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70 years ago:
Article in DIL-Posten, nr. 2 1998 by Vidar Amundsen
From 1916 to 1927 liquor was forbidden in Norway. In order to stop the rising smuggling and moonshining activity that this led to two men were appointed by the Romerike Police District, they received the title Alchohol Police. The whole district lay under their jurisdiction.
The time was ripe for a raid in Gansdalen in 1929. Lillestrømposten was the first paper out with a report on what had happened. The editor at the time was Asbjørn Dørumsgaard, but in the editor's absence the head of printing had accepted the article. He said that he could do this with his conscience clear because he had received his tip from a well-known and respected man from Gansdalen.
The Alchohol Policemen Augustinius Haaker and Øyvin Ribsskog, together with two officers from the local police had gone from house to house and confiscated assorted quantities of finished products and equipment. In one of the houses they found a bedridden new mother. Beside her was a three week old pair of twins. She was very frightened when the policemen showed up. She became upset when they started rooting around in the bed where the twins were lying in their search for moonshine.
"Lillestrømposten" reported that the woman started to hemmorhage and had to be taken care of by two doctors. In addition they reported that:
If this story is correct the department must be involved and an example must be made. This is so upsetting that one must go back to the time of the persecution of heretics and witches to find anything similar. Allow the fight against smuggling, moonshining and bootlegging to continue unabated but allow new mothers and newborn children to be in peace. It wasn't long before a full investigation was started. It was led by the sheriff from Aurskog, Solerød, because the sheriff from Fet was disqualified for being to close to the case.
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The House in Gansdalen where the raid took place, drawn for Lillestrømposten in 1929.
After a few weeks the case was brought before the local court. The investigation had apparently not gone the way Editor Dørumsgaard had hoped, because it was his substitute, Victor B. Hansen who was charged with violation of the law "for having injured or having exposed ones good name for rumor and innuendo or for having ruined ones position's necessary trust ". It was the state attorney himself who had charged him since the accusations had appeared in the printed media.
Editor Dørumsgaard prepared his readers for what was to come:
- We daresay that this trial will be something out of the ordinary. The people have a right to this sort of information and they are going to get it! There will certainly be a lot of witnesses in the courthouse today. Lillestrømposten will, of course, in great detail report on the trial. Those of you who don't get the newspaper should subscribe as this trial will have a huge and sensational dimension.
There were 7 witnesses in all. There were also a few in the audience. One of the first ones to the witness box was Alchohol Policeman Augustinius Haaker.
He explained that he and the other policemen had met the woman, who had filed the complaint in this case, in the farmyard where she was washing clothes. Earlier in the day they had conducted a raid against a 'Gansdøling' and confiscated 10 bottles of 'finished product'. In another house they found an apparatus with a boiling mixture. In the house where the woman lived they came across two 50 liter buckets that she adamntly maintained she didn't know anything about.
The police admitted having been in the room where the twins were but denied having touched them. They could add that that it wasn't unusual to hide bottles in cribs and beds, they had even come across moonshine in coffins.
It was word against word. An expert was appointed, this was Dr. Muri from Fet. He testified that both he and his assistant had been in Gansdalen several times in connection with the birth of the twins. She had hemmorhaged several times but this condition had passed. The prosecution wanted to know if the raid could have had a harmful effect on the mother and the children. The expert testified:
- After what the woman had gone through, the mental anguish could cause the mother to lose her milk. That the children became upset by this could lead to them screaming themselves to a hernia.
Was it irresponsible of Aaker to turn the children over?
- Yes, strange hands touching such small and weak children can have an
injurious effect.
What happened in Gansdalen almost 70 years ago we may never know for sure.
What we do know is that Victor B. Hansen was found guilty of libel and fined 60 crowns plus 25 crowns for court costs.
Translated by Steven Mohn, December 1999
Updated January 1st 2000 by The Local History Resource Centre, Fet, NORWAY