe.
00:21:47
Speaker
Now, eventually, Jan, with his missing boot, injured foot, frozen uniform, made it to the shore of the island Ribonisoya, and he hid in a ravine. But the fucking Nazis were following him.
00:22:01
Speaker
And as two of the soldiers drew closer to him, Jan drew his Colt revolver revolver and he fired it. He went to fire it, but the gun was frozen. is it yeah So Jan unloaded the cartridge, he forced it back in and he fired the gun.
00:22:17
Speaker
He killed one of the Nazis and he injured the other one as he's running up the hill. Jan found a hiding spot that night. Eventually, he was found by two young girls, one of which was named Dagmar Idripsson.
00:22:32
Speaker
Dagmar had heard the explosion of the MS Bratholm echo throughout the fjord earlier that day. That was probably wicked. So, eight times... And like the the echoing off the mountains around it, it's a bowl. Yeah.
00:22:45
Speaker
And in a later interview, Dagmar would say to the New York Times in 2016, when asked about that day, Jan was ice cold. His uniform was frozen, solid. Despite this, she described his sensitivity, courtesy, and grateful attitude toward her family as they helped him.
00:23:04
Speaker
So Jan didn't stay long with edroopen with the Idroupsen family. He knew that he had to keep moving. He also knew that the longer he stayed with them, the more danger he put them in.
00:23:15
Speaker
And they were innocent. So he had to keep running. And his goal, Jan's goal, was to get to Sweden. Because Sweden is a neutral country still. Nazis haven't taken over Sweden.
00:23:27
Speaker
So and feel like this is when Jan starts to become like a symbol of hope for Norwegians. Yeah. You know? It's like this moment is when the word started to spread about Jan.
00:23:38
Speaker
And the resistance, they had a like something hopeful. yeah you know Jan was becoming the subject of a nationwide manhunt by the Germans. He walked through northern Norway, moving very cautiously from one village to another.
00:23:53
Speaker
He asked people for help, and they could be sympathizers, but they never were. They were always part of the resistance. wish they'd wear badges, you know? Yeah. Like, I like the Nazis. Absolutely, yeah.
00:24:05
Speaker
Jan, um he never settled in one place for too long, and he never disclosed who he had spoken to before or where he was headed to next. And people were helping him.
00:24:17
Speaker
They would tend to his wounds. They would give him food. They would inform him who was and was not part of the resistance. A kind fisherman gave him new boots and a pair of skis. Yeah.
00:24:28
Speaker
Did he still have his toe? Is his toe okay? Put a pin in that. Okay. We're going to come back to that. um A father grieving the loss of his own innocent child rode him in a dinghy throughout the night, one night.
00:24:41
Speaker
Another a Norwegian person warded off a German soldier while keeping him hidden, and there was even a midwife who offered to disguise him as a woman in labor just to help him get to the next place.
00:24:55
Speaker
He was shielded from German soldiers and he was shunted between villages. Jan had this little problem now apart from the big problem that the Nazis were hunting him.
Survival Against the Odds: Frostbite and Avalanches
00:25:05
Speaker
The frostbite on his feet had started to turn black and gangrenous.
00:25:11
Speaker
Now, if you don't know, gangrene is the death of body tissue due to the lack of blood flow or an infection. And what does it smell like? rot yeah and and disease and and filth and luck. Yeah, and it can kill you yeah like pretty badly.
00:25:31
Speaker
I mean, yeah. yeah yeah So the first leg of Jan's journey ah to Sweden took him four days on skis and through several severe snowstorms.
00:25:43
Speaker
But on the 4th of April, now this started on the 27th, on the 4th of April, Jan made it to Ullsfjord on the west of the Lingen Alps, which also happened to be a heavily fortified area teaming with German soldiers.
00:25:57
Speaker
Actually, at one point, he skied his way through a German camp, but the Germans, they did not recognize him. o I would love for him to become friends with my guy, Imo, that actually took the 30 doses of meth. Oh, yes, my God. So he kept on skiing.
00:26:15
Speaker
They didn't see him. He's on his skis. He goes right through. In the movie, he literally goes right through them. He pulls his head up over his head, and he just keeps on skiing. Keeps going. Don't make eye contact. And the Germans were not the most dangerous thing that Jan faced. He kept running into fucking snowstorms. um Eventually, he found himself at the foot of Yagavar, which is a 900-meter mountain on the Lingen River.
00:26:39
Speaker
not Only one way to go, and that's up. Passing over the mountain was critical to his escape, but Jan was not at all equipped for this task, but he had to do it.
00:26:50
Speaker
And then another blizzard set in. And this mountain was the kind that like one step you fall off and die, right? Because it's not like a hill. It's like rugged mountain. Mountain. It's a Norwegian mountain. So in the middle of the snowstorm, Jan didn't know which direction to walk without falling off the cliff. So he made snowballs.
00:27:12
Speaker
He threw the snowball and he listened to the sound that it made when it hit the ground. Basically, if he did not hear the snowball land to the right, he did not go to the right. That's valid. Where he heard the snowball land, he went in that direction. So like how far in front of him is he throwing this? Like what if between you and where the snowball lands, it's a drop off, you know, like this is a bad game to play. the only thing you got though, you know, he made it about 50 miles by this time.
00:27:42
Speaker
Finally, Jan made it through the snowstorm. He's doing good. He's making it. And then on April 4th, 1943, Jan felt the earth shake and he heard a large rumble only to realize that it was the sound of an avalanche.
00:27:59
Speaker
And that avalanche swept him 300 feet down into the valley below. That he had just come from? Uh-huh. No! Buried up to his neck and stripped of his skis and his boots.
00:28:13
Speaker
His feet frozen and his skis were now shattered. He spent three days wandering aimlessly in another blizzard. Another snowstorm came and entombed him for another four days.
00:28:25
Speaker
Illiquipped as always, he braved the elements under open skies. I'm already dead like three snowstorms ago. Yeah, I mean, it's like the bullet hits my toe in the water and I'm like... oh And I can't emphasize this enough, like how the Germans are on his ass.
00:28:42
Speaker
Like they know at the beginning when he swims through the water, they think he might have died. But like the head Nazi guy, he gets in the water and he like times himself to see how long he can stay in the cold water.
00:28:55
Speaker
And he first he times times the other 11 men that died or the 10 men that died. 20 seconds here, 20 seconds here. The Nazi guy could stay in there for 20 seconds. so Jan, he's tougher than most people. As evidenced by.
00:29:12
Speaker
Okay. When the weather finally cleared, Jan was hallucinating. He was crippled with frostbite slash gangrene in his toes. But the worst part now was that because of the heavy exposure to the UV light reflecting off of the snow and the ice, Jan was now snow blind.
00:29:32
Speaker
And the symptoms of snow blindness include severe eye pain, gritty feeling, extreme sensitivity to to light, bloodshot and swollen eyes, and blindness. So he was blind from the UV reflection on the snow. That's why you wear ski goggles.
00:29:48
Speaker
Jan kept going, and he ended up in the village of Furuflatan. Now, on April the 8th, in the village of Furuflatan, Jan desperately banged on the door of the very first house he came to, and he didn't know if they were sympathizers or members of the resistance.
00:30:06
Speaker
And also, the Nazi soldiers were one door away at the time that he was knocking on the door. How the fuck did the Nazi soldiers make it through all that? They're in all the towns. They're spread all throughout northern Norway. So it's not the ones that started chasing him. It's other ones. They're words out that this man is on the loose. So the Nazi soldiers, they were one door away. Jan was taken in by a family who immediately helped him.
00:30:32
Speaker
And the home that he stumbled into, he like stumbled into this home, he fell on the dining room table, he started eating all the food on the table because he was desperate. But the woman, Shelog, who was the sister of one of the members of the resistance, owned that home. Her brother's name was Marius Granval.
00:30:50
Speaker
Now the article I read said that at this time, Jan was more dead than he was alive. So for days the Grunvals hid Jan in a hayloft in their barn, hidden while Jan waited on them to return with provisions. He was regaining his strength, but he still had the problem of the gangrene and the frostbite on his toes.
00:31:12
Speaker
While Jan was in that loft, the Gestapo did search the barn that he was in, but he was hidden under the hay. They searched the barn twice, but they never found him. very bad at hide and seek. Yeah.
00:31:25
Speaker
After days, Jan finally regained most of his strength. Now Marius and his friends load Jan onto a stretcher. They roll him past the Nazis, and then they put Jan in a rowboat and row Jan across the fjord, dodging German patrs patrols to row him over to the eastern side of the Lingen fjord.
00:31:45
Speaker
But when they get to the other side of the fjord, they realize that they can't take him up that steep-ass mountain. it's It's impossible. It's too steep. So they recruit a school teacher to help build a sled, but building the sled for him is going to take several days.
00:32:00
Speaker
So they hide Jan in a six-by-nine shed with food, water, a knife, a lamp, and some liquor. Gotta to have the liquor. yeah Amen.
00:32:12
Speaker
Jan jokingly calls this his Hotel Savoy, after the fancy hotel in London. Yeah. He has to stay in the shed for days. Marius was able to visit to see how Jan was doing, but Jan is not doing good. In fact, he's real bad. Still more dead than alive. More dead than alive. The gangrene is starting to spread.
00:32:34
Speaker
He has a really shit choice at this point. This gets a little gruesome right here. So he takes the knife, he heats the blade, he swigs the liquor, and then he cuts off his big toe first, and then he cuts off his other toes with the knife.
00:32:50
Speaker
He was weakening by the day, he was on the brink of starvation, and he was reliant on the goodwill of others. But now he's unable to walk unaided. He wondered if it would be best to end the suffering and ease the risk of those who are helping him. yeah But the sled's complete. The school teacher finished the sled.
00:33:09
Speaker
So that's some good news, but there's another huge snowstorm. So they're delayed for a few days more. Marius and the other men pull Jan when the snowstorm has passed. Marius and the other men pull Jan up the mountain as far as they can, but they can't go any further because people are going to notice that these men are gone. The Nazis will notice because they're eyeing everybody in town. So Marius and those other men, they can only go so far, and they have to leave Jan under a big rock.
00:33:39
Speaker
So it is literally... like a rock that's kind of carved out. So he's laying underneath it. So the snow that falls kind of overhang builds a wall. Yeah.
00:33:51
Speaker
So they leave Jan under the rock buried in the snow for six, I'm sorry, for nine days. Jan at one time had hoped that he would make it to Sweden and that he would be
Jan's Indomitable Spirit and Clever Escape
00:34:02
Speaker
free.
00:34:02
Speaker
But now the hope that he had is gone. And for the first time he contemplates taking his own life. He picks up the gun. He aims it at his head. He pulls the trigger, but the gun is frozen.
00:34:16
Speaker
It doesn't work. So some sources say that he only contemplates it, and some sources said that he actually tried with the gun, but it didn't work. the um This is when something inside of Jan he's had this thing where he had to fight to survive. it was he had this strength, this resilience, and it took hold of him again. So he had this hope come back alive.
00:34:40
Speaker
Barely alive, he continued to fight and he continued to resist. He kept going. The men returned to the rock where Jan has been hidden for nine days. He's still alive and he's ready to go. i don't know how.
00:34:51
Speaker
Nine days under a rock. like, do you feel strongly enough about anything to do this? He's taken... Sorry. It's okay.
00:35:03
Speaker
He's taken to... She's a bull and a china shop. He's taken to one village, then he meets a new group of resistors. They take him to the next town. He meets new resistors, and then they take him to the next town, and so on. So how far does he travel at this point? I'll tell you.
00:35:20
Speaker
Jan is such a symbol of hope for these people, he means a lot to them by now. So eventually Jan makes it to a Norwegian town that sits on the border of Finland.
00:35:32
Speaker
The plan now was to take an extremely weakened Jan to Finland and then from Finland go over to Sweden.
00:35:43
Speaker
But the weather made this treacherous, and the fact that the Gestapo were set all along at the border made it very dangerous. So along the Norwegian-Finland border, the Gestapo, they're just waiting.
00:35:54
Speaker
Every, like, five minutes. They're not going to let pass anybody pass that border. What month is this again? this is April? May? So dude's been going since March 27th, right?
00:36:06
Speaker
Finally, on May 27th,
00:36:10
Speaker
when Jan was entrusted, okay, wait, the weather made it treacherous and then getting through to Finland and Sweden became possible on May 27th when Jan was entrusted in the care of the Sami people.
00:36:24
Speaker
Now the Sami people are the indigenous people of the Scandinavian peninsula. If you've heard of Lapland, yeah they don't call it that anymore, but that they're the indigenous people. Traditionally, the Sami have pursued a variety of livelihoods, including coastal fishing,
00:36:40
Speaker
fur trapping, sheep herding, but their best known means of livelihood just so happens to be reindeer herding. So the Sami placed Jan in a sleigh and covered him up and attached his sleigh to a team of reindeer.
00:36:58
Speaker
And two reindeer herders. And with the Gestapo hot on his trail, Jan made it through the Nazi-occupied Kilpisharve, Finland, and flown by a Red Cross seaplane to Bowdoin, Sweden.
00:37:13
Speaker
Now, in the movie... So, Santa Claus. Yes, in the movie, the scene where he's on the sled and he's being taken but by the reindeer. yeah like These reindeer are running through all these other reindeer. And the Gestapo, they don't think anything of it.
00:37:29
Speaker
Because it's just of reindeer. Just a herd of reindeer, yeah. Fucking genius. So he makes it to Boden, Sweden on June 1st, and that's it. He's finally free. So there's two things in this story, the reasons why I love this story. It's because of his courage, his determination and his courage, but it's also like a story about the humanity, everybody coming together to help this man get to the, it's his freedom means their freedom, yeah you know?
00:37:57
Speaker
After 63 days or a little over two months, covering nearly 200 miles, zigzagging up and down mountains, crossing over fjords and borders, swimming by foot and even by reindeer, Jan has made it to
Legacy of Jan Balzrud: From Escape to Legend
00:38:13
Speaker
safety. At the time of his arrival in Boden, Sweden, Jan weighs 80 pounds.
00:38:19
Speaker
It took six months for Jan to regain his strength. He had to learn how to walk and he had also had to regain his vision. When he fully recovered, Jan moved back to Scotland to train resistance fighters.
00:38:34
Speaker
So Jan was eventually sent back to Norway as an agent at his request. He was still in active of service at the time of the wars in 1945.
00:38:44
Speaker
When the war ended, Jan traveled back to Oslo to reunite with his family that he hadn't seen in over five years. In 1953, 51, sorry, Jan marries Evie, and they have a daughter named Liv.
00:38:59
Speaker
After the war was over, the story of Jan, Ballsrud, became so well known all over the world. In recognition of his services, Jan was awarded the Medal of St. Olaf with an oak branch, a distinction given to only about a thousand people.
00:39:16
Speaker
Jan was also awarded the Order of the British Empire, bedass In 1955, Shetland naval officer, David Hogarth, published an account of Jan's flight under the title We Die along Alone, a World War II epic story of escape and endurance. The book was so popular that they made it into a movie.
00:39:37
Speaker
The movie was so popular that it's often considered to be one of Norway's greatest movies. After the war, Jan contributed to the local scout and football associations.
00:39:50
Speaker
in that In addition, he was the chairman of the Norwegian Disabled Veteran Union from 57 to 64. He moved to Tenerife Canary Island where he lived for most of the remainder of his life. Because he never wanted to see snow ever again. Amen. But in the end of his life, he did return back to Norway. He lived there until his death of natural causes.
00:40:11
Speaker
On December 30th, 1988 is when he died at the age of 71. His ashes are buried in Mandolin in a grave shared with Oslok Fosval, one of the local men who helped him to escape to Sweden.
00:40:25
Speaker
Oh. His headstone is modestly situated next to the fence by the entrance to the churchyard and is no different from any other headstone except for the inscription, quote, Thank you to everyone who helped me to freedom in 1943.
00:40:41
Speaker
And that is the harrowing survival story of Jan Balzerud and the Norwegian Resistance. I never want to see snow again just from that story.
00:40:51
Speaker
Golly. And this, we're talking like, we're talking. Norwegian snowstorms. Up in the North Pole kind of snowstorm. No. That's not Virginia snow, man. It's not even like. Fuck off. That's Alaska kind of snow. It's like up there where Norway meets Russia meets Finland. Where they, Yeah.
00:41:10
Speaker
yeah No. No. yeah yeah i ah yeah yikes that was amazing I hated it I hated it tons of snow ass or at one point I looked over and you are like I could feel that just, and that was early on even when he was just out of the water. I mean, what? do you rose When you were saying he was training to swim in that, I was like, get the fuck out of here. That's unnatural. Unnatural. That's unnatural. I wonder how how cold that water is.
00:41:43
Speaker
i don't wonder that. I don't want to know. you would jump in it. I would. I would have to. And then I would jump out. is Frozen. Yeah. Yeah. You'd see my ice cube body just like bobbing along like in iced tea. Instantly you freeze. The movie The Twelfth Man was so good. Yeah. Okay. I'll have to watch it. It's amazing.
00:42:04
Speaker
But it's kind of a hard one to watch, especially if you're grossed out by certain things, you know? Oh, i yeah. I'm grossed out by so many things, you know? Yeah. Right. Anyway, so that's it for today on this 18th of June. Well, on this 18th of June,
00:42:21
Speaker
because this is the last day before the day. One, I would like to say goodbye, because if if I die tomorrow on this hike, then that's it. And I'm absolving Jeff of any guilt from this, because I've told him that if I die on this hike, it's where I wanna be. And his instructions are very clear. Say it out loud, please.
00:42:45
Speaker
You must make sure that my body ascends to the top of the fjord, okay? and I need you to build a pyre and then place me on it, light it, and then my ashes will float over the fjord. Okay, you heard that, people.
00:43:01
Speaker
People of the universe, you heard that. And also on that note,
00:43:06
Speaker
I guess that would be your birthday celebration. That's how I turned 50, building a pyre. and burning Sam. Letting Sam's ashes float and into the wild beyond over the field. The wild Back to Valhalla. It's going to be amazing. It's goingnna be amazing. And I cannot wait to celebrate your birthday that way. and we It'll be grand. What am I going to wear on top of the mountain? I will tell you when it's time to put it on. When we're on top of the mountain. Yep.
00:43:35
Speaker
Yeah. Like I said, i think I'm going to make you wear one of the things as we trek. Yeah. I just have to really think about that because I don't think it will be comfortable for seven hours.
00:43:48
Speaker
If there's a lot of people too that were meeting on these this trail, I don't really wanna be in all that, meeting all these people. But you just made that face at me, so I guess I will be in all that. I mean, 50, Jeffrey.
00:44:03
Speaker
You're turning fabulous 50 on a Norwegian mountain. I'm just saying. That's insane, right? That's insane. I mean, I have my own Samfest float day. You are hiking the Queens Trail in Norway.
00:44:18
Speaker
I'm hacking the what? The Queen's Trail. The what? Drillinstein. The Queen's Trail. It's going to be so much fun. Yeah, it'll be grand. It'll be grand, and we're there right now, so we got to go. Later, losers. We got this drive Talk to you later.
00:44:32
Speaker
Okay, remember, we're here for a good time. And only 50 years for Jeff. Boom. bye