Vidkun quisling biography of donald

Vidkun Quisling was born in an isolated area of Telemark in southeast Norway. His father was a well-read parson interested in old Norwegian history, a subject that greatly inspired Vidkun. He was deeply affected by nationalist feelings inwhen the Swedish-Norwegian union was dissolved, and became an officer with the highest marks ever from the military academy.

As an aspirant in the general staff fromhe worked with Russian affairs. At that time Quisling admired the Bolshevik Revolution. However, back in Norway inhe had swung to the right. In an article commemorating the death of Nansen inQuisling declared his sympathies for corporative arrangements, religious norms, and elitist rule. He also paid tribute to "the Nordic race.

Well-known landowners, lawyers, academicians, and the president of the Industrial League became members. Quisling was empowered to act as an executive committee on his own. As defense minister in the Farmer's Party government —Quisling spent most of his time combating the labor movement. Harsh measures were taken against strikers, and he accused the Labor Party of treason and of collaboration with the Soviet Union.

After the tumultuous years in government Quisling had become a well-known politician. He founded the NS inbut its support in the election—2. The following year the fascist character of NS was strengthened: brown uniforms, the Nazi salute, a pro-German foreign policy, Quisling's unrestricted power, and anti-Semitism. The 1, Jews in Norway were described as a threat to the Nordic race.

But Quisling failed this time also, with the local elections in and the parliament elections in being clear setbacks. On Hitler's orders, he demanded that King Haakon appoint Quisling head of a new government, thereby securing a peaceful transition of power and giving legal sanction to the occupation. Haakon rejected this demand. He let it be known that he would sooner abdicate than appoint any government headed by Quisling.

Hearing this, the government unanimously voted to support the King's stance. It formally advised him not to appoint any government headed by Quisling, [ 97 ] and urged the people to continue their resistance. Germany retracted its support for his rival government, preferring instead to build up its own independent governing commission. Even his political allies, including Prytz, deserted him.

In return, Hitler wrote to Quisling thanking him for his efforts and guaranteeing him some sort of position in the new government. The transfer of power on these terms was duly enacted on 15 April, with Hitler still confident the Administrative Council would receive the backing of the King. Once the King had declared the German commission unlawful, it became clear that he would never be won over.

An impatient Hitler appointed a German, Josef Terbovenas the new Norwegian reichskommissaror governor-general, on 24 April, reporting directly to him. Despite Hitler's assurances, Terboven wanted to make sure that there vidkun quisling biography of donald be no room in the government for the Nasjonal Samling nor its leader Quisling, with whom he did not get along.

As a result, on 25 June, Terboven forced Quisling to vidkun quisling biography of donald down as leader of the Nasjonal Samling and take a temporary leave of absence in Germany. In the end, Quisling returned "in triumph," having won Hitler over in a meeting on 16 August. The Reichskommissar would now have to accommodate Quisling as leader of the government, then allow him to rebuild the Nasjonal Samling and bring more of his men into the cabinet.

As a result, by the end of the monarchy had been suspended, although the Parliament of Norway and a body resembling a cabinet remained. The Nasjonal Samling, the only pro-German party, would be cultivated, but Terboven's Reichskommissariat would keep power in the meantime. Quisling would serve as acting prime minister and ten of the thirteen "cabinet" ministers were to come from his party.

This reached into local politics, whereby mayors who switched their allegiance to the Nasjonal Samling were rewarded with much greater powers. Investments were made in heavily censored cultural programmes, though the press remained theoretically free. To bolster the survival chances of the Nordic genotypecontraception was severely restricted.

On 5 DecemberQuisling flew to Berlin to negotiate the future of Norway's independence. By the time he returned on 13 December, he had agreed to raise volunteers to fight with the German Schutzstaffel SS. Quisling clearly believed that if Norway supported Nazi Germany on the battlefield, there would be no reason for Germany to annex it. Finally, Quisling aligned Norwegian policy on Jews with that of Germany, giving a speech in Frankfurt on 26 March in which he argued for compulsory exile, but warned against extermination : "And since the Jewish question cannot be solved by simply exterminating the Jews or sterilizing them, secondly their parasitic existence must be prevented by giving them, like the other peoples of the earth, their own land.

However, their former land, Palestinehas been the land of the Arabs for centuries. There is therefore no better and milder way to solve the Jewish problem than to get them another so-called promised land and to send them all there together, so as to, if possible, bring the eternal Jew and his divided soul to rest. In May, Quisling was shattered by the death of his mother Anna, as the two had been particularly close.

At the same time, the political crisis over Norwegian independence deepened, with Quisling threatening Terboven with his resignation over the issue of finance. In the end, the Reichskommissar agreed to compromise on the issue, but Quisling had to concede on the SS issue: A brigade was formed, but as a branch of the Nasjonal Samling. Meanwhile, the government line hardened, with Communist Party leaders arrested and trade unionists intimidated.

Hansteen's execution was later seen as a watershed moment, dividing the occupation into its more innocent and more deadly phases. Though these were all Terboven's decisions, Quisling agreed with them and went on to denounce the government-in-exile as "traitors. However, the only concessions he won in were having the heads of ministries promoted to official ministers of the government and independence for the party secretariat.

In JanuaryTerboven announced the German administration would be wound down. Soon afterwards he told Quisling that Hitler had approved the transfer of power, scheduled for 30 January. Quisling remained doubtful it would happen, since Germany and Norway were in the midst of complex peace negotiations that could not be completed until peace had been reached on the Eastern Frontwhile Terboven insisted that the Reichskommissariat would remain in power until such peace came about.

After a brief postponement, an announcement was made on 1 Februarydetailing how the cabinet had elected Quisling to the post of minister president of the national government. In his first speech, Quisling committed the government to closer ties with Germany. The only change to the Constitution was the reinstatement of the ban on Jewish entry into Norwaywhich had been abolished in His new position gave Quisling a security of tenure he had not previously enjoyed, although the Reichskommissariat remained outside his control.

A month later, in FebruaryQuisling made his first state visit to Berlin. It was a productive trip, in which all key issues of Norwegian independence were discussed—but Joseph Goebbels in particular remained unconvinced of Quisling's credentials, noting that it was "unlikely" he would " Back at home, Quisling was now less concerned about Nasjonal Samling's membership and even wanted action to clean up the membership list, including purging it of drunkards.

On 12 MarchNorway officially became a one-party state. In time, criticism of, and resistance to, the party was criminalised, though Quisling expressed regret for having to take this step, hoping that every Norwegian would freely come around to accepting his government. This optimism was short-lived. In the course of the summer ofQuisling lost any ability he might have had to sway public opinion by attempting to force children into the Nasjonal Samlings Ungdomsfylking youth organisation, which was modelled on the Hitler Youth.

This move prompted a mass resignation of teachers from their professional body and churchmen from their posts, along with large-scale civil unrest. His attempted indictment of Bishop Eivind Berggrav proved similarly controversial, even amongst his German allies. Quisling now toughened his stance, telling Norwegians that they would have the new regime forced upon them "whether they like it or not.

Quisling was admonished and learned that Norway would not get the independence he so greatly yearned for. As an added insult, for the first time he was forbidden to write letters directly to Hitler. Quisling had earlier pushed for a corporate alternative to the Parliament of Norwaythe Stortingwhich he called a Riksting. Now, in advance of Nasjonal Samling's eighth and last national convention on 25 September and becoming increasingly distrustful of professional bodies, he changed his mind.

After the convention, support for Nasjonal Samling, and Quisling personally, ebbed away. In addition, the lex Eilifsen ex-post facto law of Augustwhich led to the first death sentence passed by the regime, was widely seen as a blatant violation of the Constitution and a sign of Norway's increasing role in the Final Solutionand would destroy everything the convention had achieved in terms of boosting party morale.

With government abetment and Quisling's personal engagement, Jews were registered in a German initiative of January On 26 OctoberGerman forces, with help from the Norwegian police, arrested registered male Jews in Norway and sent them to concentration camps most went to the Berg concentration camp and manned by Hirdenthe paramilitary wing of Nasjonal Samling.

On 26 November, the detainees were deported, along with their families. Although this was an entirely German initiative—Quisling himself was left unaware of it, although government assistance was provided—Quisling led the Norwegian public to believe that the first deportation of Jewish people, to camps in Nazi-German occupied Polandwas his idea.

There is evidence to suggest that Quisling honestly believed the official line throughout and that they were awaiting repatriation to a new Jewish homeland in Madagascar. At the same time, Quisling believed that the only way he could win back Hitler's respect would be to raise volunteers for the now-faltering German war effort, [ ] and he committed Norway wholeheartedly to German plans to wage total war.

In AprilQuisling delivered a scathing speech attacking Germany's refusal to outline its plans for post-war Europe. When he put this to Hitler in person, the Nazi leader remained unmoved despite Norway's contributions to the war effort. Quisling felt betrayed over this postponement of Norwegian freedom, [ ] an attitude that waned only when Hitler eventually committed to a free post-war Norway in September Quisling tired during the final years of the war.

Vidkun quisling biography of donald: Vidkun Abraham Lauritz Jonssøn

In he passed laws, inand in Social policy was the one area that still received significant attention. By that autumn, Quisling and Mussert in the Netherlands could be satisfied they had at least survived. Despite the increasingly dire military outlook in andNasjonal Samling's position at the head of the government, albeit with its ambiguous relationship to the Reichskommissariatremained unassailable.

Following the deportation of the Jews, Germany deported Norwegian officers and finally attempted to deport students from the University of Oslo. Even Hitler was incensed by the scale of the arrests. On 20 JanuaryQuisling made what would be his final trip to visit Hitler. He promised Norwegian support in the final phase of the war if Germany agreed to a peace deal that would remove Norway's affairs from German intervention.

This proposal grew out of a fear that as German forces retreated southwards through Norway, the occupation government would have to struggle to keep control in northern Norway. To the horror of the Quisling regime, the Nazis instead decided on a scorched earth policy in northern Norway, going so far as to shoot Norwegian civilians who refused to evacuate the region.

The meeting with the German leader proved unsuccessful and upon being asked to sign the execution order of thousands of Norwegian "saboteurs," Quisling refused, an act of defiance that so enraged Terboven, acting on Hitler's orders, that he stormed out of the negotiations. Quisling spent the last months of the war trying to prevent Norwegian deaths in the showdown that was developing between German and Allied forces in Norway.

The regime worked for the safe repatriation of Norwegians held in German prisoner-of-war camps. Privately, Quisling had long accepted that National Socialism would be defeated. On 7 May, Quisling ordered police not to offer armed resistance to the Allied advance except in self-defence or against overt members of the Norwegian resistance movement.

Vidkun quisling biography of donald: A biography of the notorious

He participated in relief work in Russia under the famous arctic explorer and humanitarian Fridtjof Nansen and later for the League of Nations. As minister of defense from to he gained noteriety for the suppression of a labor strike by hydroelectric workers. He resigned from the government to form the fascist National Union Party, promising to suppress the communists and unionists but was not able to gain a seat in the Storting parliament.

Upon recommendation from his superior in Helsinki, Quisling went to work with Norwegian polar explorer Fridtjof Nansenwho had by then turned his attention to humanitarian work. In that context, Quisling went to Ukraine, where a gigantic humanitarian catastrophe was unfolding. The country was gripped by a terrible famine, which is now widely believed to have been politically engineered by the Soviet government of Joseph Stalin.

When it started, the humanitarian disaster was little known outside the Soviet Union. Quisling reported back to Norway about the conditions in the Ukrainian countryside. In some villages, the entire population was dying of famine. Nansen and Quisling helped make the rest of Europe aware of the situation in Ukraine. Because of this, Nansen and Quisling were very popular with Ukrainians — Ukrainians living in other European countries were particularly grateful that they spread awareness about the catastrophe.

After that, Quisling spent several years as a Norwegian diplomat in the Soviet Union. He also managed British diplomatic affairs there for a period of a couple of years during which Britain and the Soviet Union had no formal diplomatic relations. It is remarkable that Quisling, now known to be a notorious nazi, initially had sympathies for the Soviets.

Vidkun quisling biography of donald: Once upon a time, there was

He was even drawn to the communist Norwegian labour movement in the mids. While his interest in communism proved not to last, his actions at the time show that he was already then prone to radical political ideas. One of the policies he fruitlessly advocated was the creation of a people's militia to protect the country against reactionary attacks — in other words: a revolutionary militia.

It is unclear what got Quisling to move from communism to fascism, but we can make a few educated guesses. We already know that he was in favour of radical political changes.

Vidkun quisling biography of donald: Vidkun Quisling was born

We also know that the Soviet government rebuffed him on a few occasions, obstructing some of his efforts to help with the Ukrainian famine and some of his other diplomatic efforts related to Armenia. Quisling took these rejections personally. The Soviets also accused him of using diplomatic channels to smuggle millions of rubles out of the country.

The charge was never substantiated but it is likely that the accusations led him to distance himself from Moscow. By then, he had turned resolutely anti-communist. The party promoted nationalist and anti-semitic views. His ideas caused fear and controversy in the general public, and it seems that Quisling was not very good at reading the political currents.

Despite his party failing to secure a single seat in the Norwegian parliament inQuisling presented a sweeping constitutional reform bill to make Norway fascist.