Leif O. Foss

Leif Olav Foss (28 August 1899 – 1982) was a Norwegian trade unionist and politician for the Communist Party.

He spent his early working career at sea, and from 1919 as a docks worker at Akers Mekaniske Verksted. He was organized, first through the Norsk matros- og fyrbøterunion, then through the Union of Iron and Metalworkers, chairing the sub-union Dokkarbeidernes forening from 1922 to 1925. He was a supervisory council member in Oslo faglige samorg from 1923 to 1930, and a national board member of the Union of Iron and Metalworkers from 1925 to 1929.^[1]

He joined the Norwegian Labour Party in 1920, and then the Communist Party. He became party secretary for trade affairs, and was a delegate at the Red International of Labour Unions Congress in 1930. Here he was elected to the RILU executive committee, and moved to Moscow. He returned to Norway after a few years.^[1]

During the occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany, he was arrested two times for resistance. The first time he was imprisoned in Møllergata 19 from 15 August to 2 September 1940. On 12 September 1941 he was arrested for the second time, after the milk strike. He was incarcerated in Grini concentration camp until 3 April 1942, when he was sent to Sachsenhausen concentration camp. He was sent further to many camps, first Lichterfelde, then Hamburg-Fuhlsbüttel, Neuengamme, Hamburg-Fühlsbuttel again, Königswartha, Bautzen, Leipzig and Eisenach. He was freed at the war's end.^[2] After the war, from 1945 to 1949 he was the secretary in the Union of Iron and Metalworkers.^[1]

References

1. Lorenz, Einhart (1983). Det er ingen sak å få partiet lite. NKP 1923–1931 (in Norwegian). Oslo: Pax. p. 290. ISBN 82-530-1255-1.
2. Ottosen, Kristian, ed. (2004). Nordmenn i fangenskap 1940–1945 (in Norwegian) (2nd ed.). Oslo: Universitetsforlaget. p. 221. ISBN 82-15-00288-9.