Olaf Helset

Olaf Helset (28 July 1892 – 21 August 1960) was a Norwegian military officer with the rank of Major General, and a sports administrator. He played a central role in the early resistance during the German occupation of Norway, both civil and military resistance. He was later in command of the Norwegian police troops in exile in Sweden. After the war he served as head of the Norwegian Army for two years.

Helset was born in Nannestad, as the son of Peder Helset and Ingeborg Kristiane Skjegstad. He grew up in Romerike. He married Nini Eugenie Hansen in 1920.

Helset graduated from the Norwegian Military Academy in 1915, from the State Gymnastics School in 1917, and from the Norwegian Military College in 1919.

He chaired the sports club IL i BUL in 1917, 1920–1922, 1923–1924, 1925–1926 and 1927.

During the Norwegian Campaign in 1940 Helset was in command at the Battle of Midtskogen. As a sports leader he fronted the sports boycott against the Nazi authorities. He was also a leader in the military organization Milorg, the main Norwegian resistance movement during the Occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany. Helset was arrested in 1941, but eventually released from prison and fled to Sweden. There, he worked first as a refugee chief in 1943-44 and then in 1944-45 as head of the Norwegian police forces in Sweden.

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