A few years ago the Norwegian author Trude Teige wrote a book called “Mormor danset i regnet”. This book´s storyline deals with the treatment and situation of the Norwegian “tyskerjentene” in Norway in the 1940s. …

“Do you also wear these traditional costumes? What’s are they called again?”, Kate (American) asked me when we met for the first time. Kate is my work colleague and has lived here in Norway for a long time. …

Since the beginning of this journey to have this book translated I have always wondered how Trude had come across my home town Demmin, that little place in the north-east of Germany. How did the Demmin book actually come about? Did Thekla and June really exist? …

Germany’s biggest mass suicides ever happened in April / May 1945 in Demmin, a small town in the North East of Germany. It became known as the «Tragedy of Demmin» in which likely more than a thousand men and women took their own lives and that of their children —…

My meeting with Trude Teige in Bergen, Norway. The author of the novel “Mormor danset i regnet” (“Granny danced in the rain”) I left early. It was a Monday and I had taken the day off work today, especially for this occasion. The plan of driving from Balestrand over the…

Sometimes it seems like fate, chains of coincidences that stop you to let go of a topic. Those moments you suddenly find it everywhere and nowhere — in a book, in the stories of your family, when talking to friends and now even in a movie. Albeit very briefly, I…

It all started with Google. In fact, with Google.no, the Norwegian version of the search engine. Often to my frustration, Google and its results change automatically based on the location you are in. This time however, I intentionally used this search setting out of pure curiosity and typed in: “Demmin”. …