Karl Aagaard Østvig Jr: SS-Untersturmführer

Background

Karl Aagaard Østvig jr. was the son of opera singers Karl Aagaard Østvig (1889–1968) and Maria Rajdl, called "Maja" (1900–1972), originally Czech, but became a Norwegian citizen through marriage. His one year older sister was Lillemari Østvig (1924–1999) who also became an opera singer with her debut in 1949.

Sportsman

He was a member of Nasjonal Samling's Ungdomsfylking and a sportsman growing up and actively participated in the "nazified" sports movement, and was Norwegian champion in handball in 1941 and 1942. He also participated in the National Socialist "Summer Games", and was also a promising slalom runner and gymnast.

Young wills (Unge viljer)

In the summer of 1942, he played the male lead in the film Young Wills, the recordings were in Telemark and in the film studios at Jar.

The film was made by Walter Fyrst and was controversial as this was the only Norwegian-produced propaganda feature film for the Nasjonal Samling during the war, and also filmmakers connected to NS, as Leif Sinding claimed it was unwise to use the film medium for a film that would provoke large parts of the Norwegian the movie audience.

Due to the nature of the film, it was difficult for Fyrst to fill the roles with established actors, and many roles were therefore filled by amateurs, drawn from the NS milieu.

The film premiered on 8 February 1943 and was shown all over the country, but was largely met with demonstrations and boycotts by the film audience and was therefore removed from the program after a few screenings.

Frontline fighter

He joined Det Norske Skikompani on 10 March 1943 and was educated in Sennheim in Alsace and in Dresden. Here he was selected for officer training, but it was decided that he needed front-line experience first and he was sent to the Norwegian Legion, which had then been withdrawn to Mitau (today Jelgava) in Latvia.

He was then sent to officer training in the Waffen-SS at their SS-Junkerschule Tölz in Upper Bavaria. He went to the 11th Kriegs-Junker-Lehrgang which had a preparatory course from 1 July to 5 September 1943 with 49 Norwegians, and the training started on 6 September 1943 with 43 Norwegians and lasted until 11 March 1944. They were then promoted to SS- Standartenoberjunker and sent to department in the field.

Østvig was sent as a platoon commander to the SS-Panzergrenadier-Regiment "Norway", where he arrived on 1 April 1944, but was wounded and sent to hospital after six days already, together with two other new arrivals from Tölz, Inge Håkon Windingstad and Jakob Fogstad. On 21 June 1944, he was appointed SS-Untersturmführer, together with his coal mates from Bad Tölz.

After some time at the Narva front, he was sent to Hammerstein in Rhineland-Palatinate to train new soldiers and then a short leave in Norway. Returning as platoon commander of 1st Platoon at his former unit at the front, he was awarded the Iron Cross Second Class on Christmas Eve 1944.

The following day, during a Soviet attack, he was found lying dead and hit by several shots behind the bunker at the village of Modlin outside Warsaw in Poland and was buried there.