The Philosophy of War and Peace by Jenny Teichman

Author:Jenny Teichman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: moral philosophy, history, war, peace, justice, terrorism, torture, religion, ideology, warfare, ethics, analytical philosophy, von Clausewitz, Lenin, George Orwell, Aldous Huxley, Sigmund Freud, rules of war, Plato
ISBN: 9781845405366
Publisher: Andrews UK Limited 2017
Published: 2017-01-09T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 15: Resistance in Norway

The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants

(Thomas Jefferson, letter to W.S. Smith 1787).

The German invasion and Quisling

In 1940 the population of Norway consisted of three million people scattered over what is a mostly mountainous territory. Germany invaded the country on April 9 1940, rapidly taking the capital Oslo and all the airfields, weapon depots and principal towns. Norwegian soldiers and sailors attempted to fight back - the sailors managed to sink a German cruiser - but to no avail. The southern areas of Norway had all capitulated by May 1940 though fighting continued for a while in the north.

Vidkun Quisling, leader of the Norwegian National-Socialist (Nazi) Unity Party, the NS, quickly declared himself Prime Minister. Hitler at first supported Quisling in this but soon appointed a Reichskommisar, Terboven, who had the job of telling Prime Minister Quisling what to do on important occasions such as the gagging of the press, the setting up of phoney trade unions and sports organisations, and the execution of resistance workers and strikers.

Because of the Nazi-Soviet Pact signed in August 1939 the Norwegian Communist Party supported the German invaders. The communists wanted the King, Haakon VII, to abdicate: he refused. On June 7 1940 a British cruiser collected the King and his ministers and took them to England.

The patriotic people in the Norwegian resistance movement were marked by courage and self-sacrifice, the far fewer Norwegian collaborators were presumably motivated by pro-Nazi beliefs or by fear or greed.

Resistance came from unexpected groups, unexpected, that is, to modern minds perhaps too influenced by ideas about the necessity of conflict between left and right. Some trade unionists, for example, became Quislingite informers whereas the members of the national ship-owners’ organisation unanimously refused to instruct the captains of Norwegian vessels on the high seas to return home. Some of those ships were serving with the Allies. Two prominent ship-owners were arrested, sent to Germany and imprisoned there until 1945. All the judges of the Supreme Court resigned when ordered to add members of Quisling’s party to their ranks. Bishop Berggrav organised a protest letter signed by the Norwegian bishops which reached London from where it was broadcast back to Norway. Berggrav was summoned to meet Himmler who let him go with a warning having perhaps decided that punishing a distinguished high-up clergyman might be a bit risky. Sports groups refused to co-operate with similar groups set up by the National Unity Party and would not accept Germans as members. When a number of skiers and skaters were arrested there was a sports strike of 300,000 people. There were also school strikes.

Quisling’s political meetings were boycotted or attracted demonstrations singing God Save the King and the national anthem Yes, we love with deep devotion ... this our land. The singers and others wore H7 badges, on which H7 stood for King Haakon VII.

Resistance leaders knew that if Quisling was ever to set up a wholly independent Nazi government he would conscript young Norwegians to fight alongside the German army.

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