The courage of ordinary people: Director Eirik Aure on the breathtaking story of ‘WW2 - Saving Norway's Gold’

As the Nazi war machine rolled into Norway, a desperate plan was enacted to spirit away the country’s treasury — some 50 tonnes of gold — before it could be seized by Hitler’s troops. A new documentary series tells the tale.

The gold was smuggled out by train and boat in a desperate race against time. Credit: Viaplay

“Start with Earth,” a writer friend of mine likes to say; you’ll never come up with a fictional story more incredible than the actual events of human history. The forgotten corners of the past are packed with mind-blowing accounts of courage and adversity, and even an event as famous and well-documented as World War II can offer up something new if you dig deep enough.

So it is with the new three-part documentary series WW2 – Saving Norway's Gold, directed by Eirik Aure and Elisabeth Bergaust and hosted by historian and author Asbjørn Jaklin. The series details how, as German ships sailed into Oslo on April 9, 1940, and the Norwegian royal family and parliament were evacuated, a secret plan was enacted to smuggle out the country’s entire treasury, lest it by used to fund the Nazi war effort.

Writer Asbjørn Jaklin guides the story. Credit: Viaplay

Carried out mainly by civilians, the plan was entirely – and miraculously – successful. Approximately 50 tonnes of gold was transported by truck, ship, and occasionally by hand from Oslo to Tromsø before being shipped to Britain, mere hours ahead of the German spearhead – a journey of some 1740 kilometres.

It’s a jaw-dropping story of courage in the face of overwhelming danger, and one that has rarely been told before, although it seems its time has come now. As director Aure tells us, the series was produced in tandem with a feature film account, Gold Run, which was released in 2022, but Saving Norway’s Gold is able to go into much more detail than the big screen version.

Tracing the story takes Asbjørn Jaklin to the Central Bank in Oslo. Credit: Viaplay

Speaking to us from Norway, Aure admits that he himself was not aware of the mission before taking on the directing assignment.

“It's really weird because the stories told from the Second World War are being told again and again, but then this story has not been told at all.” He reflects. “I don't know why – it's just been so silent around it. It's like a gem, when you find these kinds of stories.”

Director Eirik Aure. Credit: Supplied

The series takes us through the audacious plan step by step. German aggression throughout the 1930s had prompted the Norwegian government to start making contingency plans in the face of possible invasion, and after the war kicked off in earnest in 1939, the country’s entire stock of bullion and coins was packed into approximately 1500 crates and 40 barrels – but there was still the matter of actually getting it out of the country as the Wehrmacht poured in.

This duty fell not to the Norwegian military, but to ordinary citizens who, as Aure tells us, had no idea of the events that were about to overtake them.

“There is one poet,” he tells us. “There are several bureaucrats, there are people working in the bank and some truck drivers. From the early morning when we were invaded, they're going to work as if nothing has happened in the morning and then they end up carrying gold on their shoulders and getting it onto trucks and driving it off, with the Germans hunting them.”

It’s the human factor that drew him to the story. “I was very fascinated about these really ordinary people going on this voyage, being bombed and shot at. It was a fascination about people going through all of this struggle and being put in this situation where they really had to show a completely different part of themselves than they had woke up being.”

'Saving Norway's Gold' traces the journey of the gold across land and sea. Credit: Viaplay

Ultimately, the plan was entirely successful, and accomplished with remarkably little loss of life – the one direct casualty suffered a heart attack rather than being killed by the Nazis. Yet, while Saving Norway’s Gold is beyond doubt a story of incredibly bravery, there’s another factor that Aure finds equally as compelling.

“You’re mentioning courage,” he says. “But there is something else to it as well – it's luck. These people were being really naive to the things they were doing, and almost everyone survived. And that's just against all odds. They had to go step by step and just improvise. And doing that with the 50 tonnes of gold they were carrying with them… it must have been a huge amount of luck.”

That’s hard to argue with. But whether it’s courage, luck, or both, it’s clear that in this story the most valuable element in play is a human one.

WW2 – Saving Norway's Gold is now streaming at SBS On Demand.

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WW2 - Saving Norway's Gold

series • 

documentary • 

Norwegian Bokmål

PG

series • 

documentary • 

Norwegian Bokmål

PG