Almost time to leave Norway

My time in Norway is coming to an end a week from today. I have had an amazing summer but also still have no idea how Thor died. The death notice I did find lists 5 men who died around the same time as Thor - 4 of the 5 have causes of death (in code) listed. Thor’s line is blank. Archivists at the main archive in Oslo confirmed that they could not find any document either with a cause of death. In the image above you can see his name - the last one on the list - his cause of death box is empty. While this is disappointing, I am still undeterred and will continue searching.

Death record showing Thor’s cause of death box empty

Luckily, I have had a few wins this summer. For example, being able to visit Lillehammer and see the former bank and vault where Norway’s gold first landed after being dramatically evacuated from Oslo on April 9, 1940. And also being able to visit the former Norges Bank at Bankplassen 4 in Olso. The building had been the Museum of Contemporary Art until 2017 and has been empty ever since.

I was given a tour by Tor of the building Thor worked in.

I was able to stand in the actual vault where bank employees frantically had to remove the gold and was allowed to photograph interesting architectural details of the interior - everything on the interior was original (door handles, light fixtures, column design). Nothing had been renovated since it had been the bank (1906-1986).