Grethe Bartram

Grethe Bartram, 1942

Maren Margrethe Thomsen, formerly Maren Margrethe "Grethe" Bartram, (gestapo-agent "Thora") (born 23. February, 1924 in Aarhus), was a Danish woman that informed on at least 53 people from the Danish resistance movement during the Second World War, resulting in the early communist resistance groups being dismantled and many of their members being sent to concentration camps. Bartram informed on her brother, husband and close acquintances.[1]

Grethe Bartram was given the death penalty after the war but was subsequently pardoned and the sentence was changed to life in prison. In 1956 she was released and moved to Halland in Sweden where she lives under her married name.

Background

Grethe Bartram grew up in a poor household, the second of 8 children and both her parents were members of the Communist Party of Denmark (DKP), as were the social circles of the family. Her father, Niels Peter Christopher Bartram (born 1896), was from southern Jutland and participated in World War One on the German side. He suffered from PTSD from the war and found it difficult to work but managed to operate a small bicycle repair shop in Midtbyen, Aarhus.[1]

Grethe Bartram left school at 13 years old and started working until she became pregnant at 16 and was married on 12 July 1941 to a young machinist, Frode Thomsen (born 28 March 1920) from her workplace. The marriage did not last long, ending in the Summer of 1943, and their son was put into foster care with her mother-in-law.

Informant

Bartrams family, including her older brother Christian Bartram became involved with the resistance. In September 1942 the Danish police put up a DKK 1000 kr. reward for information regarding a sabotage fire in a shop in Fredericiagade in Aarhus.[2] Through her brother, Grethe Bartram learned who had been involved and she gave the information to the police. 5 people were arrested, including her brother. One escaped and the remaining were sentenced between 1 and 10 years prison time.[3]

In the time after, Bartram participated in illegal activities with people in her social circle involved with the resistance movement. In March–April 1944, she was hired as an agent by the Gestapo and in June the Samsing Group and an affiliated group of University students were arrested and eventually deported to Neuengamme concentration camp. The communist resistance groups in Aarhus and across central Jutland were essentially neutralized.

Confidence in Bartram was still high at the time and in August 1944 she was sent to Copenhagen as a representative for the resistance to establish new leadership for the resistance in Aarhus. The resistance subsequently became suspicious and Bartram arranged to be arrested and imprisoned in Frøslev Prison Camp to avoid suspicion. It did not help and the resistance attempted to kill her on several occasions but only succeeded in wounding her. She was sent to Germany to recover. In March 1945 she was hired by the Gestapo Kolding where she worked until the surrender of German forces in Denmark. On the day of surrender, May 5, she was in the Gestapo headquarters in Esbjerg where she was wounded when the resistance detonated bombs there. She recovered quickly and went by bicycle to Kolding to get help but the Gestapo had already evacuated. Bartram then went to Brejning where she was arrested on 10 May.[3]

Bartram, by her own account, received DKK 5-700 kr. per month but a witness from the Gestapo claimed she received 3/4 of money paid to informants which amounted to 1200–1500 a month.[4]

Trial

During the trial it was revealed Grethe Bartram had given information about 53 people. Of those 15 had been tortured and 35 wound up in German concentration camps where 8 died or were reported missing. Bartram plead gulty to most counts and was sentenced to death on 29 October 1946 by the Criminal Court of Aarhus, later affirmed by Vestre Landsret on 22 February 1947 and the Danish Supreme Court on 4 September 1947.[1][5]

Like the only other woman sentenced to death after the war the death sentence was commuted to life in prison by Minister of Justice Niels Busch-Jensen on 9 December 1947. Busch-Jensen gave as a reason that Bartram had been young at the time and she had been raised in an "anti-religious, communist and materialistic spirit" and that she had had economic troubles.[6]

Bartram was released after 10 years in prison on 26 October 1956, after which she moved to Sweden where she lives under her married name.[7]

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Gestapos Største Stikker" (in Danish). Samvirke. Retrieved 28 August 2015.
  2. ↑ Hauerbach 1945, p. 22.
  3. 1 2 "Grethe Bartram" (in Danish). Historie Online. Retrieved 28 August 2015.
  4. ↑ Tamm 1984, p. 362.
  5. ↑ Tamm 1984, p. 374.
  6. ↑ Tamm 1984, p. 374-5.
  7. ↑ Tamm 1984, p. 375.

Literature

External sources

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