Bjarte Bruland Boeken

Bjarte Bruland presents the first research-based monograph on the Holocaust in Norway, detailing the destruction of Jews from the onset of the German occupation in April 1940 until the war's conclusion. Following the invasion, Adolf Hitler appointed Josef Terboven as Reichskommissar, who soon declared the National Gathering Party, led by Vidkun Quisling, as the sole legal political entity. Although the occupiers initially hesitated to implement systematic anti-Jewish legislation, a decree in January 1942 mandated the registration of Jews. Throughout this period, local Gestapo branches and Norwegian Nazi organizations brutally terrorized and persecuted Jews, leading to individual arrests and deportations, though Jews were not segregated from the general population, and the “Star of David” was not enforced. In February 1942, Quisling became the head of a so-called National government, reinstating the 1814 constitutional ban on Jews. By fall 1942, both the occupiers and their collaborators grew impatient with what they termed the “Jewish question.” The methods they employed differed significantly from those in the rest of Western Europe. This work elucidates the development of anti-Jewish policies in Norway post-invasion and explores the collaboration between German and Norwegian perpetrators while also giving voice to the victims.