Norway Vidkun Quisling
Josef Terboven and Vidkun Quisling at Akershus Fortress (Public Domain)
Vidkun Abraham Lauritz Jonsson Quisling was born on July 18, 1887, in Fyresdal in Southern Norway. His parents were Jon Lauritz Quisling and Anna Caroline Bang. His father was a Lutheran minister and genealogist. His mother came from a wealthy family in Grimstad. In 1905, Vidkun entered the War College. Of the 250, cadets, he achieved the highest score on the notoriously difficult entrance exams. From the War College, Quisling entered the Military Academy to pursue a career in the army.
Vidkun Quisling graduated with the best grades in the history of the Academy, since its founding in 1817. The King of Norway rewarded him by inviting the young Quisling to a private audience with him. In 1911, Quisling joined the General Staff of the Norwegian Army. Over the next 18, years Quisling travelled extensively on diplomatic and humanitarian missions. Quisling lived in Russia, Finland, England, France, Armenia, Switzerland and Germany. His five years in Russia however, had the greatest impact on Quisling's political leanings.
Quisling called his political philosophy 'Universism' a term he had borrowed from the Dutch scholar J.J. M. de Groot. In a 700, plus page manuscript, Quisling attempted to explain the entire world by combining Christian thought with contemporary physics to produce a 'new world religion.' Universism also attempted to provide a path for bringing all nations together in world unity. The goal was to develop a collective consciousness for global unity by passing a consciousness from the individual level to the family level to the national level. Eventually Universism took on a racial element as Quisling incorporated a belief in Nordic racial superiority. He asserted that the path to world unity could only be achieved under Nordic leadership, working against the Jews.
Quisling returned to Norway in 1929. He served as the Norwegian Minister of Defence between 1931, and 1933, as a member of the Agrarian Party. When the Agrarian Party refused to appoint Quisling as the Party Leader, he left to form his own Party. In May 1933, he co-founded the Nasional Samling (National Unity) Party. Quisling also became the Party Leader. The Party's platform was based on four principles:
A corporatist vision of Society
An emphasis on nationalism and Christianity
Paternalism of the State
Economic autarky
However, the Nasional Samling was not successful in elections. In the 1933, Norwegian parliamentary elections, the NS Party took just 2.2% of the vote. In 1936, the last elections held before the outbreak of the Second World War, the NS Party only took 1.8% of the vote. Neither result was enough for the NS Party to ever hold a seat in the Storting, the Norwegian Parliament.
At the start of the Second World War in September 1939, Norway - like all of Scandinavia- gained new strategic importance for the German Reich. Erich Raeder, head of the German Navy from 1939, to 1943, was concerned about maintaining German naval access to the North Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, via naval bases on the Norwegian shoreline. In December 1939, first Raeder and then Adolf Hitler met with Quisling. Quisling suggested the British were planning to move into Norway for their own strategic needs. Alarmed by this development the Nazis began planning Operation Weserubung, the invasion of Denmark and Norway
The German invasion of Norway under General Nikolaus von Falkenhorst began on April 9, 1940. While the German offensive got underway, Vidkun Quisling took to the Norwegian airwaves, in the first ever attempted coup d'etat by radio. He announced to the Norwegian public that they should welcome, rather than resist, the advancing Germans. He also announced a new Government and declared himself the new head of state. Two hours later, Quisling repeated his radio announcement. This time, he issued a warning that any refusal to co-operate with the new Government would henceforth involve the most serious consequences for the individuals concerned.
Vidkun Quisling's coup only lasted six days. On April 15, 1940, the Nazi leadership forced him to step down. King Haakon VII, refused to accept a Quisling Government, meaning Germany had to continue with the invasion of Norway to solidify control. Norway fell to Germany on June 19, 1940. King Haakon and Prime Minister Johan Nygaadsvold went into exile in London.
Adolf Hitler had met Vidkun Quisling in December 1939, and was impressed by him. Initial plans for the German occupation of Norway had tentatively placed it under Quisling's control. However, the Nazis soon realized how little popular support Quisling had. On April 24, 1940, Hitler appointed Josef Terboven, the Gauleiter of Essen, as Reichskommissar. Nikolaus von Falkenhorst retained overall military control. In addition, all political parties other than Nasional Samling were outlawed. As the leader of Nasional Samling Quisling was given a position as head of the cabinet under Terboven.
In early 1942, Terboven appointed him Ministerprasident (Prime Minister) of a National Government - that was essentially a puppet state under German control. One of Quisling's first acts in this role was to reinstate the so called Jewish paragraph of the Norwegian constitution. This paragraph, which had been removed in 1851, prevented Jews from settling in Norway. From October through November 1942, Quisling signed a series of laws that enabled the arrest of all Norwegian Jewish men, the confiscation of all Jewish owned property and assets, and the registration of all Norwegian Jews.
There were approximately 2,100 Jews in Norway at the time of the German invasion. Among them were approximately 350, German and Austrian refugees who had sought haven from Nazi Germany. A month after the mass arrest of Jewish men, Nazi officials working with the Nasional Samling in Norway began to arrest women and children. Acting on plans that had previously been developed, the Norwegian police arrested Jews throughout Norway and brought them to Oslo, for deportation to Poland.
The first deportation of 532, Jews left Oslo on November 26, 1942. Another 158, were deported on February 25, 1943, These were followed by transfers of smaller groups. In all 772, Norwegian Jews were deported from the capital of Oslo. From Oslo, Norwegian Jews were sent by ship to the port of Stettin (today Szczecin, Poland). They were then transferred by train to the Auschwitz Concentration Camp. Most were gassed immediately upon arrival at Auschwitz . However, 34, Norwegian Jews, all men, ultimately survived to see the end of the war. Fortunately many Jews received advance warnings of the roundups from Norwegian policemen and members of the resistance. Many of Norway's Jews, approximately 1,000, escaped to neutral Sweden, with the aid of resistance helpers. Many others went into hiding.
When the Second World War ended in 1945, the Norwegian Government - in - exile returned from London and promptly arrested Vidkun Quisling. He was charged with high treason, aiding a foreign Government, murder, embezzlement , theft and other crimes. In court Quisling argued that he acted in Norway's best interests and always with the goal of restoring Norwegian independence. The Court was unconvinced, however, and Vidkun Quisling was convicted and sentenced to death. He was executed on October 24, 1945, at the Akershus Fortress in Oslo.
In one way his name lives on, the word Quisling became universally known as the term for someone who is a traitor to their own country.
Sources
The Holocaust Encyclopedia - USHMM
Photograph: Public Domain
© Holocaust Historical Society December 9, 2023
