Feldmann case

The Feldmann case (Norwegian: Feldmannsaken) was a controversial criminal case in Norway in which two border guides admitted to killing an elderly Jewish couple during their escape from the Holocaust in Norway, and stealing their money. A jury acquitted the two of culpability for the killing, accepting their explanation that the couple endangered not just the mission but the viability of the escape route to Sweden.

On October 22, 1942, a train on the Østfold Line bound for Halden included ten refugees bound for Sweden, of whom nine were Jewish. Also traveling were two border guides, Karsten Løvestad and Harry Pedersen, both of whom may have been wanted by the occupying authorities. Between Skjeberg and Døle stations (both are now closed for passenger traffic), Norwegian police came through the cars inspecting identification cards. Hermann Feldmann, Willy Schermann and Karsten Løvestad (two of the Jewish refugees, and one of the guides) were asked by Arne Hvam, a committed Norwegian Nazi police man, to step outside. Accounts differ as to whether Hvam at that point had asked the conductor to notify the police in Halden that he had apprehended refugees.

However, Løvestad, who was carrying a forged passport, shot Hvam on the train. The three then jumped off the speeding train near Besseberg. Feldmann broke an arm in the fall, and Schermann sustained some gashes. The three tried for some time to evade capture, but were eventually caught in one of the largest police campaigns in the history of the war. Feldmann, Schermann and the other Jewish refugees were murdered in Auschwitz in August 1943; Karsten Løvestad was also shot in September 1943 after appearing before a tribunal without the benefit of a defense.

The Nazi authorities made propaganda out of this incident. Newspaper headlines made it out to be a cold-blooded murder of a faithful public servant at the hands of the Jews. Hvam's funeral was attended by the top echelon of both the German and Norwegian Nazi authorities. Well-plated editorials called for decisive action against Jews.

Hermann Feldmann's foster parents were Rakel and Jacob Feldmann. Unnerved by the publicity this incident had caused, they had decided to make their own break for the Swedish border. They showed up at the farm of the Løvestad family in Trøgstad on October 23, asking for refuge and help to find their way across the border. As the area was still subject to search and surveillance by police forces, the Løvestad family was under significant pressure and risk of discovery.

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