Vidkun Quisling Abraham Lauritz Jonssøn Fyresdal 1887 - Oslo 1945 1887-1945, Norwegian fascist leader. An army officer, he served as military attaché in Petrograd (1918-19) and Helsinki (1919-21) and later assisted Fridtjof Nansen in relief work in Russia. Quisling had a mixed and relatively successful background, having achieved the rank of major in the Norwegian army, and worked with Fridtjof Nansen in the Soviet Union during the famine in the 1930s. He was Norwegian minister of defense from 1931 to 1933. He then left the Agrarian party to found the fascist Nasjonal Samling [national unity] party. On May 17 1933, the Norwegian national day, Quisling and state attorney Johan Bernhard Hjort formed Nasjonal Samling (National Unity), the Norwegian national-socialist party. Nasjonal Samling had an anti-democratic, "leader"-oriented political structure, and Quisling was to be that leader.The party went on to have modest successes, in the election of 1933, four months after the party was formed, it garnered 27850 votes, following support from the Norwegian Farmer's Aid Association, with which Quisling had connections from his time as a member of the agrarian government. However, as the party line changed from a religiously rooted one to a more pro-German and anti-Semitic hardline policy from 1935 onwards, the support from the Church waned, and in the 1936 elections, the party only got 26577 votes. This led to a personal conflict between Quisling and Hjort, who finally left the party, taking with him several prominent members. The party turned more extremist, taking on sect-like qualities in the worship of Quisling as the leader, and party membership dwindled to an estimated 2000 members in 1940. In 1940 he helped Germany prepare the conquest of Norway. on April 9 1940, Quisling became the first person in history to announce a coup during a news broadcast, announcing an ad-hoc government during the confusion of the invasion, hoping that the Germans would support it. Quisling had visited Adolf Hitler in Germany the year before, and had actually presented the idea of a German invasion of Norway, so Quisling's belief that the Germans would back his government were not entirely unfounded. However, the Germans desired more direct control over occupied Norway, and the Quisling government lasted only five days, after which Josef Terboven was instated as Reichskommisar, the highest authority in Norway, answering directly to Hitler. The relationship between Quisling and Terboven was tense, although Terboven, presumably seeing an advantage in having a Norwegian in a position of power to reduce resentment in the population, named Quisling to the post of Minister President (Prime Minister) in 1942 and he assumed that position on February 1, 1943. In power Quisling did much that could not have been entirely anticipated from his history in the 1930s. He set up a one-party state, encouraged strict censorship, allowed anti-Jewish legislation (he had become a convinced -- if opportunistic -- anti-Semite in 1935), and did nothing to prevent the round-up and deportation of more than seven hundred Norwegian Jews to Auschwitz (although he seems to have believed the Nazi stories of 'resettlement'). He approved harsh measures against the resistance, which was widespread, on the grounds that Norway needed a 'strict schoolmaster'. In some ways it was an appropriate description of this philosopher-politician, whose naive idealism jostled with less moral political practices. Despite his unpopularity and difficulties with his German masters and within his own party, he remained in power until May 1945. After the German surrender, Quisling, along with 90,000 other members of Nasjonal Samling, faced investigation and trial on charges of treason. Quisling, along with two other NS leaders, Albert Viljam Hagelin and Ragnar Skancke, were sentenced to death. 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. * Stang, Lippestad, Fuglesang, Hustad, Meidell and Whist: lifetime imprisonment. * Fretheim, von Hirsch, Skarphagen, Vassbotten and Blehr: 20 years imprisonment. * 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. From his name came the word quisling, meaning traitor. With Hitler From left to right:Vidkun Quisling, Ørnulf Lundesgaard, Albert Viljam Hagelin, Josef Terboven and showing his back Heinrich Himmler. (NTB) http://www.users.dircon.co.uk/~litrev/reviews/1999/05/overyonquisling.html http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vidkun_Quisling http://www.encyclopedia.com/html/Q/Quisling.asp http://www.nuav.net/ns.html
The 90,000 list was made before the liberation. Anyone caught talking to theNS was investigated. The 'Landsvikoppgjøret' Traitortrials was a sham. The real traitors (the 1940 government) was found not guilty, and the poor NS men were treated extremely harsh. I am not making any excuses but when the trials were revised in the late 90ies the points I made were highlighted. As for Quisling he was not the man he thought himself to be. Both he and his NS men were ridiculed by Germans in their correspondance in Berlin. The recruitment of Frontfighters to the Norwegian Legion. And to SS reg. Nordland, and reg. Norge, and SS Ski-Jeger bn. Norge was a serious loss of face for Quisling. He envisonaged divisions to fight against the Communists, and later to be the backbone of the new Norwegian Army. To make matters worse Quislings guarentee that the Legion would be deployed in Finland to help the Finns, was squarely broken by the Wehrmacht and the Legion was deployed on the Lenigrad front under AG North. The Norwegians made a right fuss when they reused to swear oath to Hitler. Quisling tried a coup in the early days of the war, but was removed by the Germans for inefficiency. He was given a new post as Minister President (a german invention, no such title has existed before or after) with no power. Quisling was abandoned by both camps and ended up as a pathetic joke. There was a popular cartoon made from his visit in Berlin. Quisling : I am Quisling Guard: And what is your name??
Thanx Jaeger! Interesting extra info there! Another controversial person must have been Knut Hamsun. Saw the movie "Hamsun". Knut Hamsun - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Hamsund was a special person. Much of his writings focused on the alienation that people experienced in cities. He also blamed industrialisation for alienating people and nature (much like Tolkien, he opposed the industry) His view was that the rural people lived better lives, and were better off without mechanisation in the agriculture (ironically Hamsunds farm was one of the first to have a tractor) This dreamy thinking and use of mystical imagery made him popular with the Nazis. It did support their views. As for Hamsund himself I don't know if he was loosing it in the end or feigned it to avoid the drop. His writings are of high quality, but I haven't read any of it myself. When I was in school he was a popular special project, but I couldn't be bothered with a traitor...
