Reverend Christian Christiansen

Reverend Christian Christiansen. In 1948, the Gardner Chronicle had this headline: , He Saved the World! Gardner Man Should be Remembered , Reverend Christian Christiansen, affectionately known as “Little Chris,” was born on October 8, 1859 in Norway. As a young man he was a Norwegian sailor. In 1881, he immigrated to the United States. , During the day he worked a ten-hour labor job that paid $1.50 per day. At night, he attended Union Park Seminary school in Chicago. He was ordained a Lutheran minister on May 22, 1888. In 1897, he arrived in Gardner and ministered here for ten years. He then was assigned to a congregation in Wisconsin where he served for 23 years. , He was then reassigned back to Gardner. Even though he did not desire to move, he felt a strong calling from the Lord. It meant a substantial financial loss, but something said he must return. We can all be very thankful for this seemingly insignificant decision. , Hitler had built a heavy-water facility. This is, in essence, the heart of an atomic bomb. The site was in the Norwegian mountains. This location was impossible to bomb from above or destroy from below. Battleships could not navigate the fjords (waters). The Nazis would soon be the first and only ones to have the atomic bomb. , One Sunday morning, the reverend read in the Chicago Tribune about this serious problem. The elder pastor knew how to help. He had been born in that region. As a youth, he had explored the mountainous terrain, and as a sailor he navigated the fjords and rivers below. , He contacted the U.S. Navy Department. Soon after, a convoy of high-ranking military strategists came to the reverend's house on Jackson Street in Gardner. Here, on the living room floor, the Norwegian maps were rolled out. The site of the heavy-water plant was pinpointed. The reverend was able to give detailed information on how to reach and destroy this threat to humanity. , This information was relayed to the British military. With this, a group of commandos were trained. The February 1943 raid would be known as Operation Gunnerside. These men successfully destroyed the Nazis' heavy-water plant. , In 1965, a movie was made about this operation titled, “The Heroes of Telemark.” What the movie does not mention is that the information used by the commandos was supplied, at least in part, by the Reverend Chris Christiansen of Gardner. The efforts of the reverend and the raiding party may have saved the world from nuclear destruction. , The reverend was also very involved in the Norwegian underground. In his efforts to help family members still in occupied Norway, he was also able to help many others with his knowledge of the area and terrain. We can only speculate on how many lives he may have saved. , The reverend's family received a thank-you letter from the King of Norway. It arrived after he had passed away. We have reproduced it here. Only then did family members learn about his remarkable achievements. This simple man had never told anyone about his secret life. For it was war time, and it was top secret. We proudly remember him here.