Heinrich Himmler & National Socialist Policy in Poland. The First Year: 1939-40 by T. X. Ferenczi

Author:T. X. Ferenczi [Ferenczi, T. X.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-06-28T23:00:00+00:00

Himmler was busy at work at Gestapo headquarters in Berlin on April 9, 1940, the day the Wehrmacht invaded the Scandinavian nations of Denmark and Norway. The invasion, code-named Operation Weserübung (Weser Exercise), was a pre-emptive strike to prevent British forces from occupying Norway. The British Royal Navy, meanwhile, was trying to block German access to important iron ore consignments from neutral Sweden by strategically placing mines in Norwegian waters.

The invasion of Denmark commenced at 5:15 a.m. and was over in less than a single day. German troops swiftly captured the capital city of Copenhagen and overran the remainder of the country. Danish forces were ill-equipped and incapable of withstanding the German attack, and by 6 p.m. the entire Danish Air force had been destroyed. King Christian X, who had been given an ultimatum that morning, convoked an urgent meeting with Prime Minister Thorvald Stauning, Foreign Minister Peter Munch, and his military chiefs. The King, unwilling to needlessly continue to sacrifice the lives of his compatriots, chose to surrender that evening.

Norway, on the other hand, valiantly held out much longer—nearly two months, longer than France would manage to resist during the upcoming Battle of France. German air and naval forces (the Luftwaffe and Kriegsmarine respectively) launched a fierce blitzkrieg assault on Scandinavia’s northernmost country and German land troops seized the major port cities of Oslo, Trondheim, Bergen, Stavanger, and Kristiansand.

Although the Allies managed to retake the key Norwegian port of Narvik for a time, fierce fighting between German mountain troops and the Norwegian Army continued. Eventually, however, the British evacuated Narvik to support France, which meanwhile had been attacked by the Wehrmacht on May 10 and was experiencing ongoing setbacks. The bitter German-Norwegian conflict ended on June 10 when the last resisting Norwegian division led by the popular General Carl Gustav Fleischer capitulated. King Haakon VII—whom the Germans had attempted to capture or kill—and a portion of the Norwegian Government withdrew to Britain to set up an exile government.

Norway remained occupied by some 300,000 German garrison troops until the Reich’s defeat in May, 1945. Hitler selected the tyrannical Josef Terboven, the Gauleiter of Essen, as Reich Commissar for Norway, with the traitorous Vidkun Quisling as Norway’s new puppet Prime Minister.

On the English political front, the dissatisfaction of the British with the progress of the Norwegian situation resulted in Winston Churchill, the First Lord of the Admiralty, taking over as Prime Minister from Neville Chamberlain following the latter’s resignation on May 10, 1940.

The Third Reich had now triumphantly conquered three sovereign nations. These military victories, though achieved at a high cost, bolstered Hitler’s belief in his “historic mission” to establish a continent-wide empire and inwardly prepared him for the battle royale with Britain.

Throughout the Scandinavian campaign, Himmler had not remained idle, and was frequently making visits to the Reich Chancellery. On April 19, Himmler met with Hitler for talks. The topic of discussion was a suitable candidate for the position of Higher SS Police Führer for Norway. The Nazi leaders determined

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