Nordahl Grieg Johan Nordahl Brun Grieg , known as Nordahl Grieg , ( 1 November 1902 in Bergen – 2 December 1943 in Kleinmachnow near Berlin ) was a Norwegian poet , novelist , dramatist , journalist and political activist . He was a popular poet and a controversial public figure in his lifetime . A long time member of the Norwegian Communist Party who served as chair of the political organization Friends of the Soviet Union ( 1935 – 1940 ) , he was described by detractors as a stalinist . He was the brother of publisher Harald Grieg . Background . Johan Nordahl Brun Grieg was born in Bergen , Norway , the son of lector Peter Grieg and Helga nee Vollan . Grieg was married to actress Gerd Egede - Nissen . He was related to the famous composer Edvard Grieg ( though very remotely ) , and brother of the powerful Norwegian publisher Harald Grieg . Grieg studied at King Frederick ’ s University ( now the University of Oslo ) and spent some time travelling abroad , sometimes as a tourist and sometimes as a sailor . Grieg made his debut in 1922 with first book of poetry " Omkring Kap det gode Haab " ( " Around the Cape of Good Hope " ) , based on personal seagoing experiences - as was " Skibet gaar videre " ( " The Ship Sails On " ) in 1924 . The latter book aroused controversy for its exposure of sailors ' harsh living and working conditions . Grieg spent 1927 as a newspaper correspondent in China , where he witnessed firsthand the civil war between the Kuomintang and the Communists . The same year saw the production of Grieg ' s plays " En ung manns Kjaerlighet " ( " A Young Man ' s Love " ) and " Barabbas " - the later giving a modern revolutionary interpretation to the New Testament character Barabas . The 1929 poetry collection " Norge i våre hjerter " ( " Norway in Our Heart " ) - expressing deep love for his country and his people in their then poverty and misery - got wide critical acclaim . Feelings of compassion for the poor and exploited led Grieg to join the Norwegian Communist Party . From 1933 to 1935 , he lived in the Soviet Union . He was officially invited to study the techniques of Soviet stage and film . Upon returning to Norway , he became known as an ardent supporter of Joseph Stalin ' s policies , and became the chairman of the Friends of the Soviet Union in the same year . In 1937 , he famously wrote a defence for the Moscow Trials , attacking a number of Norwegian authors who had criticized these trials . His novel " Ung må verden ennu være " was also a defence for Stalin and the Moscow Trials . In many articles , he also criticized the supporters of Leon Trotsky , whom he viewed as a traitor to the workers ' cause and who lived in Norway between 1937 and 1939 . His 1935 play " Vår ære og vår makt " ( Our Honor and Our Glory ) , depicting the lives of Norwegian sailors during WWI ( when Norway was neutral and traded with both sides ) was an attack on shipping industry ' s exploitation of seafarers . From 1936 to 1937 , Grieg published the magazine " Veien Frem " , which initially succeeded in attracting a number of prominent writers , but as the magazine adopted an increasingly Stalinist position in the discussion relating to the Moscow Trials , most of them severed ties with it and it ceased publication . His 1937 dramatic play " Nederlaget " ( " The Defeat " ) was about the Paris Commune . The Spanish Civil War was the subject of " Spansk sommer " ( " Spanish Summer " ) ( 1937 ) and partly also of the novel " Ung må verden ennu være " ( " May the World Stay Young " ) ( 1938 ) , the latter ' s plot shifting between Spain and the Soviet Union . The same was also inspired the 1936 poem " Til ungdommen " ( " For the Youth " ) , one of his most well - known works , which was set to music in 1952 by the Danish composer Otto Mortensen and was performed on numerous occasions ( see Til ungdommen ) . However , the outbreak of the Second World War , and especially the Nazi Invasion and Occupation of Norway , brought Grieg into great variance with Stalin ' s policies . The Soviet Union signed in 1939 the Molotov – Ribbentrop Pact with Nazi Germany and until being itself invaded in 1941 instructed Communists worldwide to regard the ongoing war as " an Imperialist War " in which they should not take part . Conversely Grieg , as a staunch anti - Nazi and a Norwegian patriot , committed himself from 1940 onwards to the struggle against the occupation following the Nazi invasion of Norway . In the winter of 1939 - 40 , Grieg served in the Norwegian Army in Finnmark on neutrality guard during the Russo - Finnish Winter War . In 1940 , having served during the Norwegian Campaign against the Germans , he escaped to England in the same vessel carrying the Norwegian Royal family and the National Gold reserves . Wartime activities in exile . Once in Britain , Grieg served the Norwegian government in exile and participated in making patriotic radio programs in England . He was commissioned into the Norwegian Armed Forces and served as a war correspondent . At the time of his death he was a Captain . His work involved visiting Norwegian units around Britain and experiencing their duties , in order to make his reports . He also travelled outside Great Britain to meet Norwegian servicemen on duty in Iceland and other more remote outposts . In the summer of 1942 Grieg spent several weeks on the Norwegian island of Jan Mayen in the Atlantic Ocean , writing the poem " Øya i Ishavet " ( { The Island in the Ice Sea ) . Like other war correspondents he joined operational missions over occupied Europe , and it was in the course of one of these that he lost his life . On the night of 2 – 3 December 1943 , Grieg was one of several observers for an Allied air raid on Berlin . He was attached to 460 Squadron , Royal Australian Air Force ( RAAF ) , which was based at RAF Binbrook . Grieg joined the crew of a Lancaster Mk . III ( serial number " LM316 " , squadron code " AR - H2 " ) captained by Flying Officer A . R . Mitchell , RAAF . Berlin was always a tough target as it was the capital city and so was well - defended , but also because it lay far in the east of the country , which meant that crews were not only flying on the limits of fuel and of their own endurance , but had to pass over through the ranges of many night fighter s on the way and from the target . 460 Sqn lost five aircraft that night and one of them was " LM316 " ; 37 airmen had been on board these aircraft and only eight survived being shot down ( and spent the rest of the war in a POW camp ) . None of the eight survivors came from " LM316 " . In addition to Grieg , the seven crew members : four Australians and three Britons , went down with the aircraft and were killed . Grieg was neither the only correspondent shot down that night , nor the only Norwegian : an Australian reporter flying with 460 Sqn was also killed , a British correspondent with another squadron became a POW and among nearly 300 Allied aircrew ( in 44 aircraft ) lost on the raid were two Norwegians . For a population as small as that of Norway , such losses were significant , but the loss of a figure as famous as the poet Nordahl Grieg was an extra blow . Legacy . After the end of World War II , Grieg became a hero in Norway because of his resistance to the Nazi Occupation , both during the invasion itself and in the continuation of the fight in the forces in exile in Britain . Grieg is still popular in Norway today , especially his anti - fascist poetry . The pre - war controversies in which he was involved were overshadowed by his war record . In 1945 , a collection of Nordahl Grieg ' s war poems , " Friheten " ( " Freedom " ) was published which remained a best selling Norwegian poetry collection . In 1957 , a statue Nordahl Grieg by Roar Bjorg was unveiled at Den Nationale Scene in Bergen . In 1990 , the musical " Nordahl Grieg i våre hjerter " ( " Nordahl Grieg in our hearts " ) , written by Erling Gjelsvik with music by Knut Skodvin debuted in Bergen . Nordahl Grieg was a friend of English novelist Graham Greene who wrote about various aspects of Grieg ' s life and wartime career in his 1980 biographical work ' Ways Of Escape ' . The two first met when Grieg turned up unannounced at Greene ' s cottage in Chipping Campden , Gloucestershire in 1931 .