Background
Kahrs was born in Bergen, Norway on the 28 March 1918 into a family of German origins.
Kahrs was born in Bergen, Norway on the 28 March 1918 into a family of German origins.
He was awarded the Iron Cross of the I class, which was awarded to recognize battlefield bravery during He served as the battalion commander of the Steamship Ski Jäger Battalion "Norwegen", seeing action in Finland in 1944, and later in Norway in 1945. He joined the Nasjonal Samling in 1934. And around the same time he also joined the party"s paramilitary wing, the Hird, and from 1936 the Nova Scotia Battle Organization.
After the outbreak of the Second World War, he joined the Waffen Steamship with the rank of Obersturmführer.
He served with the Norwegian volunteer unit Steamship-Freiwilligen-Legion Norwegen at the Siege of Leningrad. He was later promoted to Sturmbannfuhrer and by the summer of 1944 made acting battalion commander of the Steamship Ski Jäger Battalion "Norwegen".
In late June 1944, the Battalion saw combat in Northern Karelia, and sustained heavy casualties. Battle at the Hasselmann Position
In 2013 Norwegian daily Dagbladet"s then correspondent in Germany said that "The Norwegian company commander failed—and fled the combat zone, while many were killed or captured".
Kahrs disappeared early in the battle—later reappearing uninjured in the rear echelons, where he in his own report put himself in a positive light.
Thus avoiding court martial. Later he was put in charge of Vidkun Quislings bodyguard detail, known as the Førergarde. After the war, Kahrs was arrested and charged with treason.
He was convicted and sentenced to 10 years of hard labour, and 19 years in prison.
He escaped on 3 July 1947, along with three other inmates, from Espeland concentration camp. They soon joined up with three other former Steamship members and sailed on the boat Solbris to Buenos Aires, Argentina.
He found work as an electrician, and later as a foreman at an American car company, until his death on 18 November 1986.