Knut Haugland is hidden at Åsnesgården
Place: notodden · Approximate position
After the heavy water operation at Vemork the radio operator Knut Haugland was one of the most wanted men in Norway. At Åsnesgården in Notodden he was given shelter.
It was not a passive hiding place. Haugland also brought in equipment and weapons that had been dropped on Hardangervidda as a reserve for the Vemork operation. The weapons were later used in local resistance work, among other places in Gransherad.
Places like this were the quiet junctions of the resistance. Without food, lodging, transport and people who refrained from asking questions, the saboteurs would have had few places to go. His brother Ottar Haugland was Milorg sector commander in Notodden and lived in Storgata; when the raid came in the early hours of 24 November 1943, Ottar was taken in a flat in Åsnesgården, while Knut – who was seized the same night at Kongsberg – managed to escape.
The source krigsradioregisteret.no says only that Knut Haugland "ble skjult på Åsnesgården på Notodden" – was hidden at Åsnesgården in Notodden – without locating it. Åsnesgården is here identified as "Aasnessgården", Storgata 56 – a large house in the Swiss chalet style with seven flats, put up in 1909–1910 by the engineer Amund C. Aasness (lokalhistoriewiki). The inference rests on the fact that his brother Ottar Haugland was, according to the prisoner record, arrested in a flat in Aasnesgården in the early hours of 24 November 1943, and that Notodden Historielag refers to "Aasness-kjelleren", the Aasness cellar, as the place the confiscated radios were stowed away. No farm or holding by the name Åsnes has been found in Notodden in Kartverket's place-name register. The coordinate is therefore the building Storgata 56, not a verified farmyard – the identification should be confirmed locally.
Sources
- Notodden – Krigsradioregisteret — «Knut Haugland ble skjult på Åsnesgården på Notodden.» Omtaler også at han skaffet fram utstyr og våpen sluppet på Hardangervidda som reserve til Vemork-operasjonen, og at våpnene senere ble brukt i lokalt motstandsarbeid, blant annet i Gransherad. Gården stedfestes ikke.
- Storgata (Notodden) – lokalhistoriewiki.no — Storgata 56: «Stort bolighus i sveitserstil, «Aasnessgården» … oppført i perioden 1909–1910 og har sju leiligheter.»
- Ottar Haugland (1915–2002) – DigitaltMuseum — Ottar Haugland ble arrestert natt til 24. november 1943 i en leilighet i Aasnesgården – det bindeleddet som knytter navnet «Åsnesgården» til Storgata 56.
- Motstandsmannen Magnus Tomte – Notodden Historielag — Omtaler «Aasness-kjelleren» som stedet de inndratte radioapparatene ble stuet ned – ytterligere en indikasjon på at Aasnesgården var et kjent bygg i Notodden sentrum.
- Søk på «Åsnes» i Sentralt stedsnavnregister (Kartverket/Geonorge) — Negativt funn: ingen gård, bruk eller grend med navnet Åsnes i Notodden kommune. Taler mot at «Åsnesgården» er et gårdsbruk.