ACTIONS AGAINST THE JEWS IN NORWAY DURING THE WAR* Oskar Mendelsohn Oslo The deportations of Jews from Norway in 1942 within three days, should deliver radios they and 1943 represent the climax of a series of still had in their possession. actions by both the Germans and the NS (Nas- The German police, in May 1940, also com- jonal Samling, "National United Action", po- manded the local Norwegian police to prepare litical Nazi party founded 1933), beginning lists of members in the Jewish communities in in the summer of 1941 and appearing more Oslo and Trondheim. Investigations were made clearly as a part of a consistent anti-Jewish by the German police in the spring of 1940 policy from the outset of 1942. More sporadic about Germans, Czechoslovakians and others of actions had, however, already occurred from Jewish origin from the Continent, even in the very first days of the German occupation. their places of origin, about their situation and They began in the middle of May 1940 when behaviour. The purpose was to find out what the Norwegian police, on order from the Ger- could be important for the treatment of those man police, confiscated radios belonging to Jews by the German police in Norway. Jewish Jews. This occurred before Administrasjonsrå- organizations in Oslo were ordered to hand det (Administrative Council of officials loyal over membership lists, and, in August of the to the Norwegian constitution, April 15 — Sep- same year, the German police demanded from tember 25, 1940, appointed by the Supreme the Jewish community in Oslo lists of Jews Court) was informed and was able to remon- who were not affiliated to the community. strate. At a later inquiry conducted by the This additional demand may have been con- council, the Regierungspräsident (chief ad- nected with the order from Auswärtiges Amt ministative officer) Delbrügge in the Reichs- (the Ministry of Foreign Affairs) in Berlin to kommissariat (wartime Nazi German political the Reichskommissariat to compile complete administration of occupied Norway) stated that lists. It was Legationsrat (councillor of lega- the German authorities were forced to handle tion) Rademacher from Auswärtiges Amt, who the Jewish question internationally, and that was after the number of Jews in Norway, their the authorization for the confiscation was found properties, and industries and business enter- in a decree from the Führer. The action was prises where the Jews had decisive influence. repeated in July 1941 when Untersturmführer It is quite evident from documents in Yad Böhm (American equivalent: a 2nd lieutenant, Vashem archives in Jerusalem that Auswär- Böhm was a subordinate officer of the Gestapo tiges Amt also tried to obtain information office in Norway for Jewish affairs) gave or- on the number of Jews in Copenhagen and der to Det Mosaiske Trossamfund (the Je- Stockholm. Other organizations, too, became wish congregation) in Oslo that the Jews, involved in this. On March 24, 1941 "Reichs- vereinigung der Juden in Deutschland" sent a letter to the Jewish community in Oslo. * The article is a slightly expanded version of a Attached to the letter, was a questionnaire about lecture held at the First Nordic Congress of the number of Jews in Norway, divided into Jewish Studies, Stockholm 1975. "Glaubens- und Rassenjuden" (Jews of faith 27 and Jews by race), specified in four age groups were not Norwegian citizens were deprived of and also according to employment. Only the their licenses to practice medicine. In the Germans themselves could be interested in this autumn of 1941, a couple of Jewish lawyers type of information. Certainly not the Jews were deprived of their licenses. About the same in Germany. The declared purpose was to ob- time, Minister of Justice, Riisnæs, sent a con- tain a statistical survey of the Jewish popula- fidential order to the provincial governors tion in all European countries. This type of about making an inventory of all real Jewish statistical survey was obtainded, and is found in property. The personnel in the provincial of- the minutes of the Wannsee-Conference of fices were ordered to give information about January 20, 1942 on "Die Endlösung der Ju- persons they knew were of Jewish descent. denfrage" (Final Solution). Accompanying the He also suggested, to the Ministry of Agri- minutes is a letter, dated March 2, 1942, from culture, that Jews should be prevented from the chief of the German Reich Security police buying real estate. In 1941 and 1942 the Min- and Security service (S.D.), Heydrich to Un- istry of the Interior sent a questionnaire to terstaatssekretär (deputy permanent undersec- all national, regional and local, authorities retary) Luther in the Auswärtiges Amt (Foreign about employees of "Aryan" descent. In some Office). According to this letter, Norway is cases Jews were dismissed. estimated as having 1300 of Europe's 11 mil- In the summer of 1941, the head of the lion Jews. Church and School Ministry, Skancke, wrote In the spring of 1940, actions also occurred two letters, dated June 13 and August 13, in various cities around the country — in wanting the Bishop of Oslo, Berggrav, to com- Kristiansand, Moss and Fredrikstad — and ment on a change in the marital legislation, posters proclaiming "Jüdisches Geschäft" (Jew- a change that would entail a prohibition of ish shop) were put up by the local German mixed marriages with Jews, (and with Lapps) authorities wanting to draw the attention of and their descendants in as far as the third their own soldiers. The posters posted on Je- generation. Bishop Berggrav responded to the wish shops in Moss, were, however, written letter on behalf of all the bishops. They oppos- in Norwegian. The inhibitants of Moss and ed this type of prohibition from a Christian even the NS in Moss protested to the highest point of view and protested against Norwegian German authorities, asking why the text was citizens being classified as inferior human in Norwegian when it was intended for Ger- beings. A few months before the church had man soldiers. The matter was dropped tempo- clearly indicated its position. Dean Fjellbu (af- rarily and then taken up again in 1941 when ter the war bishop in Trondheim), with the the Reichskommissariat began to compile lists support of all the clergy in Trondheim, pro- of Jewish firms. Lists had already been set tested against the German plan to deprive all up on the local level in the summer of 1940, Jews in Trondheim of their homes, and and now they were to be compiled on the cent- threatened to alarm the whole country if the ral level by the Reichskommissariat. New, Jews were placed in a category for themselves. more extensive and complete lists were prepared The most well-known protest of this kind in the winter of 1941/42. The various de- is, most likely, that of the church November partments in the Reichskommissariat worked 10, 1942. Antisemitic propaganda had become independently of each other in order to com- wilder and wilder in Norwegian radio and pile lists, thereby, providing much extra work. newspapers and culminated in the autumn of In a monthly report for March 1942, the dep- 1942. It is interesting to note that a number artment for Wirtschaftspropaganda (econom- of Norwegian newspapers immediately prior to ic propaganda) in the Reichskommissariat the deportation on November 26 published confirmed that the lists this time were based anti-Jewish declarations once made by Martin on information from the NS. Luther. The protest of the church against per- A few actions against the Jews were attempt- secution of the Jews created an international ed by the NS after the Party (which had sensation and was the subject of many reports forfeited credit under Administrasjonsrådet) in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Berlin. had been restored to a political instrument by The ministry considered this protest so im- the Reichskommissar (Reich commissioner) in portant that a statement on it (this time from September 1940. Jewish doctors (refugees) who a newspaper in Geneva, "L'Essor") was in 28 person submitted not only to the Minister of and left this to the Norwegian authorities in- Foreign Affairs, but to the Minister of the stead. Interior, the Minister of Propaganda and to The resolution did not have any immediate several party organizations. Less well known consequences. Its significance was more a mat- is it that the protest of the legitimate leader- ter of principle. The decree issued by Jonas ship of the Norwegian Church, the bishops, Lie, Minister of Police, on February 10, 1942, the teachers of the theological faculties and regarding the identification of Jewish persons of 25 religious communities and other Christian through the indication of the letter "J" in organizations, was sent for comment to the their identification cards, contributed far more bishops installed by NS. The responses from to the predicament the Jews found themselves the Nazi bishops are not filed in the Ministry in. It is evident from a rough draft of a letter of Church and School, but the responses from to the chief of the Norwegian State Police four bishops, however, are registred in the (Statspolitiet), Marthinsen (October 27, 1942) journal. The Nazi bishop of Bergen stated that the Ministry of Police had, on October that he found imprisonment of the Jews to 10, 1941, been approached by Befehlhaber der be entirely proper. In a number of issues of Sicherheitspolizei and des SD (the commander "Norske Nyheter" in London from February in chief of the German Security police and 4, 1943, it is said that the same bishop con- Security service in Norway) on this matter. cluded that the Jews were "the plague bacteria The chief of the Norwegian Security police of society".