Jens Christian Hauge
Encyclopedia
Jens Christian Hauge often written Jens Chr. Hauge, was a Norwegian
World War II resistance
figure and politician
who was the leader of the secret military organization
Milorg
during WWII
. Hauge was a lawyer
and started his resistance work in 1941, and was jailed
for some months in the autumn of that year.
Out of prison in 1942, he quickly advanced within the resistance movement, and within a year he was the secret leader of the clandestine organisation. Hauge worked hard to have a good relation with the Norwegian government in exile, and made a number of trips to Stockholm
and London
to achieve this.
In the last months of the war, Hauge had secret talks with Wehrmacht
officers that gave information about the German
plans for Norway. These talks facilitated the smooth transition to peace when the Germans surrendered in May 1945.
Hauge had a number of political positions in Norway after the war, and was a central player within the ruling social democrats
, the Norwegian Labour Party
. He became Norway's youngest Defence Minister
in 1945, only 30 years old, and had that position until 1952 during the governments of Einar Gerhardsen
and Oscar Torp
. For a brief period he was also Minister of Justice
in 1955.
Hauge was instrumental in having Norway leaving its position as neutral and join the NATO alliance in 1949. After leaving government he was still central within Norwegian society and had a number of important positions.
Hauge has been described as one of the most interesting and powerful persons in 20th-century Norway. He is also controversial, and has been criticised for not giving more information regarding central parts of the Milorg activities, such as assassination
s of Norwegian collaborators. Hauge has also been in question in relation to the strange circumstances regarding the death of the Milorg member Kai Holst
in Stockholm just after the war.
Hauge was involved in the establishment of the Norwegian state oil company Statoil
, which currently is the largest Nordic company in terms of revenue, and in the startup of the airline Scandinavian Airlines System
where he was a board member for more than 20 years. Hauge was also instrumental in arranging the foundation Fritt Ord, which works to maintain freedom of expression in Norway.
On 18 August 2008 the Norwegian national newspaper Aftenposten
reported that Jens Christian Hauge was on the OSS (today CIA) employee list.
Hauge has been regarded as the pivotal figure in the troika that controlled the ruling Labour Party after World War II: Einar Gerhardsen
, Haakon Lie
and Hauge. He assumed a most peculiar position of power, as the other two were known as something close to personal enemies. Hauge also became a monumenal figure in the Norwegian War Industry. He became Board Member of several State owned companies especially within nuclear power and defence systems, including Member of Board of Directors of Kongsberg Våpenfabrikk, and chairman of Statoil
1972-75.
Due to his position during and after the War Hauge was one of Norway's most powerful individuals for more than 4 decades. Hauge helped facilitate the sale of heavy water
from Norway to the Israeli nuclear programme
, telling the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1960 that the Israelis would not use the heavy water for military purposes. Recently uncovered secret material suggests otherwise, however. Protocols from 1958 substantiate that the Norwegian Labour Government with Prime Minister Gerhardsen knew that Israel was going to use the water for plutonium production, making it possible for Israel to produce nuclear weapons. Noratom was also going to support Israel with reactor parts and technology.
Norway
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...
World War II resistance
Norwegian resistance movement
The Norwegian resistance to the occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany began after Operation Weserübung in 1940 and ended in 1945. It took several forms:...
figure and politician
Politics of Norway
Politics in Norway take place in the framework of a parliamentary representative democratic constitutional monarchy. Executive power is exercised by the King's council, the cabinet, led by the Prime Minister of Norway. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the Storting, elected...
who was the leader of the secret military organization
Military organization
Military organization is the structuring of the armed forces of a state so as to offer military capability required by the national defence policy. In some countries paramilitary forces are included in a nation's armed forces...
Milorg
Milorg
Milorg was the main Norwegian resistance movement in World War II....
during WWII
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. Hauge was a lawyer
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...
and started his resistance work in 1941, and was jailed
Prison
A prison is a place in which people are physically confined and, usually, deprived of a range of personal freedoms. Imprisonment or incarceration is a legal penalty that may be imposed by the state for the commission of a crime...
for some months in the autumn of that year.
Out of prison in 1942, he quickly advanced within the resistance movement, and within a year he was the secret leader of the clandestine organisation. Hauge worked hard to have a good relation with the Norwegian government in exile, and made a number of trips to Stockholm
Stockholm
Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...
and London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
to achieve this.
In the last months of the war, Hauge had secret talks with Wehrmacht
Wehrmacht
The Wehrmacht – from , to defend and , the might/power) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the Heer , the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe .-Origin and use of the term:...
officers that gave information about the German
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
plans for Norway. These talks facilitated the smooth transition to peace when the Germans surrendered in May 1945.
Hauge had a number of political positions in Norway after the war, and was a central player within the ruling social democrats
Social democracy
Social democracy is a political ideology of the center-left on the political spectrum. Social democracy is officially a form of evolutionary reformist socialism. It supports class collaboration as the course to achieve socialism...
, the Norwegian Labour Party
Norwegian Labour Party
The Labour Party is a social-democratic political party in Norway. It is the senior partner in the current Norwegian government as part of the Red-Green Coalition, and its leader, Jens Stoltenberg, is the current Prime Minister of Norway....
. He became Norway's youngest Defence Minister
Norwegian Ministry of Defence
The Royal Norwegian Ministry of Defence is a Norwegian government ministry in charge of the formation and implementation of national security and defence policy, and for the overall management and control of the activities of subordinate agencies. The ministry is located at Glacisgata 1, Oslo,...
in 1945, only 30 years old, and had that position until 1952 during the governments of Einar Gerhardsen
Einar Gerhardsen
was a Norwegian politician from the Labour Party of Norway. He was Prime Minister for three periods, 1945–1951, 1955–1963 and 1963–1965. With 17 years in office, he is the longest serving Prime Minister in Norway since the introduction of parliamentarism...
and Oscar Torp
Oscar Torp
was a Norwegian politician for the Norwegian Labour Party. He was party leader from 1923 to 1945, and mayor of Oslo in 1935 and 1936. In 1935 he became acting Minister of Defence in the government of Johan Nygaardsvold. He was also Minister of Social Affairs from 1936 to 1939, and then Minister of...
. For a brief period he was also Minister of Justice
Minister of Justice and the Police (Norway)
In Norway, the Minister of Justice and the Police is the head of the Royal Norwegian Ministry of Justice and the Police and a member of Government of Norway. Current minister is Grete Faremo of the Norwegian Labour Party who is part of the second cabinet Stoltenberg...
in 1955.
Hauge was instrumental in having Norway leaving its position as neutral and join the NATO alliance in 1949. After leaving government he was still central within Norwegian society and had a number of important positions.
Hauge has been described as one of the most interesting and powerful persons in 20th-century Norway. He is also controversial, and has been criticised for not giving more information regarding central parts of the Milorg activities, such as assassination
Assassination
To carry out an assassination is "to murder by a sudden and/or secret attack, often for political reasons." Alternatively, assassination may be defined as "the act of deliberately killing someone, especially a public figure, usually for hire or for political reasons."An assassination may be...
s of Norwegian collaborators. Hauge has also been in question in relation to the strange circumstances regarding the death of the Milorg member Kai Holst
Kai Holst
Kai Christian Middelthon Holst was a Norwegian resistance fighter and member of Milorg. He was from Lillehammer and became a central leader of the resistance movement from the autumn of 1942, when many of the leaders were arrested by the Germans.Holst was the person with detailed knowledge about...
in Stockholm just after the war.
Hauge was involved in the establishment of the Norwegian state oil company Statoil
Statoil
Statoil ASA is a Norwegian petroleum company established in 1972. It merged with Norsk Hydro in 2007 and was known as StatoilHydro until 2009, when the name was changed back to Statoil ASA. The brand Statoil was retained as a chain of fuel stations owned by StatoilHydro...
, which currently is the largest Nordic company in terms of revenue, and in the startup of the airline Scandinavian Airlines System
Scandinavian Airlines System
Scandinavian Airlines or SAS, previously Scandinavian Airlines System, is the flag carrier of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, and the largest airline in Scandinavia....
where he was a board member for more than 20 years. Hauge was also instrumental in arranging the foundation Fritt Ord, which works to maintain freedom of expression in Norway.
On 18 August 2008 the Norwegian national newspaper Aftenposten
Aftenposten
Aftenposten is Norway's largest newspaper. It retook this position in 2010, taking it from the tabloid Verdens Gang which had been the largest newspaper for several decades. It is based in Oslo. The morning edition, which is distributed across all of Norway, had a circulation of 250,179 in 2007...
reported that Jens Christian Hauge was on the OSS (today CIA) employee list.
Hauge has been regarded as the pivotal figure in the troika that controlled the ruling Labour Party after World War II: Einar Gerhardsen
Einar Gerhardsen
was a Norwegian politician from the Labour Party of Norway. He was Prime Minister for three periods, 1945–1951, 1955–1963 and 1963–1965. With 17 years in office, he is the longest serving Prime Minister in Norway since the introduction of parliamentarism...
, Haakon Lie
Haakon Lie
Haakon Lie was a Norwegian politician who served as party secretary for the Norwegian Labour Party from 1945 to 1969. Coming from humble origins, he became involved in the labour movement at an early age, and quickly rose in the party system...
and Hauge. He assumed a most peculiar position of power, as the other two were known as something close to personal enemies. Hauge also became a monumenal figure in the Norwegian War Industry. He became Board Member of several State owned companies especially within nuclear power and defence systems, including Member of Board of Directors of Kongsberg Våpenfabrikk, and chairman of Statoil
Statoil
Statoil ASA is a Norwegian petroleum company established in 1972. It merged with Norsk Hydro in 2007 and was known as StatoilHydro until 2009, when the name was changed back to Statoil ASA. The brand Statoil was retained as a chain of fuel stations owned by StatoilHydro...
1972-75.
Due to his position during and after the War Hauge was one of Norway's most powerful individuals for more than 4 decades. Hauge helped facilitate the sale of heavy water
Heavy water
Heavy water is water highly enriched in the hydrogen isotope deuterium; e.g., heavy water used in CANDU reactors is 99.75% enriched by hydrogen atom-fraction...
from Norway to the Israeli nuclear programme
Nuclear weapons and Israel
Israel is widely believed to be the sixth country in the world to have developed nuclear weapons and to be one of four nuclear-armed countries not recognized as a Nuclear Weapons State by the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty , the others being India, Pakistan and North Korea...
, telling the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1960 that the Israelis would not use the heavy water for military purposes. Recently uncovered secret material suggests otherwise, however. Protocols from 1958 substantiate that the Norwegian Labour Government with Prime Minister Gerhardsen knew that Israel was going to use the water for plutonium production, making it possible for Israel to produce nuclear weapons. Noratom was also going to support Israel with reactor parts and technology.