During the Second World War, Norway was under the occupation of German troops. The invasion took place in April 1940. The country was liberated only in May 1945 after the general surrender of all German troops in Europe. In the article we will talk about this difficult period in the history of the Scandinavian country.
On the eve of the invasion
Presumably, Norway planned not to participate in the Second World War at all, having abstained from this confrontation. It is noteworthy that the Scandinavians already succeeded in this in 1914 - in the First World War the country remained neutral.
A similar situation developed in the 30s. Several factors contributed to this. The conservative parties advocated a tough financial policy, so spending on the defense complex was cut.
In 1933, the Norwegian Workers' Party comes to power, which is supported by the ideas of pacifism. Finally, the doctrine of neutrality was adopted by the government. She implied that the country would not need to participate in the war.
Strengthening defense capability
However, the situation inEurope in the late 1930s was developing tense. As a result, the parliament increased the military budget, even though this increased the national debt substantially.
Norwegians adhered to the principle of neutrality until the invasion of German troops. At the same time, all of Europe knew that the Scandinavians did not want to be in a state of confrontation with Great Britain and generally prefer peace to war.
In the autumn of 1939, there was an opinion that the country was not only not ready to defend neutrality, but even to fight for its own independence. The Norwegian army became more active only after the capture of Poland by the Germans.
Invasion
On the night of April 9, 1940, Germany invaded Norway. Under the formal pretext that she needs protection from the military aggression of France and Great Britain. This is how the Danish-Norwegian operation was carried out.
It is believed that as a result, the Germans solved several problems at once. They gained access to non-freezing Norwegian ports, from where it was possible to go to the North Atlantic and the Arctic Ocean, prevented the likely invasion of the French and British, and increased the propaganda of the Third Reich. Also in their hands was Swedish iron ore, which was exported from the Norwegian port of Narvik.
The Germans immediately launched a ground offensive in order to gain a foothold from Trondheim and Oslo. Along the way, they overcame scattered internal resistance. The Norwegians launched several counterattacks, but they were unsuccessful.
Militaryresistance in Norway had a purely political effect. It allowed the royal family and ministers to leave the country to form a government in exile. It was also possible to do this due to the death of the Nazi cruiser Blucher on the first day of the invasion and a successful skirmish near Midtskugen, when the army managed to protect their king from capture.
At the same time, most of the Norwegian weapons were lost on the first day after the start of the operation. This reduced their effectiveness to a minimum. On May 2, resistance finally ended.
Occupation
When hostilities ended, the Reichskommissariat of Norway was created. It was led by Obergruppenführer Josef Terboven.
By the summer of 1940, seven infantry divisions of the Wehrmacht were stationed on the territory of this Scandinavian country. By the end of 1943, the total number of German troops in the country was already about 380 thousand people.
The battleships "Tirpitz" and "Scharnhorst", destroyers, destroyers, patrol ships, minelayers, minesweepers, submarines and even a flotilla of torpedo boats were in the ports. About two hundred German aircraft were based at the airfields.
Under the command of Wilhelm Radis, about six thousand SS soldiers and officers were stationed.
Resistance Movement
As in most European countries, in Norway during the Second World War there was a local Resistance. The vast majority of the inhabitants opposed the occupation. Resistance was maintainedgovernment in exile based in London. Underground newspapers regularly came from there, sabotage against the occupying forces was coordinated.
Resistance took many forms. Some participated in the armed struggle against the occupation of Norway by Germany, others committed acts of civil disobedience.
After the creation of a centralized armed Resistance, they began to distinguish between external and rear operations. Norwegian troops and navies continued to participate in World War II under the flag of Great Britain. This unity of command played a decisive role in the transfer of power in May 1945.
Already a few months after the occupation, the Norwegian Communist Party called to oppose the occupiers. Anti-Nazi demonstrations took place in Trondheim, Bergen and Sarpsborg.
Unrest and strikes
In September 1941, a large-scale strike took place in Oslo, in which about 25 thousand workers of plants and factories took part. The rebels were dispersed by German troops. Dozens of people were arrested and two trade union activists were shot.
A month later students went on strike. Unrest broke out in different cities of the country.
A resonant sabotage was carried out in early 1943, when a group of Norwegians, who had been trained by the British secret services, blew up the shop of a steel company. It produced heavy water.
Two months later, a German ship was blown up. The occupation government began to release the situation from-under control.
One of the largest actions took place in March 1945, when the only railway that connected Northern Norway with the southern part of the country was blown up in more than a thousand places.
Collaborationism
Norway in World War II was marked by the fact that there were relatively few collaborators among the locals. Only about 10% supported the occupation.
Supporters included the far-right National Unity Party, which included businessmen and civil servants.
The owners of large enterprises actively cooperated with Germany. They carried out German orders.
Some print media and well-known journalists took part in Nazi propaganda. The most famous collaborator is the writer Knut Hamsun, who received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1920. However, faced with the crimes of the Nazi regime and its brutality, he became disillusioned with his ideals. In 1943, during a meeting with Hitler, he demanded that the Fuhrer liberate Norway, which infuriated him.
After the war, Hamsun was put on trial. He managed to avoid imprisonment only because of his advanced age - the writer turned 86 years old.
National Government
After the occupation on the borders of Norway, with the permission of the German authorities, the National Government was established. This happened in February 1942. It was led by Vidkun Quisling.
Quislingwas a Norwegian politician, National Socialist. In the late summer of 1943, the government declared war on the USSR. In January 1944, mobilization began in military units, which were supposed to go to the Eastern Front. However, these plans were thwarted. Of the planned 70 thousand people, only 300 came to the mobilization points.
Quisling was arrested the day after Germany surrendered. He denied all accusations, claiming that he worked for the prosperity of Norway. He was found guilty of plotting with Hitler, "the final solution of the Jewish question in Norway", murders and other crimes.
On October 24, the politician was shot. He was 58 years old.
German fertility program
These were black pages in the history of Norway. During the years of occupation, several thousand Norwegian women gave birth to children from German soldiers as part of a special Nazi program.
After the war, they were humiliated and ostracized as "whores of the Germans". On suspicion of collaborationism and collaboration with the enemy, 14,000 women were arrested. Many were sent to labor camps and their children were taken to orphanages. Women were shaved, beaten and raped.
The children themselves were also humiliated. They were forced to march through the city, while passers-by were allowed to beat and spit on them. The discussion about the rehabilitation of such children began only in 1981. But only recently have they begun to feel relatively calm.
In total, almost 29 people were arrested after the warthousands of suspected collaborators. About half were soon released without any charges.
37 people were shot for war crimes (only 25 of them were Norwegians, the rest were Germans). Another 77 Scandinavians were sentenced to life imprisonment.
Liberation
Since 1943, the government-in-exile sought permission to set up military formations in Sweden that would consist of Norwegian refugees.
As a result, a police force of 12 thousand people appeared. At the same time, the term "police" was conditional, in reality they were military formations.
Some units took part in the liberation of Finnmark in northern Norway in the winter of 1945. The rest saved the rest of the country from occupation. At the same time, active liberation began only after the complete surrender of Germany in May 1945.
The offensive actions of the Northern Fleet of the Navy of the Soviet Union and the Karelian Front played a decisive role in the liberation of Northern Norway. During the Petsamo-Kirkenes operation, military operations were carried out on the territory of Finland and Northern Norway against German troops.
The result was the victory of the Red Army. It was possible to liberate the Pechenegy region, eliminate the threat to the Soviet northern sea routes and the port of Murmansk.
The Germans suffered heavy losses: about 30 thousand killed. On the part of the Red Army, there were five times fewer deaths.
