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QUISLING!
The first hero of the past I would like to write about is Vidkun Quisling of Norway.
Early life
Vidkun Abraham Lauritz Jonssøn Quisling, born Telemark Norway 18th July 1887, son of a Church of Norway Pastor. When Quisling was still in his early teens, he was known for having a flair for mathematics, and he sent in corrections to a national mathematical textbook. Impressed by the age of the boy, the editors made the corrections, and included his name and some adulation as encouragement for other young boys to pay attention to their mathematics. Such was the Jewish inspired “hatred” associated with his name after the war that all editions since have kept the corrections and adulation but changed all references to his name to 'en gutt' ('a boy').
His early life was varied and successful; he became the country's best war-academy cadet upon graduation in 1911, and achieved the rank of major in the Norwegian army. He worked with Fridtjof Nansen in the Soviet Union during the famine of the 1920s. For his services in looking after British interests after having broken diplomatic relations with the Bolshevik government, Great Britain awarded him the CBE (which was later revoked due to Zionist control of the UK government and Royal Family).
Nasjonal Samling Party
The political party ”Nasjonal Samling” (National Unity) was formed in Oslo on the 17th May 1933, with Major Vidkun Quisling as leader, and State Attorney Johan Bernhard Hjort as second leader. At that time, Quisling was 46 years old, and Hjort was 38. This party was quite different than the other Norwegian political Parties at that time, and very clearly based its politics on a ”leader” (fører) system, quite far from the democratic standards in Norway.
The N.S Party Program clearly stated the abolition of all political parties; only one was to exist: N.S.
Vidkun Quisling was a remarkable person, with visions that only seldom fitted the real life. He had worked together with the famous Frithjof Nansen in Soviet, during the famine in the 1930´s, and had a reputation for being an intelligent, quiet and hard-working man. He saw himself as a philosopher, and created a new philosophy: the Universism. This was a strong mixture of spiritual and ideological elements: the Individual was to find personal salvation and freedom in a close co-operation between inner meditation, God and the Society. Quisling even made plans for a world-wide organization: The World Univerism League.
He had also served as Minister of Defense in the Agrarian Government 1931-33.
Symbols and expressions within N.S were taken from Norwegian Viking traditions. The main N.S symbol was an encircled Golden Cross on red background, the “St. Olav´s Cross”.
The party was organized in a ”National Organization” (Riksorganisasjon), a Woman Organization, (NS Kvinneorganisasjon), a Combat Organization (NS Kamporganisasjon), a Youth Organization, (Nasjonal Samlings Ungdoms-Fylking – NSUF) and the Hird. The latter was to be the hard-core political uniformed storm troops of NS, and equivalent to the German S.A.
The first Hird Commander (Rikshirdsjef) was J.B Hjort, later succeeded by Captain Oliver Møystad. Col. Konrad Sundlo periodically acted as a stand-in.
During the elections in 1933, Nasjonal Samling had a co-operation with the Farmers Aid organisation, (Bydgefolkets Krisehjelp), and they two finally got 27 850 votes. This was quite a huge number, since N.S only had existed for 4 months. At the county elections in 1934, N.S continued their success, especially in Stavanger where the local leader Gulbrand Lunde, a young and popular politician, finally collected 2558 votes for the Party.
In the early days, Nasjonal Samling was deeply religiously rooted, and gained relatively huge support from both the Church and the religious parts of the population. As the party grew more militant from 1935, the pro-German and anti-Semitic section of the Party got more power, and N.S lost most of their influence in the Church.
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At the elections in 1936 N.S only got 26 577 votes. This was one of the reasons to the bitter conflict between Quisling and Hjort; the latter finally left the party together with several prominent members, as Hjort had many followers. From now on, Nasjonal Samling clearly moved from being a Party to getting more like a sect.
In the early days, N.S had a very distinct Nordic profile, and in many ways gave an impression of wanting to revive the ancient Viking regime in Norway. The Party hardly had a foreign policy at all, even If Quisling did attend the Italian-led “International Fascists Convention” in Montreaux in 1935, together with colleagues like Anton Mussert, Frits Clausen and Oswald Mosley.” Soon, members who admired Mussolini´s Italian fascist regime, and even Hitler’s Germany, showed a clear Germanic attitude. Quisling, who saw himself more a Prophet than a politician, hardly ever participated in debates or discussions. He mostly communicated in writing. This absence of leadership made National Samling a party of intrigues and rivalry at the costs of effectiveness.
The number of members in N.S is very difficult to estimate. A research by Bergen University in 1976, stated that only 2000 remained as members after the German invasion on the 9th April 1940. This number is, however, regarded as far to low in other researches. After the Invasion, the number of members grew to an estimate of 50 000, with an additional 6000 from NSUF. The number might even have been as high as 60 000.
During 1944-45, some members left the Party, and some were excluded, but in no large numbers.
Nasjonal Samling had a political program, which clearly was Nationalist to the extreme, and it also became more and more influenced by the German N.S.D.A.P. However, in the Party program dated 1937, Quisling stated that Nasjonal Samling had nothing to do with N.S.D.A.P, and the NS-newspapers denied all accusations of a racial based politics. N.S was, as quoted, a ”Deeply rooted Norwegian, National, Spiritual and Christian movement.”. Quisling often even stated that he had inspired Hitler to crate his ideology, since Quisling had created his political philosophy as early as in 1917-18.
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The first ad hoc government, which Quisling suprisingly announced on the chaotic day of 9th April 1940, came as a surprise, and the statement shocked both the Germans as the Norwegian population. Actually it did even shock most members of the Government, as most were unaware of Quislings plans. It proved short-lived – and lasted only for five days.
Quisling never impressed the Germans, but had some support too: Alfred Rosenberg was enthusiastic about him, and prominent members of the German Navy, like Admiral Raeder also supported Quisling. This, together with Quislings personal appearance, made the relationship between the German leader in Norway, Reichskommisar Joseph Terboven and Quisling extremely bad.
Quisling pronounced his ”National Government” during two radio speeches on the evening of 9th April 1940.
Their fate after WW2.
During the Trials after the war, members of the NS Government got the following sentences:
Quisling, Hagelin and Skancke: death penalty. The latter, executed in August 1948 at the age of 58, was one of the last to get shot in Norway after receiving death penalty.
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Stang, Lippestad, Fuglesang, Hustad, Meidell and Whist: lifetime imprisonment.
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Fretheim, von Hirsch, Skarphagen, Vassbotten and Blehr: 20 years imprisonment.
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Irgens: 15 years imprisonment
Lie died of unknown reasons on the same day that the Germans surrendered, and Riisnæs was institutionalised due to insanity. Released from the Hospital in the 60´s, he spent most of the seventies in Italy and Vienna, and finally died in Oslo,1987.
The last N.S prisoner was released in November 1957.
46 085 members of N.S got sentenced, and about 23 000 of them were imprisoned. 4800 of these were so-called “Frontfighters” (Frontkjempere).90 000 individuals were investigated.
