Harry August Vestli (10 May 1918 – 2 September 1942) was a Norwegian trade unionist who was imprisoned and died during the occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany.
Harry Vestli was born in Sande i Vestfold as the son of Petter Rikard Vestli and his Swedish wife Emma Kristine. He had three siblings. He had gone through middle school,[1] and worked at the factory Lilleborg, where he was the union steward.[2]
On 9 September 1941, the so-called milk strike occurred in Oslo. The Nazi German occupants of Norway ordered a harsh crackdown on the striking workers, and martial law was declared the next day. A local union leader, Rolf Wickstrøm, and chief jurist in the Confederation of Trade Unions, Viggo Hansteen were executed immediately.[3] Arrested on 12 September,[1] Harry Vestli was sentenced to death together with Ludvik Buland and Josef Larsson, but the three were later reprieved, and instead given a lifelong jail sentence.[3] Vestli was imprisoned at both Grini and Akershus Fortress, before being sent to Germany on 16 October 1941. While imprisoned here he contracted tuberculosis. He died in September 1942 at a hospital in Hamburg.[1]
