The 17th May National Day celebrations in Cardiff this year had a special visitor: Ellie Sømme, the daughter of a Norwegian resistance fighter who narrowly escaped execution by the Nazi occupation forces by walking his way cross-country to Sweden, and thence to the UK where he went on to help found the Special Operations Executive.
ITV Wales News came to film the parade – and speak to Ellie, who told her father Sven’s amazing story.
You can watch the full 8-minute film here:
(The film may be blocked outside the UK – in which case watch it on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgOkITrudHA)
The film came about as a result of a remarkable chain of events that began when WNS member Anne Kirsti Rosnæs Kirby handed fellow member Mark Hinge a book while both were decorating the Christmas tree at the Norwegian Church last December.
The book, Another Man’s Shoes, is a gripping first-hand account of a Norwegian scientist’s escape from German custody during the Second World War after his arrest for spying.
Professor Sven Sømme worked under cover and recruited 90 other agents for the clandestine resistance movement named XU (X for ‘unknown’ and U for ‘undercover agent’). In 1944 he was arrested as a spy, escaped his captors and over two months, walked 200 miles through deep Norwegian winter snow, traversing freezing rivers and dodging the pursuing Gestapo to gain his eventual freedom into Sweden before continuing his journey to freedom and on arrival in Britain, his work with MI6 in London.
Sven Sømme wrote the story of his escape just after the war. Sixty years later, his daughter Ellie set out on foot with her sister to retrace their father’s flight from Nazi-occupied Norway, meeting some of the people who helped him along the way. In an introduction in the book, she recounts the emotional moment when a pair of her father’s shoes, exchanged for mountain boots, were returned to her by one family who sheltered him along the way. She pays special tribute to her uncle Iacob, who was also arrested and later executed.
Mark, whose mother’s maiden name was Sømme and who had roots in Stavanger in the late 19th century, spotted a potential family connection. He went to meet Ellie at her home in Powys and encouraged interest in her father’s story at ITV Wales.
“I’m honoured to have helped, in a modest way, to make this short seven minute film. It was wonderfully produced by Hamish Auskerry.”
Ellie Sømme joined the 17th May celebrations at the Norwegian Church this year and met many members – including Anne Kirsti, who had triggered the initial investigation by sharing Ellie’s book with Mark.
Ellie has kindly agreed to return to Cardiff to share her father’s story in greater detail in two, one-hour talks (in English), starting at 1pm and also 4pm on Saturday 26th September, 2026.
She will bring the real WW2 artefacts belonging to her father, including postage stamps with microfilm hidden underneath. There will be a chance to buy Sven Sømme’s book, ‘Another Man’s Shoes’.
This event will be free and open to all.
Welsh Norwegian Society 