Erik Gjems - Onstad Erik - Ørn Gjems - Onstad , MBE ( 22 February 1922 – 18 November 2011 ) was a Norwegian resistance member , officer , lawyer , sports official , politician , author and anti - immigration activist . Gjems - Onstad joined the Norwegian resistance movement after Nazi Germany invaded Norway in 1940 . He was arrested in Sweden for his involvement with Norwegian resistance activity in the country in 1941 . He was sent to the United Kingdom later the same year , where he joined the Norwegian Independent Company 1 ( " Kompani Linge " ) and received British military training . He was deployed to Norway in 1943 as part of Lark , with the mission of establishing radio connection with London and to operate the radio transmitter . He led Lark in Trøndelag between 1943 and 1945 , which constituted the leadership of Milorg in the region . His other activities included to assist with weapons smuggling , prepare the sinking of the German battleship " Tirpitz " and plotting to assassinate Nazi collaborator Ivar Grande . He also founded the Durham organisation for conducting psychological warfare towards the end of the war , and he took part in blowing up railway tracks . Gjems - Onstad ' s efforts during the Second World War led him to become one of Norway ' s highest decorated war heroes . He joined the Norwegian Home Guard after the war , where he served as a captain . He completed education in law , and also worked as a judge and lawyer . He ultimately reached the rank of colonel in the military , as military lawyer of a branch of the Royal Norwegian Air Force . For some years he was CEO of a project that planned to develop the Vaterland neighbourhood in Oslo . Gjems - Onstad also had a career in sports , representing the sports club SK Rye in cycling and racewalking . He later worked as a sports official as board member and chairman of various national sports bodies . A former member of the Conservative Party and the libertarian organisation Libertas , Gjems - Onstad joined Anders Lange ' s Party when it was founded in 1973 and became the party ' s deputy leader . He was elected a Member of Parliament in the 1973 parliamentary election , and became the party ' s parliamentary leader following Anders Lange ' s death in 1974 . Much of his views and proposals spurred controversy , and he also got in conflict with the new leadership of the party , which was eventually headed by Carl I . Hagen . Gjems - Onstad was expelled from the party in 1976 , and finished his term as an independent . He also became known for criticising the Norwegian government ' s policy in Africa , and for defending the governments of countries such as Rhodesia and South Africa . In the 1980s he worked as a defender for several anti - immigration activists , and from the late 1980s he became involved in anti - immigration politics himself . He stood in election for the Stop Immigration party in 1989 and for the Fatherland Party in 1991 , and he was later involved in the organisations " Folkebevegelsen mot innvandring " and Stop Islamisation of Norway . He was briefly active locally in the Conservative Party and the Pensioners ' Party in the late 2000s . Early life . Erik - Ørn Gjems - Onstad was born in Kristiania ( modern - day Oslo ) to jurist and civil servant Olaf Gjems - Onstad ( 1882 – 1945 ) and architect Ågot Urbye ( 1886 – 1959 ) . He worked at sea as a cabin boy in 1937 , and went to port in both Africa and Asia . He finished his secondary education in 1940 . Gjems - Onstad was active in the boy scouts before the invasion , and he was because of his experience there asked to instruct in map and compass for a volunteer military training program in late 1939 . He thereafter became scout leader as the former leader went to fight in the Winter War . Due to the war in Europe , the scout exercises became increasingly serious , and the scout movement arguably had a big part in the early organisation of the Norwegian resistance . In the winter of 1939 / 40 , Gjems - Onstad commenced training in orienteering and signaling during the night . The weekend before the invasion , he and a friend were " preparing for war " by training and sleeping in a tent outdoors in the snow in the forest Vestmarka , something that was highly unusual to do at the time . Second World War . Early activities . On 9 April 1940 , Nazi Germany invaded and occupied Norway as a part of the Second World War . Gjems - Onstad became aware of the German presence when he and his family saw German planes flying right over their home . They did not get any notification of what was happening , and only music was played on the radio . Gjems - Onstad took his bike and cycled to his school , the Oslo Cathedral School , only to find it closed and in a chaotic state . He thereafter went to the city centre and " Karl Johans gate " , where he witnessed the Germans marching through . The next ( or possibly the same ) day , a German Junkers plane crashed near him and his friend when they were on their way from Lysaker to get a closer view of the captured Fornebu Airport . He briefly found himself in the situation of attempting to rescue the Germans trapped inside the plane , but the heat was unbearable and the two were told by the Germans to run away and get in safety just moments before the plane exploded . The proclamation by Norwegian Prime Minister Johan Nygaardsvold on 10 April ( that rejected the German claim to appoint Vidkun Quisling as Norwegian Prime Minister ) , was according to Gjems - Onstad received with great disappointment by him and his friends . He thought it contained nothing but verbiage , with no remarks about mobilisation , defence , fighting or war . He thereafter wanted to join the resistance , but on his way met a man who told him that he would be rejected if he had not been through recruit training , and he thus returned home . After a few days , he and a friend nevertheless set out for Northern Norway . They came as far north as Nord - Trøndelag , where they however gave up and returned home . Gjems - Onstad started studying at the University of Oslo in late 1940 , and he got in touch with students who wanted to organise a resistance movement . One time , he and other youth who sympathised with the resistance disrupted a public meeting held by the fascist party " Nasjonal Samling " ( NS ) . They deliberately clapped their hands so relentlessly ( they considered that they could not get punished for " cheering " ) that the speakers could not speak , and thereafter started leaving the room . Many were however blocked from leaving , and Gjems - Onstad and a few others were arrested and fined due to their role in the event . In September he participated in a clash between students and a group of " Hird " members ( the NS ' s paramilitary organisation ) outside the university . A young boy came by during the initial stand - off , asking Gjems - Onstad what was happening . Gjems - Onstad responded that the others were traitors , and " Hird " members thus captured him and beat him up . Later , due to an outbreak of foot - and - mouth disease in December , Gjems - Onstad took part in digging mass graves for slaughtered cows in Dikemark and in Nesøya . In late 1940 , an engineer had created some military inventions which Gjems - Onstad ' s group wanted to bring to the Allied forces . It was decided that one of them was to travel to the UK , while Gjems - Onstad was to travel to Stockholm . Gjems - Onstad was joined by three others , and they decided to let themselves be arrested in Östmark in Sweden . They were transported to Stockholm , but the Norwegian legation was not interested in the inventions . Gjems - Onstad was later tipped to contact the British military attaché . He got in contact with Major Malcolm Munthe , who in turn was interested in the inventions . Gjems - Onstad was arrested by Swedish police in Stockholm on 25 March 1941 , as parts of Munthe ' s organisation had been exposed . Gjems - Onstad was imprisoned at the Stockholm police station for 13 days , and then for 59 days in the Stockholm Remand Prison . On 23 May 1941 the government decided that he was to be expelled and banned from entering Sweden ( the ban was repealed after the war ) . He was originally scheduled to be deported to Canada via Moscow and China , but the plans were halted due to the German invasion of the Soviet Union . He was instead sent to the Norwegian refugee camp in Öreryd . He was ordered by the British to escape from Öreryd in October 1941 and travel to Norway . He was captured by the Swedish Home Guard close to the Norwegian border , but was sent by plane to the UK by Swedish authorities in December . In the resistance . When Gjems - Onstad arrived in the UK , he joined the Norwegian Independent Company 1 ( " Kompani Linge " ) and took British military education . The British decided in 1943 to deploy him to Trøndelag in Norway together with Odd Sørli , Johnny Pevik and Nils Uhlin Hansen . The deployment was necessary as Evald Hansen and Herluf Nygaard had been captured and tortured in December 1942 ( Nygaard later escaped , Hansen died at Falstad ) . Sørli and Gjems - Onstad were set to maintain Lark , establish radio connection with London and get intelligence about the German battleship " Tirpitz " , which at the time was located in the Trondheimsfjord . When he was training at Glen More Lodge near Aviemore , Gjems - Onstad was ordered to go to London , where he was supplied with a 20 kg radio transmitter and other equipment . Together with Sørli he travelled to Inverness by train , and to Shetland by plane , under stormy weather conditions . They initially set out with the fishing boat " Harald II " from Scalloway in late February , but due to unusually stormy weather they were driven back to Shetland three times after three unsuccessful attempts to reach Ålesund ; the last attempt destroyed their equipment as the boat was bursted open . They had their equipment replaced , and set out for Kristiansund in March instead on a bigger boat . With easier , yet still poor weather , the voyage took two days . When they reached land they noticed that they had reached Kya Lighthouse , much farther to the north of their original destination , but they decided to make landfall anyway . From there they travelled with fake identification via Namsos to Trondheim , where they reunited with fellow Lark members Johnny Pevik and Nils Uhlin Hansen , the other group sent from London . Gjems - Onstad thereafter assisted Pevik and Hansen with transporting five tons of weapons from an uninhabited island near Lyngvær to Trondheim . Lark received missions from London ( sometimes via Stockholm ) , and constituted the leadership of Milorg in Trøndelag where they in practice were the same entity . Gjems - Onstad started his operations in Trondheim by establishing radio connection with London and operating the radio transmitter , and he soon became one of the most important persons in the leadership of Milorg . His saboteur activity included to prepare the sinking of " Tirpitz " , but the plans were never realised as the ship had left the Trondheimsfjord in early 1943 . Sørli commanded Gjems - Omstad to a spontaneous assassination of Nazi collaborator Ivar Grande after spotting him incidentally , but Gjems - Onstad aborted after noticing a division of Russian POWs , fearing for what in turn might happen to them if he went through with the assassination . Some days later he again plotted to assassinate Grande together with Sørli and Ingebrigt Gausland . They delivered a box booby trap ped with an egg hand grenade to his home , but Grande foiled the attempt with advice Norwegian Gestapo agent Henry Rinnan ( who was present at the time ) had received on not to open such boxes . Following the attempted assassination , he was ordered to not get himself involved in any further such attempts , as it was considered too risky for him . Gjems - Onstad took over as leader of the group from Sørli in October 1943 , and it was decided to pull him out of Norway and close the radio station following news that Pevik had been arrested . He left Trondheim for Stockholm later that month , and received training in psychological warfare . When Sørli came to Stockholm in January 1944 he took over for Gjems - Onstad , while Gjems - Onstad was to take over the leadership of Lark as well as to reorganise Milorg . Gjems - Onstad also founded the propaganda organisation Durham when he came back to Trondheim in March 1944 . Lark and Durham were to be kept completely separate , with Gjems - Onstad as their only mutual connection . Durham ' s mission was to influence the moral of the enemy , mainly through distributing brochures ( an estimated 115 , 000 copies in total ) and posters ( an estimated 257 , 000 ) , while also to cause irritation by minor sabotage . The brochures were chiefly distributed in the enemy ' s quarters , and the posters were put up throughout Trondheim . Members of the group also tore down Nazi posters , sabotaged German vehicles , threw stink bomb s into restaurants and cinemas , and applied itching powder — notably in condom s for sale to German soldiers . Sabotage on a bigger scale had to be authorised from London , and was largely discouraged as it would risk unnecessary German reprisals . Gjems - Onstad reported back in Stockholm at the end of June . Eager to bring supplies to Trondheim , he and Sørli soon decided to transport propaganda material , handguns and explosives to the Norwegian border . After finding a lost resistance member in the mountains , Gjems - Onstad joined a course in Alby near Stockholm where he worked as instructor in " silent killing " for a month . He went for a short mission to Trondheim in July in order to insert Egil Løkse as Lark ' s new radio operator there . By his next time in Trondheim , the Gestapo had gained knowledge of Gjems - Onstad ' s activities , and did their outermost to capture him . Gjems - Onstad went back to Trondheim at the end of October . He was to establish a new radio station , and investigate if Milorg and Lark could be rebuilt , as the organisation had been severely damaged by multiple arrests and murders . Durham was however largely intact . The mission went into a new phase , as the Norwegian resistance started organising defence against potential destructions during the now largely inevitable German withdrawal . A continuation of the scorched earth policy practiced in Northern Norway was particularly feared . Gjems - Onstad and Lark were not to lead the defence , but rather to organise it and train new recruits . In November he authorised the creation of the illegal newspaper " For Friheten " by his own initiative , the first in Trondheim in years . He also operated the paper " DFP " , or " Deutsche Freiheitspartei " , a form of black propaganda distributed to German soldiers and officers . He became increasingly frustrated with the damages caused by Rinnan and his gang of Nazi collaborators , and he vocally advocated their assassination . He reported back to Stockholm in November , and as he saw it , little remained of Milorg in Trøndelag after this . He however noted the importance of Durham , which he considered to have grown very powerful . In early 1945 Gjems - Onstad took part in blowing up railway tracks on the stretches around Støren Station , but the group had a limited supply of explosives , and the practical effects of the bombings could thus not cause as much effect as wanted . They could for instance not go through with blowing up the railway bridge near Hovin , which they sought as their main target . He was transferred back to Stockholm in March 1945 , and Durham was dissolved . He reacted with shock that London had decided that it was too dangerous for him to return to Trondheim . He was uneasy about being set on the sideline , and headed a mission of four men from Stockholm to Namsvatnet at the end of the month to receive British sabotage supplies . They established a base of operations , as well as radio connection to the UK by the station " Quail " . The mission returned to Stockholm in early April , and Gjems - Onstad was transferred to a mission in Northern Norway . He was in Troms at the time of the German capitulation . Decorations , comments . In 1944 Gjems - Onstad was promoted to second lieutenant ( " fenrik " ) . He was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire in 1941 , and decorated with the Haakon VII 70th Anniversary Medal in 1942 , the St . Olav ' s Medal With Oak Branch in 1944 , the Defence Medal , War Medal 1939 – 1945 , 1939 – 45 Star and the Norwegian Defence Medal in 1945 and the Norwegian War Cross with Sword in 1947 . As such he was one of Norway ' s highest decorated war heroes . In 1947 he played himself in the documentary film " Det grodde fram " about the Norwegian resistance movement in Trondheim . Gjems - Onstad became critical of the " retracted regional leadership " of the Home Front ( " hjemmefronten " ) which he became aware of in late 1944 . According to him , he and his fellow resistance members had not even heard of their existence . He sent a wire to London requesting that they should take over what remained of Milorg , rather than remaining passive during the occupation only to step forward as leaders of Milorg when the war was over . He became more critical when he became aware that they had started entering the administration in London and Stockholm , according to him without the necessary experience from practical fieldwork . He was shocked at the recklessness of one of them who arrived at one of their bases in Trondheim , concluding that they " obviously had no idea about how strong the infiltration really was in Trondheim , nor how we worked . " The regional leadership that stepped forward after the war was according to Gjems - Onstad not identical with the actual leadership of Lark and Milorg during the war . Historians have noted that it was " very surprising " that Erling Gjone stepped forward as the leader of the Home Front in Trøndelag after the German capitulation . He had entered the administration in Stockholm in February 1945 , but he had not been contacted whatsoever by Lark . The decision of putting Gjems - Onstad on the sideline in March 1945 led him to become increasingly critical of the leadership in London , which had gradually become more Norwegian than British , and subsequently decayed into what Gjems - Onstad considered to be a lack of professionality . He also questioned Norway ' s military abilities in a possible future war in Norway , based on post - war developments . According to Gjems - Onstad , what influenced him and his contemporaries to join the resistance was a national feeling that — speaking some 60 years after war — he then considered that was " almost gone . " Gjems - Onstad deliberated his post - war views on the war in a 2008 ten - minute television special . As he saw it , the Norwegian Labour Party government before the war stood " entirely on the side of the Soviet Union . " He pointed to the Soviet Union as the greatest murderer of the war , and considered that nobody had " opened their eyes " to the fact that the Soviet Union was the only country that won territorial gains following the war . While he maintained that the coup headed by Vidkun Quisling was both bad and illegal , he considered that Quisling should be judged softer in light of the situation at the time . He pointed to the government fleeing the country , and what he considered the " pitiful " reaction of Prime Minister Johan Nygaardsvold . He also noted that while some of the figures in the Quisling regime had acted out far too harshly , some others had tried to maintain Norway ' s interests against the occupiers ; the alternative of letting the Germans run the country completely unopposed under Josef Terboven could in his mind have ended up far worse . Gjems - Onstad said he believed that the treason by Quisling should be compared with the lack of preparations for war by Nygaardsvold and the Labour Party government . Gjems - Onstad also complained that he for unexplained reasons had been kept away from public arrangements related to the Second World War . He said he had not been invited to a single such event . He was also in possession of a large archive of wartime material from the resistance movement in Trøndelag , but said he had not been approached with interest by any public institution . Professional career . Gjems - Onstad joined the Norwegian Home Guard after the war . From 1947 to 1959 he held the rank of captain there . He was mobilisation manager as military lawyer colonel at Strike Command Southern Norway ( " Luftkommando Sør - Norge " ) , one of the Air Commands of the Royal Norwegian Air Force , from 1970 to 1980 . He also completed his education in law , graduating with a cand . jur . degree in 1948 . He worked as a judge in southern Buskerud from 1948 to 1949 , and in 1949 he opened a law firm in Oslo . From 1957 he had access to work with Supreme Court cases . He was also a consultant or secretary for " Norsk Gartnerforening " , " Bruktbilhandlerforeningen / Autoriserte Bruktbilhandleres handelsforbund " and for the local branch of the Norwegian Bar Association . He was a board member of the local Bar Association chapter from 1960 to 1964 and of Max Manus AS , the eponymous company belonging to former resistance member Max Manus , from 1965 to 1969 . Gjems - Onstad had served with Manus in the Norwegian Home Guard after the war , and had met his later wife Tikken Manus for the first time in 1943 when she worked as a military attaché in Stockholm . The three remained lifetime close friends ever since they met during the war . In 1961 Gjems - Onstad left his lawyer ' s firm to work as a consultant in Den norske Creditbank . He became a central figure in the DnC ' s plans to develop the Vaterland neighbourhood in Oslo . AS Vaterland was created soon after the DnC had been granted construction rights in 1965 , and was a project designated for planning to develop the Vaterland neighbourhood into a business and office centre . Gjems - Onstad was a board member of AS Vaterland from 1966 to 1972 , and was its CEO from 1970 . He soon got the nickname the " Vaterland King " ( " Vaterlandskongen " ) , after a local 1930s house owner . After a while , the plans for the development was dropped , as neither the bank nor the municipality saw it to be in their interests to realise the plans . Gjems - Onstad was removed from his position with a golden parachute of in 1972 and lost his faith in the project . From 1972 to 1977 he operated a lawyer ' s firm in Oslo again , and from 1977 he moved his office to Hvalstad and worked as a defender in Asker and Bærum District Court . He retired as a defender in 1990 , but remained a lawyer until 2001 . During the 1980s he defended several anti - immigration activists , including Vivi Krogh , Jan Ødegård and Arne Myrdal . He also stated that he by 1994 had helped draft the wills of several anonymous persons who wanted to designate their fortunes , ranging from to , to persons and organisations working against immigration . Sports official . Gjems - Onstad had an active career in sports . He represented the club SK Rye which he joined on 1 August 1936 , and was made an honorary member of the club in 1986 . He became the Norwegian junior champion in cycling in 1939 . He was also an active race walker , with two sixth places in the Norwegian championships achieved between 1967 and 1969 . He chaired the Norwegian Cycling Federation from 1959 to 1965 and the Norwegian Walking Association from 1967 to 1973 . He was a member of the Norwegian Olympic Committee from 1959 to 1973 and a deputy board member of the Norwegian Confederation of Sports from 1965 to 1967 . He was an official for Norway at the Summer Olympics in 1960 and 1972 , and in 1993 he sat on the committee that organized the 1993 UCI Road World Championships . In 1967 he initiated Styrkeprøven , a yearly cyclosportive from Trondheim to Oslo . He completed the race himself more than fifteen times ; the last times with the starting number " 1 " . Politics . Member of Parliament . From 1960 to 1964 Gjems - Onstad was a member of the school board in Oslo , representing the Conservative Party . He was also a member of the libertarian organisation Libertas , but had left it by 1971 as he considered that it had become " too tame . " When Anders Lange ' s Party ( ALP ) was founded in 1973 he joined the party and became deputy leader under Anders Lange . He had been present at the founding meeting at " Saga kino " , and was offered a place in the party ' s central leadership by Anders Lange after they one day incidentally met outside Gjems - Onstad ' s lawyer ' s office . From then on he was the most central person in the party after Lange himself . Besides his leading positions in business and sports , Gjems - Onstad had for years expressed his political views in newspapers and journals , which broadly coincided with Lange ' s views . By offering him positions in the party , Lange particularly thought that Gjems - Onstad could help develop the party politically and organisationally . In the 1973 parliamentary election he won a seat in the Norwegian Parliament from Akershus , and became a member of the Standing Committee on Finance and the Election Committee . During his term he set a new record for number of times speaking to the assembly — 325 times in one year . At the start of his parliamentary term he made some proposals that were opposed by the entire parliament , including his own party . He proposed in November 1973 to introduce gun and shooting training as an optional course for students in high school , and to separate church and state ( with its financial implications ) . The proposals were criticised in a press statement by Anders Lange and the party ' s two other MPs . Turmoil later also erupted in the Akershus and Bærum chapters of the party , and calls were made for expelling Gjems - Onstad due to his proposals in parliament ; this wing however left the party in 1975 after being in clear minority . Gjems - Onstad and Lange nonetheless stood together in their conflict with Carl I . Hagen and Kristofer Almås , who sought to strengthen the party ' s deliberately loose organisation . After Lange ' s death in 1974 , Gjems - Onstad became leader of the party ' s parliamentary group . While Hagen and Almås had broken out and formed the Reform Party earlier the same year , Gjems - Onstad welcomed Hagen back to the party in 1975 for " constructive cooperation " . He thereafter changed to support the work led by Hagen and Arve Lønnum of strengthening the party organisation . Gjems - Onstad ' s cooperation with Hagen was however not to last . In early 1976 Gjems - Onstad voiced his discontent with the ever - ongoing conflicts within the party , and he had by mid - year not decided whether or not he wanted to run for re - election . He eventually felt squeezed out of the party , and wanted no part in the intriguing he considered Hagen to represent . He was replaced as parliamentary leader of the party at the start of October . After he in turn recommended voters to rather vote for the Conservative Party in an interview with " Aftenposten " , he was finally expelled from the party by a unanimously approved motion put forward by Carl I . Hagen later the same month . Gjems - Onstad finished his term as an independent . Positions in parliament . Before the 1973 election Gjems - Onstad advocated a restrictive immigration policy in an interview with " Morgenbladet " . After being elected to parliament , he was the sole member of the Finance Committee to oppose agreements of raising fuel tax es in 1973 . He proposed steep budget cuts in 1974 , notably in press support and in the Office of the Prime Minister . He proposed to abolish the Ministry of the Environment and the Ministry of Consumer Affairs and Administration , as well as 22 laws the same year . Gjems - Onstad also wanted to abolish conscription . In 1975 he criticised parliament for violating the Norwegian Constitution by regularly holding session with less than half of the representatives present . Prime Minister Trygve Bratteli in turn claimed that Gjems - Onstad " undermined democracy " because he was present and spoke in parliament too much . Gjems - Onstad was among the signatories of a petition in 1974 that called on the Norwegian government to secure Israel ' s existence . He wanted to terminate the Norwegian government ' s support of liberation movements in Portuguese Guinea the same year . He proposed to end all public foreign aid , and instead grant tax deduction to private donations . He also proposed to prioritise Norwegian interests in Antarctica higher , and to align Norway ' s ambassador to Thailand with South Vietnam . He advocated expelling the five Soviet KGB spies who had been exposed in Norway in 1975 , but gained no support from the government . He was criticised by the Norwegian Foreign Minister the same year for claiming that Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere used Norwegian taxes for " national socialist " experiments of forcibly moving populations . Gjems - Onstad and Africa . Gjems - Onstad travelled extensively in Africa . He toured Angola for a week in 1973 , and was in Guinea - Bissau in 1974 . He later claimed that blacks and whites had lived peacefully together in these countries when he had visited them before their decolonisation — after which he considered the conditions to be grim — and that the standard of living among blacks had been higher there than in many other places in Africa . He came to regard it as a life ' s mission to work for Africa , and believed that the Norwegian government ' s policy in Africa contributed to destroy the continent through supporting " wars of liberation " and failed foreign aid . He maintained that his prime concern was to warn against the entrenchment of socialism and communism in Africa . He went to Rhodesia in April 1979 as the sole Norwegian observer of the general election , after he had been invited by the Rhodesian Department of Information . He admitted at the same time that he for years had corresponded with the Rhodesian government about how he considered various institutions and individuals in Norway , particularly in the news media . The relationship was initiated after Gjems - Onstad had written a letter of sympathy to Rhodesian Prime Minister Ian Smith some years ahead . When in Salisbury , he met with Smith , Foreign Minister P . K . van der Byl and Head of the Military Peter Walls . Eager to participate with the government army during the Rhodesian Bush War , he was authorised by Walls to patrol with Rhodesian Security Forces around a garnison near Lake Kariba for two days . While he earlier had written he did not think democracy and human rights was optimal in the country — he considered Botswana to be one of the better countries — he considered rule of law to be better than in countries the Norwegian government had supported financially , such as Idi Amin ' s Uganda . He also travelled extensively throughout South Africa , and said that conditions for blacks were better there than in other African countries . He was introduced to a South African official visiting Norway in 1974 by Anders Lange , and visited the country himself in 1975 after being invited by the South African Department of Information . He met with figures including Connie Mulder , and following Lange ' s death he considered himself as the continuation of Lange ' s legacy with regards to the country . He supported the South African policy since the 1970s of gradually dismantling the apartheid system , which included the granting of independence to tribal homelands . He was in the country in April 1976 for a conference that was to prepare the establishment of Transkei . He later considered the homelands to be true democratic states governed by the rule of law , which he considered that many other African states were not . Gjems - Onstad strongly opposed the African National Congress and the Norwegian government ' s support of the group , as he believed their agenda would lead to civil war and a government led by revolutionary socialists — as had happened in other African countries . He later pointed to the development in former Rhodesia , Robert Mugabe ' s Zimbabwe . He arranged several study trips to South Africa , and was part of a group of eight Norwegians who toured the country in 1987 and issued an " apology " to the South African government for the Norwegian government ' s policy towards the country . Later political activity . Carl I . Hagen wrote in his book " Ærlighet varer lengst " in 1984 that he would put his office on the line in order to prevent Gjems - Onstad from making a " comeback " to the Progress Party ( ALP ' s successor ) , despite his alleged requests . Gjems - Onstad criticised Hagen strongly for his complicity in the establishment of a Labour Party government in 1986 , and was a member of the Conservative Party by 1988 . He supported prospects of a Conservative Party government led by Jan P . Syse , but criticised the Norwegian political system for being a " caricature " of democracy , instead considering it a particracy . Gjems - Onstad had according to his own statement in 1987 not seen any reason for getting himself involved in the public debate about immigration until then . The reaction followed a comment by Conservative Party student politician Knut Albert Solem , in which he " presupposed " that anti - immigration sentiment was based on feelings of " foreign - hate " , something which Gjems - Onstad disputed . Gjems - Onstad contested the 1989 parliamentary election for the Stop Immigration party in Akershus , and chaired its regional chapter from 1988 to 1990 . He was expelled from the party together with Hege Søfteland and Torfinn Hellandsvik due to their vocal criticism of the leadership of the party ' s leader Jack Erik Kjuus . In 1991 Gjems - Onstad ran unsuccessfully in the local election for the Fatherland Party , and he was later active in " Folkebevegelsen mot innvandring " . He was also present at the meeting at Godlia kino in 1995 . Gjems - Onstad expressed his outrage at the Lund Report in 1996 after it was revealed that he had been under surveillance by the Norwegian Police Security Service ( POT ) , considering it defamatory and demanding an apology . Gjems - Onstad came to believe that the recent mass immigration to Norway was a greater threat than the Nazi invasion of Norway , although he made clear he had nothing against " normal immigration " and individuals , nor about Norwegians finding spouses in other countries . What he stated he was concerned about was increasing ethnic tensions and Norwegians being outnumbered in Norway in the course of the 21st century , and he stated that what worried him the very most was the growth of Islam . Gjems - Onstad praised Progress Party MPs Vidar Kleppe and Øystein Hedstrøm at their election campaign rally in 1999 , and participated in the non - partisan demonstration against Muslim prayer calling in 2000 . He was involved in the Conservative Party in Asker from 2005 to 2007 , but joined the Pensioners ' Party in 2007 as their top ballot candidate for the municipal election . As Gjems - Onstad called for a halt of immigration to Asker , he was instantly denounced by his own party . He also maintained that " Norway is the fatherland of the Norwegians , and Norwegians are a nation within the white race , " and during a television debate with fellow lawyer and politician Abid Raja said that he could not call himself a Norwegian , only a Pakistani - Norwegian — they both nevertheless affirmed that they had great respect for each other . Gjems - Onstad was expelled from the Pensioners ' Party before the election , but removal from the ballot is legally impossible . As the election was held the Pensioners ' Party did not win any seats , and the local party leadership expressed their delight . Gjems - Onstad was also a member of Stop Islamisation of Norway , and participated in a demonstration alongside the organisation ' s leader Arne Tumyr in 2009 . Gjems - Onstad made news in 2008 when he had talks with the disturbed man who fired a gun towards a refugee centre . He was also involved in an heritage distribution controversy . In her will , millionaire Clara Westin declared that be given to anti - immigration activists , and that the distribution be decided by a board consisting of four people . Egil Karlsen backed out and gave up his vote to Gjems - Onstad , and the other three were Gjems - Onstad , Norvald Aasen of " Folkebevegelsen mot innvandring " and Bjarne Pettersen . It surfaced that suggestions by board members included the mother of child murder convict Ole Nicolai Kvisler . While the background for involving Kvisler was his anti - immigration views , the pressing issue was the matter of his court ruling . Having followed the case closely as a former lawyer , Gjems - Onstad had disputed the court ruling as he believed there was not evidence to conclude that Kvisler had any more than possibly a subsidiary role in the murder ; he thus explained the suggestion with providing funds for reopening his case . Gjems - Onstad maintained that it was only the other convict , Joe Erling Jahr , who had committed the murder . Pettersen had in addition wanted to distribute money to people from his circle around Vigrid ( a group Gjems - Onstad loathed ) , such as Tore Tvedt and Øyvind Heian , but was squeezed out of the board after this was opposed by Gjems - Onstad and Aasen . The left - wing anti - racist organization SOS Rasisme petitioned the Norwegian state to confiscate Gjems - Onstad ' s war decorations , but to no avail . After all disputes were resolved , it was not made public who actually received any money . Personal life . Gjems - Onstad was married in 1949 to Borgny Pedersen ( 9 November 1921 – 2 July 2003 ) . They divorced in 1973 . He was married for the second time to Inger Opseth ( born 2 October 1937 ) in 1974 . Gjems - Onstad met Inger when he worked for the Vaterland - project , where she worked as an interior architect . Gjems - Onstad had three children , including his son , jurist Ole Gjems - Onstad . He lived in Hvalstad , Asker , where he owned a nine decare small farm . The property included three equal parts of garden , forest and arable land . He often cut lumber from the forest to build his own furniture . At various times , he had rabbits , sheep , cows , calves , piglets and a fish pond of brown trout at his property . According to himself , he kept the livestock largely in protest against tax authorities , while also as a hobby . Erik Gjems - Onstad died in November 2011 after short illness at the Bærum Hospital . He left behind his wife , children , grandchildren and great - grandchildren . Writings . Gjems - Onstad has authored several books . He wrote about the psychological warfare of the Norwegian resistance movement in " DURHAM : hemmelige operasjoner i Trøndelag mot tysk okkkupasjonsmakt 1943 - 45 " , released in 1981 . Durham was the codeword for the operations which to a large extent consisted of distributing flyers , brochures and posters with the purpose of demoralising the Germans . This was also the topic in " Psykologisk krigføring i Norge under Annen Verdenskrig 1940 - 45 " , published in 1994 . In 1990 he wrote about the resistance group Lark in " LARK : Milorg i Trøndelag 1940 - 1945 " . He released the book " Krigskorset og St . Olavsmedaljen med ekegren " in 1995 , which gives an overview of all the holders of Norway ' s highest wartime decorations . The reasons given for awarding the War Cross ( Norway ' s highest decoration ) was in the book also made public for the first time . In 1984 he published the books " Dagbok fra Tanzania : U - hjelp uten mening " , a travel diary from Tanzania discussing what he considered to be failed foreign aid , and a travel diary from Israel , " Dagbok fra Israel : Reiser og tanker " . He wrote about alternative Norwegian policies towards South Africa in the 1985 book " Syd - Afrika i dag : Boikott eller samarbeid " . These books were published by Afrikainstituttet , of which he was board chairman from 1983 to 1990 . In 1994 , he chronicled the trials against Arne Myrdal in " Myrdal - sakene " . Gjems - Onstad has in addition released his own periodical , " Nytt og kommentarer " .