Novelist-Refugee

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 237, 5 October 1940, Page 2 (Supplement)

Novelist-Refugee

■ w { rE distinguished : Norwegian novelist, Mme. Sigrid Undset, who arrived in San Francisco a refugee from the Orient, created a deep impression among a group of interviewers and denied some aspersions made about her "grief being too great /for tears," and that she was a "wanderer on the face of the earth, homeless, hopeless." "You reporters," she said, "have a German sentimentality for which I have no use. I do not care for the German traits." She said that the young men of Norway "were infuriated that their country was so badly prepared that their elders must put their trust in so weak a thing as neutrality." "The Germans did not succeed because of numerical superiority, but because they had better weapons. All,the young men of Norway who were worth anything went to fight, and 40,000 of them lost their lives. Had we been prepared they coutu- have fought as the Finna did, but all we had were machineguns and shotguns. <t- : —

— I —7 ♦ "Our men are good shots and they are not frightened. I know of men out alone, who took on 200 Germans .at once. Yes. They would hide on hillsides and fire with shotguns at German columns. They fired carefully, making each shot account for one German, and they were very good ski-runners—they could fight a long time and then get away. I Know of one who brought down a German 'plane from a hillside. He shot at the aviator's hands and crushed them." She said she had seen considerable fighting. "I watched bombing raids and saw macuine-gun fights. France always has been the brains of Europe. If she is smashed permanently I fear it will be the end of Europe." Mme. Undset, the authoress of "Kristin Lavransdatter" and "Madame Dorthea," lost her son Anders, 27 years old, in the fight against the German invaders. She is accompanied on her visit to the United States by her son Hans, who is 21 years of age.