Holocaust in Norway
Encyclopedia
In the middle of the occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany, there were at least 2,173 Jews in Norway. At least 775 of these were arrested, detained, and/or deported. 742 were murdered in the camps, 23 died as a result of extrajudicial execution, murder, and suicide during the war; bringing the total of Jewish Norwegian dead to at least 765, comprising 230 complete households. In addition the few who survived the camps, the rest survived by fleeing the country, mostly to Sweden, but some also to the United Kingdom
. A few also survived in camps in Norway or in hospitals, or in hiding.
was established in the late 19th century, after a clause in the Norwegian constitution of 1814 that banned Jews from entering Norway was repealed in 1851. The population grew slowly until the early 20th century, when pogroms in Russia
and the Baltic states
increased the number of immigrants. Another immigration increase came in the 1930s, as Jews fled Nazi persecution in Germany and areas under German control. See also Nansenhjelpen
.
By 1942, there were 2,173 Jews in Norway. Of these, it is estimated that 1,643 were Norwegian citizens, 240 were foreign citizens, and 290 were stateless.
Much of the prejudice against Jews commonly found in Europe was also evident in Norway in the late 19th and early 20th century, and Nasjonal Samling (NS), the Nazi party in Norway, made antisemitism part of its political platform in the 1930s. Halldis Neegaard Østbye
became the de facto spokeswoman for increasingly virulent propaganda against Jews, summarized in her 1938 book Jødeproblemet og dets løsning (The Jewish Problem and its Solution). NS had also started gathering information about Jewish Norwegians before the war started, and antisemitic op-ed articles were occasionally published in the mainstream press.
Following the German invasion
and occupation
, of Norway, and after the legitimate Norwegian government had left the country, German occupying authorities under the leadership of Reichskommissar Josef Terboven
, put Norwegian civilian authorities under his control. This included various branches of Norwegian police, including the district sheriffs (Lensmannsetaten), criminal police, and order police. Uniquely Nazi police branches, including the SD
and Gestapo
, also became part of a network that served as tools for increasingly oppressive policies toward the Norwegian populace.
As a deliberate strategy, Terboven's regime sought to use Norwegian, rather than German, officials to subjugate the Norwegian population. Although German police and paramilitary forces reported through the RSHA
chain of command, and Norwegian police formally into the newly formed Department of Police, the actual practice was that Norwegian police officials took direction from the German RSHA.
Although several Jewish Norwegians already had been arrested and deported as political prisoners in the early months of the occupation, the first measure targeting all Jews was an order from the German foreign ministry made through Terboven that on 10 May 1941 the police of Oslo
were to confiscate radios from all Jews in the city. Within days local sheriffs throughout the entire country received the same orders.
To identify Jewish Norwegians, the authorities relied on information from the police and telegraph services; also the synagogues in Oslo and Trondheim were ordered to produce full rosters of their members, including their names, date of birth, profession, and address. Jewish burial societies and youth groups were likewise ordered to produce their lists.
In August, the synagogues were also ordered to produce lists of Jewish individuals who were not members. The resulting lists were cross-referenced with information Nasjonal Samling had compiled previously and information from the Norwegian Central Bureau of statistics. In the end, occupying authorities in Norway had a more complete list of Jewish residents in Norway than most other countries under Nazi rule.
On the basis of the lists compiled in the spring, the Justice Department and county governors started in the fall to register all Jewish property, including commercial holdings. A complete inventory was transmitted to the police department in December 1941, and this also included individuals who were suspected of having a Jewish background.
On 20 December, the Norwegian Department of Police ordered 700 stamps with a 2 cm tall "J" for use by authorities to stamp the identification cards of Jewish individuals in Norway. These were put into use on 10 January 1942, when advertisements in the mainstream press ordered all Norwegian Jews to immediately present themselves at the local police stations to have their identification papers stamped. They were also ordered to complete an extensive form. For purposes of this registration, a Jew was identified as anyone who had at least three "full-Jewish" grandparents; anyone who had two "full-Jewish" grandparents and was married to a Jew; or was a member of a Jewish congregation. This registration showed that about 1,400 Jewish adults lived in Norway.
was established near Levanger
, north of Trondheim
. Jewish individuals, particularly those who were stateless, were briefly detained in connection with Operation Barbarossa
. The first Jewish Norwegian to be deported was Benjamin Bild, a labor union activist and mechanic, who ended his days in Gross Rosen. Moritz Rabinowitz
, was probably the first to be arrested in March, 1941 for agitating against Nazi antisemitism in the Haugesund
press, and sent to Sachsenhausen
where he was beaten to death on 27 December 1942.
German troops occupied the synagogue in Trondheim on 21 April 1941, vandalizing the premises. The Torah scrolls had been secured in the early days of the war, and before long the Methodist church in Trondheim had provided temporary facilities for Jewish religious services. Several Jewish residents of Trondheim were arrested and detained at Falstad. The first such prisoner was Efraim Koritzinsky, a medical doctor and head of Trondheim hospital. Several others followed; altogether eight of these were shot in the woods outside of the camp that became the infamous site of extrajudicial executions in Norway On 24 February, all remaining Jewish property in Trondheim was seized by Nazi authorities.
As the brutality of the Terboven regime came to light through the atrocities at Telavåg
, Martial law in Trondheim in 1942
, etc., persecution against Jews in particular became more pronounced.
After numerous cases of harassment and violence against individuals, orders were issued to Norwegian police authorities on 24 and 25 October 1942, to arrest all Jewish men over the age of 15 and confiscate all their property. On 26 October, several Norwegian police branches and 20 soldiers of Germanic-SS
rounded up and arrested Jewish men, often leaving their wives and children on the street. These prisoners were held primarily at Berg concentration camp
in Southern Norway and Falstad concentration camp in central parts of the country; some were held in local jails, while Jewish women were ordered to report in person to their local sheriffs on a daily basis.
On the morning of 26 November, German soldiers and more than 300 Norwegian officials (belonging to Statspolitiet, Kriminalpolitiet, Hirden and Germanske SS-Norge
) were deployed to arrest and detain Jewish women and children. These were sent by cars and train to the pier in Oslo where a cargo ship, the D/S Donau was waiting to transport them to Stettin, and from there to Auschwitz
By 27 November, all Jews in Norway were either deported and murdered, imprisoned, had fled to Sweden, or were in hiding in Norway.
There were smaller and individual deportations after the Gotenland's voyage. A smaller number of Jewish prisoners remained in camps in Norway during the war, primarily those who were married to non-Jewish Norwegians. These were subject to mistreatment and neglect. In the camp in Grini, for example, the group that was harshest treated consisted of violent criminals and Jews.
Altogether, about 767 Jews from Norway were deported and sent to concentration camps under German control, primarily Auschwitz. 26 of these survived the ordeal. In addition to the 741 murdered in the camps, 23 died as a result of extrajudicial execution, murder, and suicide during the war; bringing the total of Jewish Norwegian dead to at least 764, comprising 230 complete households.
The death toll among Jews from Norway constituted about 0.013% of the total death toll of European Jews in the Holocaust.
The North Sea route would become increasingly challenging as German forces increased their naval presence along the Norwegian coast, limiting the sea route to special operations missions against German military targets. The land routes to Sweden became the main conduit for people and materials that either needed to get out of Norway for their safety, or into Norway for clandestine missions.
There were a few private routes across the border, but most were organized through three resistance groups: Milorg
("military organization"), Sivorg ("civilian organization") and Komorg, the communist resistance group. These routes were carefully guarded, in large part through a network of secret cells. Some efforts to infiltrate them, especially through the Rinnan gang succeeded, but such holes were quickly plugged.
By the fall of 1942, about 150 Jews from Norway had fled the country. The Jewish population in Norway had experienced some mistreatment specifically targeted at them, but the prevailing sense was that their lot was the same as all other Norwegians. The arrest and detention of Jewish men on 26 October 1942 changed that premise, but at that point many were afraid of reprisals against the imprisoned men if they left. Some Norwegian Nazis and German officials advised Jews to leave the country as quickly as possible.
On the evening of 25 November, resistance people got a few hours' notice before the scheduled arrests and deportation of all Jews in Norway. Many did their best to notify the remaining Jews who were not already detained, usually by making brief phone calls or short appearances on people's doorsteps. This was more successful in Oslo than other areas. Those who were warned only had a few hours to go into hiding and days to find their way out of the country.
The Norwegian resistance movement had not planned for the contingency that hundreds of individuals had to go underground in one night, and it was left to individuals to improvise shelter out of sight of the arresting authorities. Many were moved several times in just as many days.
Most of the refugees were moved in small groups across the border, typically with the help of taxis or trucks, railroads to areas near the border, and then by foot, car, bicycle, or on skis across the border. It was a particularly cold winter, and the crossing involved considerable hardship and uncertainty. Those who had the means, paid their non-Jewish helpers for their trouble; over time, the Norwegian resistance organizations financed the escape for those who were destitute.
The passage was complicated by the vigilance of police who were committed to capturing such refugees, and Terboven imposed the death penalty for anyone caught aiding Jewish refugees. Only individuals who by application were granted "border zone permits" were allowed within easy traveling distance to the border with Sweden. Trains were subject to regular search and inspection, and there were continuous patrols of the area. A failed crossing would have dire consequences for anyone caught, as indeed it turned out for a few.
Still, at least 900 Jewish refugees made their way across the border to Sweden. They usually went through a transit center in Kjesäter
in Vingåker
, and then found temporary homes throughout Sweden, but mostly in certain towns where Norwegians gathered, such as Uppsala
.
The ongoing rivalry between Reichskommissar Josef Terboven and Ministerpresident Vidkun Quisling may have played a role, as both were likely presented with the directives from the Wannsee Conference
in January 1942. The German policy was to use Norwegian police as a front for the Norwegian implementation of the conference plans, orders for which were issued along two chains of command: from Adolf Eichmann
through the RSHA
and Heinrich Fehlis
to Hellmuth Reinhard
, the Gestapo chief in Norway; and from Quisling through the "minister of justice" Sverre Riisnæs
and "minister of police" Jonas Lie
through to Karl Marthinsen
, the head of the Norwegian state police.
Documentation from the period suggests that the Nazi authorities, and especially the Quisling administration, were loath to initiate actions that might cause widespread opposition among the Norwegian population. Quisling had tried and failed to take over the teachers' unions, the clergy of the State of Norway, athletics, and the arts. Eichmann had de-prioritized the extermination of Jews in Norway, as the number was low and even Nasjonal Samling had claimed that the "Jewish problem" in Norway was minor. Confiscation of Jewish property, the arrest of Jewish men, constant harassment and individual murder was - until late November, 1942 - part of Terboven's approach of terrorizing the Norwegian population into submission.
The evidence suggests that Hellmuth Reinhard took the initiative to put an end to all Jews in Norway. This may have been motivated by his own ambition, and it's possible he was encouraged by the lack of outrage over the initial measures targeting Jews.
According to the trial against him in Baden-Baden
in 1964, Reinhard arranged for the D/S Donau to set aside capacity for prisoner transport on 26 November and ordered Karl Marthinsen to mobilize the necessary Norwegian forces to effect the transit from Norway. In a curious sidenote to all this, he also sent along a typewriter on the Donau to properly register all prisoners, and was insistent that it be returned to him on Donau's return voyage - which it was.
A local, Norwegian, police chief in Oslo named Knut Rød
provided on-the-ground command of Norwegian police officers for arresting women and children and transporting them as well as the men who had already been detained to the Oslo harbor and putting them in the hands of the German SS troops.
Eichmann was not notified of the transport until the Donau had left the harbor, bound for Stettin. Nevertheless, he was able to arrange for box cars to be present for transport to Auschwitz.
Of those involved:
In the end, only two of the principals were put on trial:
The moral culpability among Norwegian police officers and Norwegian informants is a matter of continuing research and debate.
Although the persecution and murder of Jews was raised as a factor in several trials, including that against Quisling, legal scholars agree that in no case was it a decisive or even weighty factor in the conviction or sentencing of these people.
and Norway were very different. Far fewer Danish Jews were arrested and deported, and those who were deported were sent to Theresienstadt
, where a relatively large percentage survived, rather than Auschwitz.
Several factors have been cited for these differences:
upon the invasion on 9 April 1940. Though the most significant contribution of the Allied war effort was through the merchant marine fleet known as Nortraship
, a number of Norwegian military forces were established and became part of Utefronten. Consequently, the Norwegian government was regularly briefed on Allied intelligence relating to atrocities committed by German forces in Eastern Europe and in occupied Netherlands
, France
, etc.
In addition, the Norwegian government also received regular intelligence from the Norwegian home front, including accounts from returning Norwegian Germanic-SS
soldiers, who had firsthand accounts of massacres of Jews in Poland, the Ukraine, etc.
Indeed, both underground resistance newspapers in Norway and the Norwegian press abroad published news about "wholesale murders" of Jews in the late summer and fall of 1942. There is, however, little evidence that either the Norwegian home front or Norwegian government expected that the Jews in Norway would be a target for the genocide that was unfolding on the European continent. On 1 December 1942, the Norwegian foreign minister, Trygve Lie
sent a letter to the British section of the World Jewish Congress
where he asserted that:
Although the Norwegian resistance by the fall of 1942 had a sophisticated network for transmitting and propagating urgent news among the population that led to very effective passive resistance efforts, e.g., in keeping the teachers' union, athletics, physicians, etc., out of Nazi control., no such notifications were issued to save Jews.
The Protestant religious establishment in Norway did, however, make their opposition known: in a letter to Vidkun Quisling dated 10 November 1942, bishops of the Church of Norway
, the administration of the theological seminaries, the leaders of several leading religious organizations, and the leaders of non-Lutheran Protestant organizations protesting actions against the Jews, calling on Quisling "in the name of Jesus Christ" to "stop the persecution of Jews and stop the bigotry that through the press is disseminated throughout our land."
The discrimination, persecution, and ultimately deportation of Jews was enabled by the cooperation of Norwegian agencies that were not entirely co-opted by Nasjonal Samling or the German occupying powers. In addition to the police and local sheriffs who implemented the directives of Statspolitiet, the taxis aided in transporting Jewish prisoners to their point of deportation and even sued the Norwegian government after the war for wages owed to them for such services.
Before 26 October 1942, Jews in Norway were singled out for particularly harsh persecution, but it was not widely considered that this would extend to deportation and murder. But it wasn't until the night of 26 November that the resistance movement was mobilized to rescue Jews from deportation. It took time for the network to be fully engaged, and until then Jewish refugees had to improvise on their own, and rely on acquaintances to avoid capture. Within a few weeks, however, the Norwegian home front organizations (including Milorg
and Sivorg) had developed the means to move relatively large numbers of refugees out of Norway and also financed these escapes when needed.
The literature since then can be categorized as follows:
One issue that has been highlighted is the hypothesis that many Norwegians viewed Jews as outsiders, whose fate was of no direct concern to Norwegians.
The founding of the Norwegian Center for Studies of Holocaust and Religious Minorities
promises to add considerable research material to this topic, and also the center for human rights at the former site of the Falstad concentration camp
provides another forum on humanitarian aspects of the German occupation. Jewish museums have recently been established in Oslo and Trondheim, and there have been notable papers written within criminology
about the legal purge in Norway after World War II
.
Monuments over the victims were erected fairly early in the graveyards in Oslo and later in Trondheim; in later years, monuments in Haugesund (to commemorate Moritz Rabinowitz), at the pier in Oslo from which the D/S Donau sailed, at Falstad, in Trondheim (over Cissi Klein
), and at schools have also raised the awareness.
published an article in the Norwegian business daily Dagens Næringsliv
that highlighted the uncompensated financial loss incurred by the Norwegian Jewish community as a result of Nazi persecution during the war. This brought to public attention the fact that much if not most of the assets confiscated from Jewish owners during the war had been inadequately restored to them and their descendants, even in cases where the Norwegian government or private individuals had benefited from the confiscation after the war.
In response to this debate, the Norwegian Ministry of Justice on 29 March 1996, named a commission to investigate what was done with Jewish assets during the war. The commission consisted of County governor of Vest Agder, Oluf Skarpnes
as its chair, professor of law Thor Falkanger
, professor of history Ole Kristian Grimnes
, district court judge Guri Sunde, director at National Archival Services of Norway
, psychologist Berit Reisel, and cand.philol. Bjarte Bruland
, Bergen. Consultant Torfinn Vollan from the Skarpnes's office acted as the commission's secretary. Of the commission's members, Dr. Reisel and Mr. Bruland had been nominated by the Jewish community in Norway. Anne Hals resigned from the commission early in the process, and Eli Fure from the same institution was named in her place.
The commission worked together for a year, but it became apparent that were diverging views on premises for the group's analysis.
By all accounts, the commission had difficulty unifying these views, and on 23 June 1997, two separate reports were submitted to the Ministry of Justice. After considerable debate in the media, the government accepted the findings of the minority report and initiated financial compensation and issuing a public apology.
Assets were often sold at fire sale prices or assigned at a token price to Nazis, Germans, or their sympathizers.
The administration of these assets was performed by a "Liquidation board for confiscated Jewish assets" that accounted for the assets as they were seized and their disposition. For these purposes, the board continued to treat each estate as a bankrupt legal entity, charging expenses even after the assets had been disposed. As a result, there was a significant discrepancy between the value of the assets for the rightful owners, and the value assessed by the confiscating authorities.
This was further complicated by the methodology employed by the legitimate Norwegian government after the war. In order to restore confiscated assets to their owners, the government was guided by public policy to alleviate the economic impact on the economy by reducing compensation to approximate a sense of fairness and finance the reconstruction of the country's economy. The assessed value was thereby reduced by the Nazis' liquidation practices and was further reduced by the discounting applied as a result of governmental policy after the war.
Norwegian estate law
imposes estate tax on inheritance passed from the deceased to his/her heirs depending on the relationship between the two. This tax was compounded at each step of inheritance. As no death certificates had been issued for Jews murdered in German concentration camps, the deceased were listed as missing. Their estates were held in probate pending a declaration of death and charged for administrative expenses.
By the time all these factors had had their effect on the valuation of the confiscated assets, very little was left. In total, NOK 7.8 million was awarded to principals and heirs of Jewish property confiscated by the Nazis. This was less than the administrative fees charged by governmental agencies for probate. It did not include assets seized by the government that belonged to non-Norwegian citizens, and that of citizens that left no legal heirs. This last category was formidable, as 230 entire Jewish households were killed during the course of the Shoah.
said that most of the research [in Norway] regarding the Holocaust and World War Two, currently is being conducted by [his former employer] The Center for Studies of Holocaust and Religious Minorities
(HL-senteret).
. - covers specifically the Jewish population of Bergen and Hordaland
affected by the Holocaust - the history of the Holocaust against the background of the author's memories of her own escape into Sweden. Published in English as: "'We Are Going to Pick Potatoes': Norway and the Holocaust, The Untold Story" (Hamilton Books, 2010, ISBN 978-0761850113). - article about the fate of Jews in the Agder counties - interview with historian Bjarte Bruland and professor Irene Levin - newspaper article about a return to Auschwitz by Norwegian survivors
on bias in the Legal purge in Norway after World War II
} - about the Nacht und Nebel prisoners in the Natzweiler concentration camp, with an emphasis on the Norwegians held there.
} - about the Sachsenhausen concentration camp
.
} - about the Ravensbrück concentration camp, primarily for women.
} - about the deportation and imprisonment of Norwegian men and women in prisons throughout Germany.
} - an authoritative list of Norwegian individuals who had been held in German captivity during World War II.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
. A few also survived in camps in Norway or in hospitals, or in hiding.
Background
The Jewish community in NorwayNorway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
was established in the late 19th century, after a clause in the Norwegian constitution of 1814 that banned Jews from entering Norway was repealed in 1851. The population grew slowly until the early 20th century, when pogroms in Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
and the Baltic states
Baltic states
The term Baltic states refers to the Baltic territories which gained independence from the Russian Empire in the wake of World War I: primarily the contiguous trio of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania ; Finland also fell within the scope of the term after initially gaining independence in the 1920s.The...
increased the number of immigrants. Another immigration increase came in the 1930s, as Jews fled Nazi persecution in Germany and areas under German control. See also Nansenhjelpen
Nansenhjelpen
Nansenhjelpen was a Norwegian humanitarian organization founded by Odd Nansen in 1936 to provide safe haven and assistance in Norway for Jewish refugees from areas in Europe under Nazi control...
.
By 1942, there were 2,173 Jews in Norway. Of these, it is estimated that 1,643 were Norwegian citizens, 240 were foreign citizens, and 290 were stateless.
Much of the prejudice against Jews commonly found in Europe was also evident in Norway in the late 19th and early 20th century, and Nasjonal Samling (NS), the Nazi party in Norway, made antisemitism part of its political platform in the 1930s. Halldis Neegaard Østbye
Halldis Neegaard Østbye
Halldis Neegaard Østbye, née Halldis Neegaard was a Norwegian anti-Semite and national socialist. She was born in Stor-Elvdal. During World War II, she was known as a prominent member of the fascist Nasjonal Samling party, and was referred to as "Norway's most fanatical naziwoman" by Arne Skouen...
became the de facto spokeswoman for increasingly virulent propaganda against Jews, summarized in her 1938 book Jødeproblemet og dets løsning (The Jewish Problem and its Solution). NS had also started gathering information about Jewish Norwegians before the war started, and antisemitic op-ed articles were occasionally published in the mainstream press.
Following the German invasion
Operation Weserübung
Operation Weserübung was the code name for Germany's assault on Denmark and Norway during the Second World War and the opening operation of the Norwegian Campaign...
and occupation
Occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany
The occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany started with the German invasion of Norway on April 9, 1940, and ended on May 8, 1945, after the capitulation of German forces in Europe. Throughout this period, Norway was continuously occupied by the Wehrmacht...
, of Norway, and after the legitimate Norwegian government had left the country, German occupying authorities under the leadership of Reichskommissar Josef Terboven
Josef Terboven
Josef Antonius Heinrich Terboven was a Nazi leader, best known as the Reichskommissar during the German occupation of Norway.-Early life:...
, put Norwegian civilian authorities under his control. This included various branches of Norwegian police, including the district sheriffs (Lensmannsetaten), criminal police, and order police. Uniquely Nazi police branches, including the SD
Sicherheitsdienst
Sicherheitsdienst , full title Sicherheitsdienst des Reichsführers-SS, or SD, was the intelligence agency of the SS and the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany. The organization was the first Nazi Party intelligence organization to be established and was often considered a "sister organization" with the...
and Gestapo
Gestapo
The Gestapo was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Beginning on 20 April 1934, it was under the administration of the SS leader Heinrich Himmler in his position as Chief of German Police...
, also became part of a network that served as tools for increasingly oppressive policies toward the Norwegian populace.
Preparations
RSHA
The RSHA, or Reichssicherheitshauptamt was an organization subordinate to Heinrich Himmler in his dual capacities as Chef der Deutschen Polizei and Reichsführer-SS...
chain of command, and Norwegian police formally into the newly formed Department of Police, the actual practice was that Norwegian police officials took direction from the German RSHA.
Although several Jewish Norwegians already had been arrested and deported as political prisoners in the early months of the occupation, the first measure targeting all Jews was an order from the German foreign ministry made through Terboven that on 10 May 1941 the police of Oslo
Oslo
Oslo is a municipality, as well as the capital and most populous city in Norway. As a municipality , it was established on 1 January 1838. Founded around 1048 by King Harald III of Norway, the city was largely destroyed by fire in 1624. The city was moved under the reign of Denmark–Norway's King...
were to confiscate radios from all Jews in the city. Within days local sheriffs throughout the entire country received the same orders.
To identify Jewish Norwegians, the authorities relied on information from the police and telegraph services; also the synagogues in Oslo and Trondheim were ordered to produce full rosters of their members, including their names, date of birth, profession, and address. Jewish burial societies and youth groups were likewise ordered to produce their lists.
In August, the synagogues were also ordered to produce lists of Jewish individuals who were not members. The resulting lists were cross-referenced with information Nasjonal Samling had compiled previously and information from the Norwegian Central Bureau of statistics. In the end, occupying authorities in Norway had a more complete list of Jewish residents in Norway than most other countries under Nazi rule.
On the basis of the lists compiled in the spring, the Justice Department and county governors started in the fall to register all Jewish property, including commercial holdings. A complete inventory was transmitted to the police department in December 1941, and this also included individuals who were suspected of having a Jewish background.
On 20 December, the Norwegian Department of Police ordered 700 stamps with a 2 cm tall "J" for use by authorities to stamp the identification cards of Jewish individuals in Norway. These were put into use on 10 January 1942, when advertisements in the mainstream press ordered all Norwegian Jews to immediately present themselves at the local police stations to have their identification papers stamped. They were also ordered to complete an extensive form. For purposes of this registration, a Jew was identified as anyone who had at least three "full-Jewish" grandparents; anyone who had two "full-Jewish" grandparents and was married to a Jew; or was a member of a Jewish congregation. This registration showed that about 1,400 Jewish adults lived in Norway.
Confiscation and arrests
Both German and Norwegian police officials intensified efforts to target the Jewish population in the course of 1941. The concentration camp at FalstadFalstad concentration camp
Falstad concentration camp was a prison camp in the village of Ekne in what was the municipality of Skogn in Nord-Trøndelag county, Norway...
was established near Levanger
Levanger
Levanger is a town and municipality in Nord-Trøndelag county, Norway. It is part of the Innherred region. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Levanger...
, north of Trondheim
Trondheim
Trondheim , historically, Nidaros and Trondhjem, is a city and municipality in Sør-Trøndelag county, Norway. With a population of 173,486, it is the third most populous municipality and city in the country, although the fourth largest metropolitan area. It is the administrative centre of...
. Jewish individuals, particularly those who were stateless, were briefly detained in connection with Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa was the code name for Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II that began on 22 June 1941. Over 4.5 million troops of the Axis powers invaded the USSR along a front., the largest invasion in the history of warfare...
. The first Jewish Norwegian to be deported was Benjamin Bild, a labor union activist and mechanic, who ended his days in Gross Rosen. Moritz Rabinowitz
Moritz Rabinowitz
Moritz Moses Rabinowitz was a Norwegian retail merchant based in the city of Haugesund, memorialized for his humanitarian outlook and contribution to his city.- Family :...
, was probably the first to be arrested in March, 1941 for agitating against Nazi antisemitism in the Haugesund
Haugesund
is a town and municipality in the county of Rogaland, Norway.-Location:Haugesund was separated from Torvastad as a town and municipality of its own in 1855. The rural municipality of Skåre was merged with Haugesund on January 1, 1958. Haugesund is a small municipality, only 73 km²...
press, and sent to Sachsenhausen
Sachsenhausen concentration camp
Sachsenhausen or Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg was a Nazi concentration camp in Oranienburg, Germany, used primarily for political prisoners from 1936 to the end of the Third Reich in May, 1945. After World War II, when Oranienburg was in the Soviet Occupation Zone, the structure was used as an NKVD...
where he was beaten to death on 27 December 1942.
German troops occupied the synagogue in Trondheim on 21 April 1941, vandalizing the premises. The Torah scrolls had been secured in the early days of the war, and before long the Methodist church in Trondheim had provided temporary facilities for Jewish religious services. Several Jewish residents of Trondheim were arrested and detained at Falstad. The first such prisoner was Efraim Koritzinsky, a medical doctor and head of Trondheim hospital. Several others followed; altogether eight of these were shot in the woods outside of the camp that became the infamous site of extrajudicial executions in Norway On 24 February, all remaining Jewish property in Trondheim was seized by Nazi authorities.
As the brutality of the Terboven regime came to light through the atrocities at Telavåg
Telavåg
Telavåg is a small village in the municipality of Sund, located 39 km south west of Bergen, Norway, with a population of about 600.-Telavåg tragedy:...
, Martial law in Trondheim in 1942
Martial law in Trondheim in 1942
During the occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany, the occupying powers imposed martial law in Trondheim and surrounding areas effective October 6, 1942 through October 12, 1942. During this time, 34 Norwegians were murdered by extrajudicial execution...
, etc., persecution against Jews in particular became more pronounced.
After numerous cases of harassment and violence against individuals, orders were issued to Norwegian police authorities on 24 and 25 October 1942, to arrest all Jewish men over the age of 15 and confiscate all their property. On 26 October, several Norwegian police branches and 20 soldiers of Germanic-SS
Germanic-SS
The Germanic SS was the collective name given to SS groups which arose in Occupied Europe between 1939 and 1945.The units were modeled on the Allgemeine-SS in Nazi Germany...
rounded up and arrested Jewish men, often leaving their wives and children on the street. These prisoners were held primarily at Berg concentration camp
Berg concentration camp
Berg was a concentration camp near Tønsberg in Norway that served as an internment and transit center for political prisoners and Jews during the Nazi occupation of Norway.-Establishment:...
in Southern Norway and Falstad concentration camp in central parts of the country; some were held in local jails, while Jewish women were ordered to report in person to their local sheriffs on a daily basis.
On the morning of 26 November, German soldiers and more than 300 Norwegian officials (belonging to Statspolitiet, Kriminalpolitiet, Hirden and Germanske SS-Norge
Germanic-SS
The Germanic SS was the collective name given to SS groups which arose in Occupied Europe between 1939 and 1945.The units were modeled on the Allgemeine-SS in Nazi Germany...
) were deployed to arrest and detain Jewish women and children. These were sent by cars and train to the pier in Oslo where a cargo ship, the D/S Donau was waiting to transport them to Stettin, and from there to Auschwitz
By 27 November, all Jews in Norway were either deported and murdered, imprisoned, had fled to Sweden, or were in hiding in Norway.
Deportation and mass murder
- The first group deportation of Jews from Norway was on 19 November 1942 when the ship D/S Monte Rosa left Oslo with 223 prisoners, of which 21 were Jewish.
- The original plan was to ship all remaining Jews in Norway in one cargo shipCargo shipA cargo ship or freighter is any sort of ship or vessel that carries cargo, goods, and materials from one port to another. Thousands of cargo carriers ply the world's seas and oceans each year; they handle the bulk of international trade...
, the D/S Donau, on 26 November 1942, but only 532 prisoners boarded the D/S Donau that day. Coincidentally with the departure of the D/S Donau the same day, the D/S Monte Rosa carried 26 Jews from Oslo. The Donau landed in Stettin on 30 November. The prisoners boarded cargo trains at Breslauer Bahnhof, 60 to a car and departed Stettin at 5:12 pm. The train journey to AuschwitzAuschwitz concentration campConcentration camp Auschwitz was a network of Nazi concentration and extermination camps built and operated by the Third Reich in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany during World War II...
took 28 hours. All the prisoners arrived alive at the camp, and there they were sorted into two lines. 186 were sent to slave labor in the Birkenau subcamp, the rest - 345 - were killed (within hours) in Auschwitz's gas chambers.
- The remaining Jewish prisoners that had been en route to Oslo on 26 November for the departure of the Donau were delayed, possibly as a result of delaying tactics by the Red Cross and sympathetic railroad workers. These were imprisoned under harsh conditions at Bredtveit concentration campBredtveit prisonBredtveit Prison is a prison in Bredtvet, Oslo, Norway. During World War II it was a concentration camp.-Pre-World War II:It originated at Bredtvet farm as a lærehjem for young boys, erected 1918 and in use from 1919 to 1923. In 1923 the state took over the property from Det norske lærehjem- og...
in Oslo to await a later transport. - On 24 February 1943, the Bredtveit prisoners, along with 25 from Grini, boarded the D/S Gotenland in Oslo, altogether 158. The ship departed the following day, also landing in Stettin, where they arrived on 27 February. They traveled to Auschwitz via Berlin, where they stayed overnight at the Levetzowstrasse Synagogue. They arrived at Auschwitz on the night between 2 March and 3 March. Of the 158 who arrived from Norway, only 26 or 28 survived the first day, being sent to the Monowitz subcamp of Auschwitz.
There were smaller and individual deportations after the Gotenland's voyage. A smaller number of Jewish prisoners remained in camps in Norway during the war, primarily those who were married to non-Jewish Norwegians. These were subject to mistreatment and neglect. In the camp in Grini, for example, the group that was harshest treated consisted of violent criminals and Jews.
Altogether, about 767 Jews from Norway were deported and sent to concentration camps under German control, primarily Auschwitz. 26 of these survived the ordeal. In addition to the 741 murdered in the camps, 23 died as a result of extrajudicial execution, murder, and suicide during the war; bringing the total of Jewish Norwegian dead to at least 764, comprising 230 complete households.
The death toll among Jews from Norway constituted about 0.013% of the total death toll of European Jews in the Holocaust.
Escape to Sweden
Early during the occupation, there was traffic between neutral countries, primarily Sweden over land; and the United Kingdom, by sea. Even as the occupying authorities tried to limit such traffic, the underground railroad became more organized. Swedish authorities were at first only willing to accept political refugees and did not count Jews among them. Several Jewish refugees were turned away at the border, and a few were subsequently deported.The North Sea route would become increasingly challenging as German forces increased their naval presence along the Norwegian coast, limiting the sea route to special operations missions against German military targets. The land routes to Sweden became the main conduit for people and materials that either needed to get out of Norway for their safety, or into Norway for clandestine missions.
There were a few private routes across the border, but most were organized through three resistance groups: Milorg
Milorg
Milorg was the main Norwegian resistance movement in World War II....
("military organization"), Sivorg ("civilian organization") and Komorg, the communist resistance group. These routes were carefully guarded, in large part through a network of secret cells. Some efforts to infiltrate them, especially through the Rinnan gang succeeded, but such holes were quickly plugged.
By the fall of 1942, about 150 Jews from Norway had fled the country. The Jewish population in Norway had experienced some mistreatment specifically targeted at them, but the prevailing sense was that their lot was the same as all other Norwegians. The arrest and detention of Jewish men on 26 October 1942 changed that premise, but at that point many were afraid of reprisals against the imprisoned men if they left. Some Norwegian Nazis and German officials advised Jews to leave the country as quickly as possible.
On the evening of 25 November, resistance people got a few hours' notice before the scheduled arrests and deportation of all Jews in Norway. Many did their best to notify the remaining Jews who were not already detained, usually by making brief phone calls or short appearances on people's doorsteps. This was more successful in Oslo than other areas. Those who were warned only had a few hours to go into hiding and days to find their way out of the country.
The Norwegian resistance movement had not planned for the contingency that hundreds of individuals had to go underground in one night, and it was left to individuals to improvise shelter out of sight of the arresting authorities. Many were moved several times in just as many days.
Most of the refugees were moved in small groups across the border, typically with the help of taxis or trucks, railroads to areas near the border, and then by foot, car, bicycle, or on skis across the border. It was a particularly cold winter, and the crossing involved considerable hardship and uncertainty. Those who had the means, paid their non-Jewish helpers for their trouble; over time, the Norwegian resistance organizations financed the escape for those who were destitute.
The passage was complicated by the vigilance of police who were committed to capturing such refugees, and Terboven imposed the death penalty for anyone caught aiding Jewish refugees. Only individuals who by application were granted "border zone permits" were allowed within easy traveling distance to the border with Sweden. Trains were subject to regular search and inspection, and there were continuous patrols of the area. A failed crossing would have dire consequences for anyone caught, as indeed it turned out for a few.
Still, at least 900 Jewish refugees made their way across the border to Sweden. They usually went through a transit center in Kjesäter
Kjesäter
Kjesäter is a manor in the municipality of Vingåker in the county of Södermanland that now serves as a folkhögskola and youth hostel. During World War II, it served as a refugee camp and transit center for refugees fleeing Nazi persecution in Norway....
in Vingåker
Vingåker Municipality
Vingåker Municipality is a municipality in Södermanland County in central Sweden. Its seat is located in the town of Vingåker.The municipality has its present size since the local government reform of 1971.-Localities :...
, and then found temporary homes throughout Sweden, but mostly in certain towns where Norwegians gathered, such as Uppsala
Uppsala
- Economy :Today Uppsala is well established in medical research and recognized for its leading position in biotechnology.*Abbott Medical Optics *GE Healthcare*Pfizer *Phadia, an offshoot of Pharmacia*Fresenius*Q-Med...
.
Criminal prosecution
Although both the Norwegian Nazi party Nasjonal Samling and the German Nazi establishment had a political platform that called for persecution and ultimately the genocide of European Jewry, the arrest and deportation of Jews in Norway into the hands of the camp officials turned on the actions of several specific individuals and groups.The ongoing rivalry between Reichskommissar Josef Terboven and Ministerpresident Vidkun Quisling may have played a role, as both were likely presented with the directives from the Wannsee Conference
Wannsee Conference
The Wannsee Conference was a meeting of senior officials of the Nazi German regime, held in the Berlin suburb of Wannsee on 20 January 1942. The purpose of the conference was to inform administrative leaders of Departments responsible for various policies relating to Jews, that Reinhard Heydrich...
in January 1942. The German policy was to use Norwegian police as a front for the Norwegian implementation of the conference plans, orders for which were issued along two chains of command: from Adolf Eichmann
Adolf Eichmann
Adolf Otto Eichmann was a German Nazi and SS-Obersturmbannführer and one of the major organizers of the Holocaust...
through the RSHA
RSHA
The RSHA, or Reichssicherheitshauptamt was an organization subordinate to Heinrich Himmler in his dual capacities as Chef der Deutschen Polizei and Reichsführer-SS...
and Heinrich Fehlis
Heinrich Fehlis
Heinrich Fehlis was an SS officer during World War II, most noted for his command of the Sicherheitspolizei and Sicherheitsdienst in Norway during the occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany....
to Hellmuth Reinhard
Hellmuth Reinhard
Hellmuth Reinhard was head of the Gestapo in Norway , and was partly responsible for the deportation of at least 532 Norwegian Jews and was sentenced to 5 years imprisonment in 1967 as an accessory to murder.- Early years :...
, the Gestapo chief in Norway; and from Quisling through the "minister of justice" Sverre Riisnæs
Sverre Riisnæs
Sverre Parelius Riisnæs was a Norwegian jurist and public prosecutor who was born 6 November 1897 in Vik, Sogn county and died 21 June 1988 in Oslo...
and "minister of police" Jonas Lie
Jonas Lie (government minister)
Jonas Lie was a Norwegian councillor of state in the Nasjonal Samling government of Vidkun Quisling in 1940, then acting councillor of state 1940–1941, and Minister of Police between 1941 and 1945 in the new Quisling government...
through to Karl Marthinsen
Karl Marthinsen
Karl Alfred Nicolai Marthinsen was the Norwegian commander of Statspolitiet and Sikkerhetspolitiet in Norway during the Nazi occupation during World War II....
, the head of the Norwegian state police.
Documentation from the period suggests that the Nazi authorities, and especially the Quisling administration, were loath to initiate actions that might cause widespread opposition among the Norwegian population. Quisling had tried and failed to take over the teachers' unions, the clergy of the State of Norway, athletics, and the arts. Eichmann had de-prioritized the extermination of Jews in Norway, as the number was low and even Nasjonal Samling had claimed that the "Jewish problem" in Norway was minor. Confiscation of Jewish property, the arrest of Jewish men, constant harassment and individual murder was - until late November, 1942 - part of Terboven's approach of terrorizing the Norwegian population into submission.
The evidence suggests that Hellmuth Reinhard took the initiative to put an end to all Jews in Norway. This may have been motivated by his own ambition, and it's possible he was encouraged by the lack of outrage over the initial measures targeting Jews.
According to the trial against him in Baden-Baden
Baden-Baden
Baden-Baden is a spa town in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is located on the western foothills of the Black Forest, on the banks of the Oos River, in the region of Karlsruhe...
in 1964, Reinhard arranged for the D/S Donau to set aside capacity for prisoner transport on 26 November and ordered Karl Marthinsen to mobilize the necessary Norwegian forces to effect the transit from Norway. In a curious sidenote to all this, he also sent along a typewriter on the Donau to properly register all prisoners, and was insistent that it be returned to him on Donau's return voyage - which it was.
A local, Norwegian, police chief in Oslo named Knut Rød
Knut Rød
Knut Rød was a Norwegian police officer responsible for the arrest, detention and transfer of Jewish men, women and children to SS troops at Oslo harbor...
provided on-the-ground command of Norwegian police officers for arresting women and children and transporting them as well as the men who had already been detained to the Oslo harbor and putting them in the hands of the German SS troops.
Eichmann was not notified of the transport until the Donau had left the harbor, bound for Stettin. Nevertheless, he was able to arrange for box cars to be present for transport to Auschwitz.
Of those involved:
- Terboven committed suicide before being captured when the war ended; Quisling was convicted for treason and executed. Jonas Lie died, apparently of a heart attack before his capture. Sverre Riisnæs either feigned insanity or went insane and was put in protective custody. Marthinsen was assassinated by the Norwegian resistance in February 1945. Heinrich FehlisHeinrich FehlisHeinrich Fehlis was an SS officer during World War II, most noted for his command of the Sicherheitspolizei and Sicherheitsdienst in Norway during the occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany....
committed suicide by first taking poison and then shooting himself in May 1945.
In the end, only two of the principals were put on trial:
- Hellmuth Reinhard left Norway in January 1945 without any clues to his whereabouts. He was presumed dead and his wife was issued a death certificate so she could remarry. But it turned out he had changed his name to his birth name of Hellmuth Patzschke and had actually remarried his "widow," settling down as a publisher in Baden-Baden. His real identity was discovered in 1964, and he was put on trial. In spite of overwhelming evidence about his culpability for the deportation of Jews from Norway and his complicity in their deaths, he was acquitted because statute of limitations had expired. He was convicted and sentenced to five years for his participation in Operation BlumenpflückenOperation BlumenpflückenOperation Blumenpflücken was a counter-resistance operation in occupied Norway, planned and carried out by the Gestapo/Sicherheitspolizei in 1944 and early 1945....
.
- Knut Rød was put on trial in 1948, acquitted of all charges, and managed to get reinstated as a police officer and retired in 1965. Rød's acquittal remains controversial this day and has been characterized as "the strangest criminal trial
[in the legal proceedings after World War II] ".
- Another controversial trial was that held against members of the resistance Peder Pedersen and Håkon Løvestad, who confessed to killing an elderly Jewish couple and stealing their money. The jury found that the killing was justified, but convicted the two of embezzlement. This also became a controversial issue known as the Feldmann caseFeldmann caseThe Feldmann case was a controversial criminal case in Norway in which two border pilots admitted to killing an elderly Jewish couple during their escape from the Holocaust in Norway, and stealing their money...
.
The moral culpability among Norwegian police officers and Norwegian informants is a matter of continuing research and debate.
Although the persecution and murder of Jews was raised as a factor in several trials, including that against Quisling, legal scholars agree that in no case was it a decisive or even weighty factor in the conviction or sentencing of these people.
Moral responsibility
Beyond the criminal actions of individuals in Norway that led to the deportation and murder of Jews from Norway, and indeed also of non-Jews who were persecuted on political, religious or other pretexts, there has been considerable public debate in Norway about the public morals that allowed these crimes to take place and did not prevent them from happening.Comparison between Denmark and Norway
The situation of the Jews in DenmarkRescue of the Danish Jews
The rescue of the Danish Jews occurred during Nazi Germany's occupation of Denmark during World War II. On October 1st 1943 Nazi leader Adolf Hitler ordered Danish Jews to be arrested and deported...
and Norway were very different. Far fewer Danish Jews were arrested and deported, and those who were deported were sent to Theresienstadt
Theresienstadt concentration camp
Theresienstadt concentration camp was a Nazi German ghetto during World War II. It was established by the Gestapo in the fortress and garrison city of Terezín , located in what is now the Czech Republic.-History:The fortress of Terezín was constructed between the years 1780 and 1790 by the orders...
, where a relatively large percentage survived, rather than Auschwitz.
Several factors have been cited for these differences:
- In Denmark, the German diplomat Georg Ferdinand DuckwitzGeorg Ferdinand DuckwitzGeorg Ferdinand Duckwitz was a German attache who warned the Danish Jews about their intended deportation in 1943...
leaked the plans for arrest and deportation to Hans HedtoftHans HedtoftHans Hedtoft Hansen was Prime Minister of Denmark from 13 November 1947 to 30 October 1950 as the leader of the Cabinet of Hans Hedtoft I and again from 30 September 1953 to 29 January 1955 as the leader of the Cabinet of Hans Hedtoft II.Hedtoft was a Social Democrat, and had taken over the...
several days before the plan was to be put in motion. There was no such humanitarian among German officials in Norway - The terms of occupation in Denmark gave Danish politicians greater influence over internal affairs in Denmark, and in particular command authority over Danish police forces. Consequently, German occupying authorities had to rely on German police and military to perform arrests. Where Danish police participated, it was to rescue Jews from Germans. Since the Norwegians resisted the Germans more actively, the country never enjoyed the same civil autonomy as did the Danes during the occupation.
- Danish popular opinion was more actively opposed to the Nazi occupation and was more emboldened to take care of its Jewish citizens. Non-Jewish Danes were known to take to the streets to find Jews who needed shelter, and to search the forests for Jews who had hidden there to help them.
Issues of moral responsibility
The exiled Norwegian government became part of the AlliesAllies of World War II
The Allies of World War II were the countries that opposed the Axis powers during the Second World War . Former Axis states contributing to the Allied victory are not considered Allied states...
upon the invasion on 9 April 1940. Though the most significant contribution of the Allied war effort was through the merchant marine fleet known as Nortraship
Nortraship
The Norwegian Shipping and Trade Mission was established in London in April 1940 to administer the Norwegian merchant fleet outside German-controlled areas. Nortraship operated some 1,000 vessels and was the largest shipping company in the world. It is credited for giving a major contribution to...
, a number of Norwegian military forces were established and became part of Utefronten. Consequently, the Norwegian government was regularly briefed on Allied intelligence relating to atrocities committed by German forces in Eastern Europe and in occupied Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, etc.
In addition, the Norwegian government also received regular intelligence from the Norwegian home front, including accounts from returning Norwegian Germanic-SS
Germanic-SS
The Germanic SS was the collective name given to SS groups which arose in Occupied Europe between 1939 and 1945.The units were modeled on the Allgemeine-SS in Nazi Germany...
soldiers, who had firsthand accounts of massacres of Jews in Poland, the Ukraine, etc.
Indeed, both underground resistance newspapers in Norway and the Norwegian press abroad published news about "wholesale murders" of Jews in the late summer and fall of 1942. There is, however, little evidence that either the Norwegian home front or Norwegian government expected that the Jews in Norway would be a target for the genocide that was unfolding on the European continent. On 1 December 1942, the Norwegian foreign minister, Trygve Lie
Trygve Lie
Trygve Halvdan Lie was a Norwegian politician, labour leader, government official and author. He served as Norwegian Foreign minister during the critical years of the Norwegian government in exile in London from 1940 to 1945. From 1946 to 1952 he was the first Secretary-General of the United...
sent a letter to the British section of the World Jewish Congress
World Jewish Congress
The World Jewish Congress was founded in Geneva, Switzerland, in August 1936 as an international federation of Jewish communities and organizations...
where he asserted that:
Although the Norwegian resistance by the fall of 1942 had a sophisticated network for transmitting and propagating urgent news among the population that led to very effective passive resistance efforts, e.g., in keeping the teachers' union, athletics, physicians, etc., out of Nazi control., no such notifications were issued to save Jews.
The Protestant religious establishment in Norway did, however, make their opposition known: in a letter to Vidkun Quisling dated 10 November 1942, bishops of the Church of Norway
Church of Norway
The Church of Norway is the state church of Norway, established after the Lutheran reformation in Denmark-Norway in 1536-1537 broke the ties to the Holy See. The church confesses the Lutheran Christian faith...
, the administration of the theological seminaries, the leaders of several leading religious organizations, and the leaders of non-Lutheran Protestant organizations protesting actions against the Jews, calling on Quisling "in the name of Jesus Christ" to "stop the persecution of Jews and stop the bigotry that through the press is disseminated throughout our land."
The discrimination, persecution, and ultimately deportation of Jews was enabled by the cooperation of Norwegian agencies that were not entirely co-opted by Nasjonal Samling or the German occupying powers. In addition to the police and local sheriffs who implemented the directives of Statspolitiet, the taxis aided in transporting Jewish prisoners to their point of deportation and even sued the Norwegian government after the war for wages owed to them for such services.
Before 26 October 1942, Jews in Norway were singled out for particularly harsh persecution, but it was not widely considered that this would extend to deportation and murder. But it wasn't until the night of 26 November that the resistance movement was mobilized to rescue Jews from deportation. It took time for the network to be fully engaged, and until then Jewish refugees had to improvise on their own, and rely on acquaintances to avoid capture. Within a few weeks, however, the Norwegian home front organizations (including Milorg
Milorg
Milorg was the main Norwegian resistance movement in World War II....
and Sivorg) had developed the means to move relatively large numbers of refugees out of Norway and also financed these escapes when needed.
Emergence of literature about the Holocaust in Norway
The persecution and murder of Jews in Norway during World War II was largely left unstudied for several decades after the war. One of the early books, Herman Sachnowitz's Det angår også deg, was published in 1978 and brought the history into the public eye. The bibliography below covers most but not all the relevant literature.The literature since then can be categorized as follows:
- Comprehensive historical accounts of the Holocaust in Norway, which include Abrahamsen (1991) and the first 336 pages of Mendelsohn (1986), but also monographs such as Jan Otto Johansen (1984) and Per Ole Johansen (1984)
- Books that cover specific aspects of the Holocaust, such as Ulstein (1995) about the escapes to Sweden and Ottosen (1994) about the deportation, or Cohen (2000)
- Case studies of individuals and families. Some of these are biographical, such as Komissar (1995), Søbye (2003),
- In-depth studies on specific issues, such as Skarpnesutvalget (1997) and Johansen (2006)
One issue that has been highlighted is the hypothesis that many Norwegians viewed Jews as outsiders, whose fate was of no direct concern to Norwegians.
The founding of the Norwegian Center for Studies of Holocaust and Religious Minorities
Norwegian Center for Studies of Holocaust and Religious Minorities
The Center for Studies of Holocaust and Religious Minorities in Norway opened its doors to the public on August 24, 2006 at the former residence of Vidkun Quisling known as Villa Grande, on the peninsula of Bygdøy in Oslo.The center's endowment was donated by the Norwegian government at the behest...
promises to add considerable research material to this topic, and also the center for human rights at the former site of the Falstad concentration camp
Falstad concentration camp
Falstad concentration camp was a prison camp in the village of Ekne in what was the municipality of Skogn in Nord-Trøndelag county, Norway...
provides another forum on humanitarian aspects of the German occupation. Jewish museums have recently been established in Oslo and Trondheim, and there have been notable papers written within criminology
Criminology
Criminology is the scientific study of the nature, extent, causes, and control of criminal behavior in both the individual and in society...
about the legal purge in Norway after World War II
Legal purge in Norway after World War II
When the occupation of Norway ended in May 1945, several thousand Norwegians and foreign citizens were tried and convicted for various acts that the occupying powers sanctioned...
.
Monuments over the victims were erected fairly early in the graveyards in Oslo and later in Trondheim; in later years, monuments in Haugesund (to commemorate Moritz Rabinowitz), at the pier in Oslo from which the D/S Donau sailed, at Falstad, in Trondheim (over Cissi Klein
Cissi Klein
Cissi Pera Klein was a Norwegian Jewish girl who is commemorated every year as one of the victims of the Holocaust in her home town in Trondheim. Her parents had emigrated to Norway from the Baltic states around 1905, at first living in North Norway, but then establishing a retail store in Trondheim...
), and at schools have also raised the awareness.
Skarpnes commission
On 27 May 1995, Bjørn WestlieBjørn Westlie
Bjørn Westlie is a Norwegian journalist and non-fiction writer.He has been a journalist for the newspaper Dagens Næringsliv. In his books he has often focused on the Second World War. Maktens ansikt from 1991 is a portrait of Milorg leader and later politician Jens Chr. Hauge. In 2002 he published...
published an article in the Norwegian business daily Dagens Næringsliv
Dagens Næringsliv
Dagens Næringsliv, commonly known as DN, is a Norwegian tabloid specializing in business reporting with a claimed daily circulation of 82,775 copies in 2008, making it the 8th largest newspaper in Norway. The editor in chief is Amund Djuve. Its name is Norwegian for "Today's Business".Originally...
that highlighted the uncompensated financial loss incurred by the Norwegian Jewish community as a result of Nazi persecution during the war. This brought to public attention the fact that much if not most of the assets confiscated from Jewish owners during the war had been inadequately restored to them and their descendants, even in cases where the Norwegian government or private individuals had benefited from the confiscation after the war.
In response to this debate, the Norwegian Ministry of Justice on 29 March 1996, named a commission to investigate what was done with Jewish assets during the war. The commission consisted of County governor of Vest Agder, Oluf Skarpnes
Oluf Skarpnes
Oluf Skarpnes is a Norwegian jurist.From 1982 ot 1998 he was the County Governor of Vest-Agder. He had previously worked as a jurist in the Norwegian Ministry of Justice. He was also the chair of the Skarpnes commission.-References:...
as its chair, professor of law Thor Falkanger
Thor Falkanger
Thor Falkanger is a retired Norwegian professor of law.He was born in Bergen as a son of district stipendiary magistrate Aage Thor Falkanger, Sr. and Haldis Brun . He grew up in Flekkefjord, and took the cand.jur. degree at the University of Oslo in 1958. He took the dr.juris degree in 1968 on...
, professor of history Ole Kristian Grimnes
Ole Kristian Grimnes
Ole Kristian Grimnes is a Norwegian historian.He was a professor in modern history at the University of Oslo, and is currently professor emeritus at the same university....
, district court judge Guri Sunde, director at National Archival Services of Norway
National Archival Services of Norway
The National Archival Services of Norway is a Norwegian government agency that is responsible for keeping state archives, conducts control of public archiving and works to preserve private archives. It is subordinate to the Ministry of Culture and Church Affairs and consists of the National...
, psychologist Berit Reisel, and cand.philol. Bjarte Bruland
Bjarte Bruland
Bjarte Bruland is a Norwegian historian. He has done research on the deportations and extermination of the Norwegian Jews during the second world war. Bjarte Bruland was a member of the Skarpnes commission in the period 1996-1997...
, Bergen. Consultant Torfinn Vollan from the Skarpnes's office acted as the commission's secretary. Of the commission's members, Dr. Reisel and Mr. Bruland had been nominated by the Jewish community in Norway. Anne Hals resigned from the commission early in the process, and Eli Fure from the same institution was named in her place.
The commission worked together for a year, but it became apparent that were diverging views on premises for the group's analysis.
- The majority focused its effort on arriving at an accurate accounting of the assets lost during the war using conventional assumptions and information in available records.
- The minority, consisting of Reisel and Bruland, sought a more in-depth understanding of the historical sequence of events around the loss of individual assets, as well as both the intended and actual effect of the confiscation and subsequent events, whether the owners were deported, killed, or escaped.
By all accounts, the commission had difficulty unifying these views, and on 23 June 1997, two separate reports were submitted to the Ministry of Justice. After considerable debate in the media, the government accepted the findings of the minority report and initiated financial compensation and issuing a public apology.
Assessment of financial loss
As noted above, the Nazi authorities confiscated all Jewish property with an administrative penstroke. This included commercial property such as retail stores, factories, workshops, etc.; and also personal property such as residences, bank accounts, automobiles, securities, furniture, and other fixtures they could find. Jewelry and other personal valuables were usually taken by German officials as "voluntary contributions to the German war effort." In addition, Jewish professionals were typically deprived of any legal right to practice their profession: attorneys were disbarred, physicians and dentists lost their licenses, and craftsmen were locked out of their trade associations. Employers were pressured to fire all Jewish employees. In many cases, Jewish proprietors were forced to continue to work at their confiscated businesses for the benefit of the "new owners."Assets were often sold at fire sale prices or assigned at a token price to Nazis, Germans, or their sympathizers.
The administration of these assets was performed by a "Liquidation board for confiscated Jewish assets" that accounted for the assets as they were seized and their disposition. For these purposes, the board continued to treat each estate as a bankrupt legal entity, charging expenses even after the assets had been disposed. As a result, there was a significant discrepancy between the value of the assets for the rightful owners, and the value assessed by the confiscating authorities.
This was further complicated by the methodology employed by the legitimate Norwegian government after the war. In order to restore confiscated assets to their owners, the government was guided by public policy to alleviate the economic impact on the economy by reducing compensation to approximate a sense of fairness and finance the reconstruction of the country's economy. The assessed value was thereby reduced by the Nazis' liquidation practices and was further reduced by the discounting applied as a result of governmental policy after the war.
Norwegian estate law
Estate (law)
An estate is the net worth of a person at any point in time. It is the sum of a person's assets - legal rights, interests and entitlements to property of any kind - less all liabilities at that time. The issue is of special legal significance on a question of bankruptcy and death of the person...
imposes estate tax on inheritance passed from the deceased to his/her heirs depending on the relationship between the two. This tax was compounded at each step of inheritance. As no death certificates had been issued for Jews murdered in German concentration camps, the deceased were listed as missing. Their estates were held in probate pending a declaration of death and charged for administrative expenses.
By the time all these factors had had their effect on the valuation of the confiscated assets, very little was left. In total, NOK 7.8 million was awarded to principals and heirs of Jewish property confiscated by the Nazis. This was less than the administrative fees charged by governmental agencies for probate. It did not include assets seized by the government that belonged to non-Norwegian citizens, and that of citizens that left no legal heirs. This last category was formidable, as 230 entire Jewish households were killed during the course of the Shoah.
Research
In 2011, Odd-Bjørn FureOdd-Bjørn Fure
Odd-Bjørn Fure is a Norwegian historian and political scientist.He was born at Stadlandet, and was a brother of politician Julius Fure . His main studies were in comparative politics, but he switched field with a 1983 doctoral thesis on the history of the Norwegian labour movement between 1918 and...
said that most of the research [in Norway] regarding the Holocaust and World War Two, currently is being conducted by [his former employer] The Center for Studies of Holocaust and Religious Minorities
Norwegian Center for Studies of Holocaust and Religious Minorities
The Center for Studies of Holocaust and Religious Minorities in Norway opened its doors to the public on August 24, 2006 at the former residence of Vidkun Quisling known as Villa Grande, on the peninsula of Bygdøy in Oslo.The center's endowment was donated by the Norwegian government at the behest...
(HL-senteret).
Works about the Holocaust in Norway
- an early personal account of a survivor's experiences. - one of two comprehensive treatises on the Holocaust in Norway. - twelve case examples of Norwegian Jews who escaped and survived. - on the deportation of Jews from Norway to concentration camps, including case studies - the story of Julius Paltiel, who survived deportation and imprisonment in Auschwitz. Personal account of survivor Kai Feinberg, with historical notes by Arnt Stefansen - on the escape and underground railroad to Sweden, including case studies - academic thesis, "The attempt to exterminate the Norwegian Jews." - report from the governmental commission on the confiscation and disposition of Jewish assets. An English translation of the full minority report and a summary of the majority report was published by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in June 1997, but without the ministry's insignia or an ISBN registration. It was titled "The Reisel/Bruland Report on the Confiscation of Jewish Property in Norway during World War II," and is commonly known as the "blue book" and is on file at the Norwegian Center for Studies of Holocaust and Religious MinoritiesNorwegian Center for Studies of Holocaust and Religious Minorities
The Center for Studies of Holocaust and Religious Minorities in Norway opened its doors to the public on August 24, 2006 at the former residence of Vidkun Quisling known as Villa Grande, on the peninsula of Bygdøy in Oslo.The center's endowment was donated by the Norwegian government at the behest...
. - covers specifically the Jewish population of Bergen and Hordaland
Hordaland
is a county in Norway, bordering Sogn og Fjordane, Buskerud, Telemark and Rogaland. Hordaland is the third largest county after Akershus and Oslo by population. The county administration is located in Bergen...
affected by the Holocaust - the history of the Holocaust against the background of the author's memories of her own escape into Sweden. Published in English as: "'We Are Going to Pick Potatoes': Norway and the Holocaust, The Untold Story" (Hamilton Books, 2010, ISBN 978-0761850113). - article about the fate of Jews in the Agder counties - interview with historian Bjarte Bruland and professor Irene Levin - newspaper article about a return to Auschwitz by Norwegian survivors
Works about Norwegian World War II history
- book about the role of Norwegian police during the occupation - comprehensive, 8-volume survey of the war in Norway, organized by topic - book about the resistance network organized by Norwegian physicians - articles resulting from a series of interdisciplinary at the University of OsloUniversity of Oslo
The University of Oslo , formerly The Royal Frederick University , is the oldest and largest university in Norway, situated in the Norwegian capital of Oslo. The university was founded in 1811 and was modelled after the recently established University of Berlin...
on bias in the Legal purge in Norway after World War II
Legal purge in Norway after World War II
When the occupation of Norway ended in May 1945, several thousand Norwegians and foreign citizens were tried and convicted for various acts that the occupying powers sanctioned...
- Books by Kristian OttosenKristian OttosenKristian Ottosen was a Norwegian non-fiction writer and public servant.While still a student, he was also active in the Norwegian resistance movement during World War II and was imprisoned as a Nacht und Nebel inmate...
} - about the Nacht und Nebel prisoners in the Natzweiler concentration camp, with an emphasis on the Norwegians held there.
} - about the Sachsenhausen concentration camp
Sachsenhausen concentration camp
Sachsenhausen or Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg was a Nazi concentration camp in Oranienburg, Germany, used primarily for political prisoners from 1936 to the end of the Third Reich in May, 1945. After World War II, when Oranienburg was in the Soviet Occupation Zone, the structure was used as an NKVD...
.
} - about the Ravensbrück concentration camp, primarily for women.
} - about the deportation and imprisonment of Norwegian men and women in prisons throughout Germany.
} - an authoritative list of Norwegian individuals who had been held in German captivity during World War II.