On April 9, 1940, Norway’s neutrality came to an end when German naval forces launched their attack. In less than 24 hours, Narvik, Egersund, Arendal, Trondheim, Bergen, and my hometown of Stavanger had all been occupied. Oslo and the rest of the country were quickly taken. The king and the rest of the government retreated northwards as they resisted the German advance, but both abandoned the country on June 7th and set up a government in exile. By mid-June organized resistance was squashed and Germany ruled Norway relatively quietly until the end of the war. Perhaps the only major upset was the fact that, unlike their occupation of Denmark, they were unable to take Oslo in time to capture the king and legally elected government, which they had hoped would continue ruling during the occupation. Instead, they fled and the exiled government officially joined the allied cause.
In my family, mom is the expert on Norway’s experience of World War II, or at least that part of it fought on the oceans. She has a massive website dedicated to Norway’s war at sea and my grandfather’s part in it. The vast majority of Norway’s merchant marine joined together to form the world’s largest shipping company, Nortraship, and would become a vital support line supplying the Allies throughout the war. Some 30,000 Norwegian sailors participated and almost 4000 sailors lost their lives (see some stats on my mom’s site here and here).
I’ll let mom handle the ships and some of the untold stories of their many sailors. Today’s post is but to mention the tale of one Norwegian soldier, a Sverre Ryen from Sel in Gudbrandsdalen, which I found retold by Karsten Alnæs in his Historien om Norge volume four, En Ny Arbeidsdag (Gyldendal 1999). I have a particular interest in his case, and those like it all over the world during his time. Below I translate a few of Sverre’s own words, admittedly stripped of their context, in order, I hope, to reveal a certain element of continuity between this soldier’s experience and those of millions of others like him.
Sverre’s story comes to us in the form of letters he sent home and most of all, his personal diary. For fear that the book would be lost in the chaos of war, he opens it with
Should I fall in the fight for my people and the fatherland, I ask that any honest person coming upon this book send it back to Norway. Address:
Sverre Ryen,
Otta Street,
Gudbrandsdalen
Norway
Below he writes the same translated into German. When he left home to fight, he wrote that,
Today is the saddest day I have ever experienced. Everything was strange at home today. Everyone stood with tears in their eyes. I had to turn back at Ekrebakkene. Perhaps I was looking at my home for the last time.
Why was he leaving home to fight a war that would bring him to far off countries? He writes in his diary that,
I could no longer stand by. My fatherland called me and I could no longer stay out of the war. I had to join the ranks with weapon in hand for a free and happier fatherland.
In a later note he elaborates on this,
I am going to fight…the dark forces that are trying to flood across Europe and trample it – and therefore Norway, our dear fatherland far to the north – under foot.
In his entries from the war, he talks of the many sad sights he witnesses, but also of how he and his fellow Norwegians sang songs together at night to comfort eachother, including one entitlted, “Oh, I know of a land…” His entries grow darker in tone though, as time passes. In one entry he writes
Everything seemed so serious this time – my thoughts went to those who have left us, and to home, my village, the valley, and my country there far to the north.
He writes in a letter home, “If I could only see Norway’s coast, the mountains and the valleys at home come spring.” More and more of his entries begin telling of friends that have fallen fighting at his side.
Sverre dies in battle in April, 1945 but before he dies he writes his brother and sister
There can be no death better than to die for one’s home, one’s fatherland, and everything that one loves.
We learn almost nothing of Sverre from the passages I have translated above. His words are like those of thousands of his countrymen, and fit the pattern of those of millions more across the world. So why do bother to write them here? Because Sverre Ryen was one of thousands of Norwegians who volunteered, fought and died for Hitler. He joined the S.S. Pansergrenaderregiment Norge, one of many volunteer units that Norwegians signed up for in droves (others include Regiment Nordland of the S.S. Wiking, direct volunteers to the Wehrmacht, S.S.-skijegerbataljon Norge, Den Norske Legion, SS-Gebirgsdivision, etc. Read more here and here). They fought in German SS uniforms, with Norwegian flags on their arms.
Alnæs and Nuav.net report that in all 15,000 Norwegians fought in these units, and about a thousand died (451). In The Politics of Retribution in Europe: World War II and Its Aftermath István Deák claims the members of the various Norwegian SS units numbered at least as many as those in active resistance (9) but I doubt this number includes the thousands of merchant mariners that my mother has dedicated herself to studying.
Sverre spent much of his time fighting Tito’s partisans in Yugoslavia in a unit full of Norwegians but commanded by German officers. In November of 1943 he was transferred to fight on the Eastern front at Leningrad where many of his friends fell in battle. He died not far from Oder.
I’m not going to add any more thoughts on this now. I’m just sharing some of the reading I am doing and stories I find about those awkward and uncomfortable figures in history like young Sverre Ryen. What do we say about them? How do we place them in the story of the war? What do we ask of them? If not forgotten, how are they remembered? When the war was over, how were they treated, and how was their kind classified and described by their contemporaries?
Organized resistance in Norway was not really crushed, but organized in something called Milorg at about 1940. Milorg was recognized by the exilegoverment in London in 1941. Milorg also cooperated with the british Special Operation Executive. In 1942 there were 20.000 members of Milorg and they ran 3 radiostations.
Most of Milorg’s work was concentrated around military intelligence. Military operations such as sabotage were expressivly forbidden. They were thought to have too little strategic effect compared to the costs.
In 1942 they Gestapo made progress against Milorg and thousands of people were arrested. But they recovered and in 1943 there were 30.000 members.
The allied forces had during the war discuraged sabotage but they changed their mind after the invasion in Normandie after seeing the contributions of the French resistance.
In 1944 the ban on military operations were lifted and Milorg got the order to stop the Germans as much as possible in their retreat back to the continent. In late 1944/45 equipment for 30 – 40.000 troops were airdropped over Norway and 200 instructors were flown in.
A number of operations were executed, mainly against roads, bridges and railroads.
In May 1945 Milorg took control over key points in Norway, such as harbours, communications, etc to stop sabotage from the retrating troops. They took public building and made way for the return of the goverment.
A few days later when the allied forces arrived Norway would mostly appear to be a nation in peace with Milorg troops patroling and upholding law and order. About 40.000 Milorg troops took part in retaking Norway.
There were also other fractions, such as The Linge Company and some communist groups that did not see themselves bound by the ban on sabotage and performed some actions. These were, however, limited in scope.
As for what your post really was about, the norwegians that joined the German forces:
As I have read they did that mainly to fight communism. Communism was seen as a great danger by many at that time.
After the war “frontkjemperene” (“The Front fighters”) were given sentences on several years by the courts. They were convicted on treason and most trials took a few hours, at the most a day. Several was sentenced to life imprisonment but the longest time served was 11 years.
http://www.utal.net is a site that is about the Norwegian front fighters.
You might enjoy reading the novel reviewed in this NYRB article. Unfortunately the review isn’t available for free online. It describes a novel about an SS officer who is also a professor of History, and writes letters back home about his experiences. These letters take the form of a dialog with the entire history of Western philosophy up to that time. Sounds amazing. (The review itself is written by one of my favorite NYRB reviewers, the poet Charles Simic.)
Sorry, no HTML I guess. Here is the
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/article-preview?article_id=17215
Hey Glenn, you are right, I should have mentioned the “hjemmefront” and Milorg movement but we should be honest to what the movement really amounted to. The British SOE was apparently conducting sabotage operations on Norwegian soil from 1940 but often without even letting the hjemmefronten know. However, as you hint in your discussion, until very late in the war, Milorg was a strictly pacifist organization (albeit one doing military training with weapons) that was terrified that any violent acts would lead to German reprisals against Norwegian citizens (which, of course, was happening all over occupied Europe).
According to Alnæs, as late as October 1942, they did not even permit the killing of any German soldiers EVEN IN SELF-DEFENSE.
For example, the leadership of Milorg sent a telegram to the authorities in London 14th of October which said, “Vennligst instuer folk dere sender hit, for eksempel våpeninstruktrører, om de ikke må drepe tyskere, selv ikke i selvforsvar, da dette ville lede til represalier her. Vi følger selv denne linje, f.eks. ved eksport.”
When some communist partisans or others in Norway killed some Germans, Milorg had a fit and sometimes apparently blamed the British, sending complaints to London. For example, October 1943 a troop transport was blown up between Drammen and Hokksund, and several Germans were killed. Milorg condemned the “use of such methods” The Germans arrested some people, executed five.
Things got more violent later on, but from what I have read so far, Milorg isn’t exactly a sterling example of an armed resistance, even if they played an important role in various ways.
Anyways, my point is not to belittle the Norwegian resistance, even if I suspect that Norway, like most European countries, often spends a disproportionate amount of time glorifying what were sometimes marginal resistance efforts in periods of occupation that were broadly tolerated, if reluctantly so.
As for fighting communism, you are again right, Bolshevists were the “dark forces” that Sverre is referring to (which I removed in the … of his quote for effect). The thing is, Bolshevism and Communist has always been the boogie man of fascist movements and the Eastern front was the only important front during the time of the major recruiting in Norway. Especially in Europe, where you could not, like the Japanese and Chinese, argue that White imperialism was the enemy, Communism and the Red peril was, next to the specter of evil Jews, the easiest enemy to use in your propaganda (of course, a Jewish lead Communist movement made for the best bogie man).
Kerim, looks very interesting, I think I’ll have to get that!
Interestingly, as far as I understand, communism got quite a foothold in Norway right after the war. I can’t remember off the top of my head how widespread it became (and for how long), but I would imagine its poularity (especially in the north) had something to do with the Russians invading and forcing the Germans out, thereby appearing like heroes and saviours in the eyes of the population.
Siri
Glenn, as already pointed out, Milorg/Hjemmefronten was no real fighting force that took part in major violent operations or partisan resistance fighting.
The Norwegian SS-volunteers, however, took part in regular German army large-scale operations and saw fighting at a “professional” and brutal level, completely incomparable to the halfhearted and hopeless disorganised resistance offered by the Norwegian regular army when opposing the invading Germans.
Point is, the Norwegians who participated in total war as experienced on the Continent were mainly those fighting for Hitler.
Not exactly what they teach us in school, yet so it was.
Thanks for the comment Baard. I’m back in Norway as of this week and I’ll be spending the next month reading more about the wartime period and the immediate aftermath of war. Hope to have more to write about this topic soon…I’m still a beginner when it comes to Norwegian history.
Hi ! I am interested to know if there is a source, preferably in English, that deals with the trials of the Norwegian Legionnairs?
Norwegian online would also be o.k. Thanks, JP
Hi there, I’m afraid I don’t know any English materials.
Here are some links from online:
http://home.online.no/~ol-enge/art02/03-4Frontkjemper.htm
http://home.hib.no/mediesenter/digOkku/Stalin/frontlinks.htm
http://www.media.uio.no/forskning/prosjekter/1945/artikler/Frontkjemperne.pdf (the author of this has recently published on this in Norway)
http://www.aftenposten.no/meninger/kronikker/article1107756.ece (Aftenposten article on the fate of them)
Very interesting material! Sverre is my great-uncle. We have tried to locate where he’s buried, but it is impossible..