“Norway had known almost no armed conflict since 1720. But on April 9, 1940, seven months after rolling across Poland to launch the armed prong of the Third Reich, the Nazi forces invaded Norway. By June 9 the Norwegian king and cabinet had ‘retired’ to England, and the little bit of armed resistance collapsed. Norwegian Nazi collaborator Vidkun Quisling was installed as a puppet ruler.

“The the Norwegians began to resist. They refused to be dragooned into the Nazi sports programs; no students attended their sports lectures and that effort at Nazification failed. Then the Church began to resist, beginning with the refusal to incorporate and Nazi ideology–as ordered–into its teachings. The Church resisted the threat to imprison any church official by withholding information requested by the police, even if that information was obtained as a confession. The Nazis attempted to interfere with the work of Norwegian doctors and were met with similar resistance. When membership in the Norwegian Nazi Party was made a requisite for holding any government post, there was more non-cooperation. Five of the government’s leaders were arrested, and the rest resigned in protest.

“When milk workers went on strike, two leaders were summarily shot, and Gestapo terror reigned. Quisling commanded a new Nazification of teaching methods, but the teachers refused to work, leading to 1,300 arrests, with 500 sent to a prison camp.

“While the overall campaign of nonviolence led to more than 100 executions, 7,000 sent to prison camps, and 1,000 deported to work or death camps in Poland, to this day the Norwegians remain proud of their resistance to the Nazis. Their heroic efforts stalled the Nazis’ hold on the Norwegian economy and society, which helped Norway’s recovery after the war.”