Landesverrat versus Widerstand

Abstract

This article deals with the Norwegian discourse about the country’s occupation by Germany during the Second World War. The collaboration of the fascist Nasjonal Samling party with the German occupying forces, on the one hand, and the selfimage as a nation of resistance, on the other hand, can be identified as recurring features in a long-term struggle to come to terms with that past. In the 1960s the debate about Ralph Hewins’ biography of Vidkun Quisling clearly demonstrated a demand for a fixed image of the history. However, this image became damaged in the discussions of the 1970s, which followed revelations about two parliamentarians who had collaborated with the German occupiers and the publication of a book about the trial against Knut Hamsun. In the 1980s attempts to add previously untold stories to the interpretation of the Norwegian history caused controversies about a TV series about the history of the Najsonal Samling and a dispute among Norwegian historians. The 1990s are finally characterised by increasing awareness of moral responsibility for the fate of the Norwegian Jews and the so-called children of war, i.e. children German soldiers had with Norwegian women.