Jo Benkow was born in Trondheim, Norway to Jewish parents, Ivan Benkow and Annie Louise Florence. The family moved to the municipality of Bærum outside Oslo when Jo was a child. Jo Benkow married Bjørg Gerda Folkestad in 1952, but the marriage dissolved in 1983. From 1985 he was married to fellow politician Annelise Høegh, former parliamentary representative for the Conservative Party, and daughter of war aviator Anders Høegh. He was the uncle of journalistic fraudster Bjørn Benkow. As a member of the tiny Jewish minority of Norway, he experienced first-hand prejudice while growing up. In 1942, he fled persecution by the Nazis occupying Norway, to Sweden. His mother and sister were deported by the Nazi regime from Norway and died in Auschwitz. Jo reached the United Kingdom where he served in the Royal Norwegian Air Force. He returned after the war and took up photography as a trade, his father’s profession.
Political career
In 1965 he was elected to the Parliament of Norway, representing the Conservative Party. In parliament he soon became a leading figure, as party leader 1980–84, group leader of the Conservative Party in parliament 1981–85 and most notably becoming President of the Storting on 9 October 1985, a position he held until his retirement on 30 September 1993, after 28 years in parliament. Benkow served as president of the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights, taught international relations at Boston University, and has written books on human rights, modern monarchy in Norway, and other issues. His self-biography Fra Synagogen til Løvebakken published in 1985 sold 250,000 copies in Norway and earned him the Norwegian Booksellers' Prize. His book Olav – menneske og monark, a product of several conversations with his friend King Olav V, was a huge bestseller as well. He was also a much sought-after lecturer on issues concerning the Middle East and Anti-Semitism. In recent years he managed to create some controversy when he criticized former prime minister and party colleague Kåre Willoch, calling him "the most biased person in the country," on account of Willoch's views on the Middle East and his criticism of Israeli politics. Benkow died on 18 May 2013, at a hospital in Oslo, aged 88.
