Kai Holst

Who was Kai Holst?

Kai Christian Middelthon Holst was a Norwegian seaman, fur farmer and resistance fighter during World War II. When the leadership of Milorg was torn up by the Gestapo in 1942 he acquired a leading role in the organisation and participated in re-establishing the central leadership of Milorg together with Jens Christian Hauge. Holst had to flee from Norway in the autumn of 1943 and stayed in Sweden until the liberation of Norway in 1945.

For posterity Holst is known both for his work with the Norwegian resistance and for the circumstances surrounding his death in Stockholm in 1945. Holst's demise was so much talked of at the time that the Milorg leadership issued a statement in the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten in July 1945. Swedish and Norwegian authorities officially concluded that Holst committed suicide, but his family and many of his friends and colleagues had the opinion that Holst was murdered.