GONE: VG met Solveig Levin in 2017 in connection with 70 years since the establishment of the State of Israel. Photo: Odin Jæger / VG
She will be buried on what would have been her 109th birthday, writes her daughter Mona Levin on Facebook on Tuesday evening.
Published:
Yesterday 23:01
Updated less than 20 minutes ago
“Solveig Levin fell asleep on 24 December, and will be buried on what would have been her 109th birthday, 29 December,” writes daughter Mona Levin (84) on Facebook.
The daughter, who is an award-winning journalist, author and theater reviewer, is aware that VG is covering the death.
“She has passed out of time, but not out of memory – never out of the memory of her family and friends. She was ready for the last, kept her humor and bright mind, but, as she said: “A life is no longer”, writes Mona Levin.
Grandson Joachim Levin writes on Facebook that the grandmother passed away peacefully on Christmas Eve.
– Sharp in the head to the last, always interested and connected to those around him, a generous warmth in the heart but also direct in his speech. At least we got 20 bonus years, and will miss her greatly.
He writes to VG that his two sons, Solveig Levin’s great-grandchildren, have both said of her that she is the only person they have known who is only funny by being completely honest, and that she is always “intense” and stands by what she says.
– They have both had a close relationship with her since they were small.
Escaped from the Germans
The deceased 108-year-old’s name was Solveig Margarethe Bernstein before she married and changed her surname to Levin. She grew up at St. Hanshaugen in Oslo.
Her grandparents were tobacco workers who came to Norway from Lithuania in the 1880s. Over time, they ran a larger business in Grünerløkka.
Her husband, the late pianist and composer Robert Levin (1912–1996), was one of the great national celebrities in NRK after the Second World War.
The couple had two daughters together: Journalist and writer Mona (84) and music educator Sidsel Levin (79).
In a major VG interview from 2017, the then 102-year-old Solveig Levin told about the dramatic escape to Sweden in 1942.
She fled with her daughter Mona Levin on her arm and the Germans on her heels.
– I remember everything in detail, but am so easily moved to tears, Solveig Levin told VG.
DRAMATIC LIFE: Solveig Levin belonged to the national minority of Norwegian Jews and herself had to flee to save her life during the Second World War. Photo: Odin Jæger / VG
Chose Norway
In the book “Mors historie” (2015), daughter Mona Levin recounts how a resistance man sought out her mother on the day the Jews were deported. That’s how the family got away.
Back in Norway, some of the Norwegian Jews who survived the Second World War considered starting a new life in Israel. It was not relevant for the Levin family from Frogner in Oslo.
Norwegian Jews belong to one of the five national minorities in Norway. The others are Kvens, Forest Finns, Roma and Romani. In addition, Norway has one indigenous people; Sami.
– We knew two families who moved, but for us it was never a question of even thinking about the idea. We were Jews, but we were also Norwegians and Norway was and is our fatherland. It is one thing to support Israel, but we did not want to move there, said Solveig Levin.
Worrying joy
When the UN decided in 1947 that Palestine should be divided into an Arab Palestinian state and a Jewish state with shared responsibility for the economy and shared responsibility for Jerusalem, Solveig Levin was relieved.
But she also felt fear, she told VG at the age of 102:
– What I remember from that day was a wonderful joy and an enormous relief. At the same time, we were also anxious about what would follow this day of joy.
Published:
Published: 26.12.23 at 23:01
Updated: 27.12.23 at 03:13
2023-12-26 22:01:33
#Solveig #Levin #died
