By Joseph Puder, JNS
And now, it is one of the most anti-Israel states in Europe.
Much like the Vichy government in France during World War II, led by Marshal Philippe Pétain, Norway had a Nazi-supported regime led by Vidkun Quisling, which also enacted laws stripping Jews of their property. Quisling’s Nasjonal Samling party (NS) was the Nazi Party of Norway and made antisemitism part of its political platform in the 1930s. And, like the French law-enforcement apparatus, the Norwegians rounded up their Jewish citizens and handed them over to the German Nazis, who shipped them to the Nazi death camps in Poland.
Norway was overrun and conquered by Nazi Germany in 1940. Approximately 15,000 Norwegians volunteered for Nazi service, with roughly 6,000 joining Germany’s SS and a specific unit, the Norwegian Legion, comprised of about 1,900 men who served in the Waffen-SS. Serving mainly in rear security roles before its disbandment in 1943, these Nazi supporters contributed to the overall foreign contingent of the SS during World War II. A larger group of collaborators (around 45,000) joined Quisling’s fascist Nazi party, Nasjonal Samling.
Norway’s king, Haakon VII, and his government escaped to England in June 1940 after the Nazi invasion and established a government-in-exile in London to continue the fight, with Crown Prince Olav joining them from exile in America, which became a symbol of Norwegian resistance during the war. Some elements of Norwegian dissent helped Jews escape to neutral Sweden. But unlike the Danish King Christian X, who symbolically wore an armband with a Star of David as a gesture of identification with his country’s Jews, Norway’s King Haakon VII didn't issue a specific public call to save Jews during World War II.
According to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., approximately 1,800 Jews lived in Norway when Nazi Germany occupied the country in 1940. Some figures place the number of Jews in 1942 at 2,173. Beginning in November 1942, Norwegian Jews were deported, mostly to Auschwitz, where they were murdered. A total of 742 deportees, along with another 23 who were executed in extrajudicial executions, brought the number of murdered Jews to 765, representing between 35% to 45% of Norway’s Jews.
With less than a stellar record in the treatment of Jews during World War II, one would think that today’s Norway would be far more sensitive to the only democracy in the Middle East—namely, the Jewish state of Israel. Israel and Norway share not only democratic norms but many of the same freedoms, albeit under different and, in Israel’s case, difficult circumstances. Surrounded by Islamic fanatical terror groups such as Hamas to its west, Hezbollah to its north and the Islamic Republic of Iran to the northeast, Israel must protect freedoms while fighting for its survival. Unlike Norway and its Nordic neighbors, it is surrounded by societies with murderous religious intolerance seeking to wipe out the Jews of Israel, and if possible, Jews worldwide.
Hamas perpetrated the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust on Oct. 7, 2023. The Norwegian government, however, has refused to designate the Palestinian-led Hamas as a terrorist organization, despite the fact that the European Union and the United States have done so. In fact, Norway views Hamas as a legitimate political player and considers maintaining relations as part of its long-standing role in Middle East peace negotiations. Norway’s capital of Oslo was the site of the secret 1993 negotiations between the Palestinian Liberation Organization, led by its leader, Yasser Arafat, and Israel. Hamas, however, rejects any such negotiations with Israel and vows to repeat many more atrocities like those done on Oct. 7.
Norway called the subsequent Israeli military response to Hamas’s unprovoked incursion into Israel and cold-blooded massacre of 1,200 mostly innocent Israeli civilians “disproportionate” and a violation of international law. Apparently, the Norwegians who have not known incursion against their sovereignty and war since the Second World War cannot comprehend the meaning of self-defense. Israel’s actions were as justified as the Allied bombing of Nazi Germany during World War II and the U.S. response to Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, which killed nearly 3,000 Americans.
Norway today, along with the Republic of Ireland and Spain, is one of the most anti-Israel states in Europe. In May 2024, in the midst of the war in Gaza, Oslo announced its decision to recognize a “Palestinian state,” a move intended to support a two-state solution but, in essence, rewarded mass murderers and terrorists. Recognition is tacit approval of Hamas’s goal of destroying Israel. And while the Palestinian Authority uses more tactical diplomatic moves, its ultimate goal is the same—that of the liquidation of the Jewish state.
The actions of the Norwegian government helped to legitimize the significant pro-Palestinian demonstrations that took place in cities like Oslo and Bergen, where some participants expressed anti-Zionist and anti-Jewish sentiments, including chanting slogans and displaying symbols that were widely seen as supportive of Hamas or hostile to Israel.
Additionally, while many Western nations have suspended funding of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), Norway has insisted on continuing its financial support, despite findings of UNRWA’s complicity with Hamas and revelations by the United Nations itself that some of its staff participated in the Oct. 7 massacre and kidnapping of civilians in southern Israeli communities.
To add more fuel to the fire of Norwegian insensitivity, the Norwegian foreign ministry advised Norway’s King Harald V against sending official condolences to Israel and the victims of the terror attacks post-Oct. 7, citing the “political nature of the conflict.” It was a decision that caused controversy and was viewed by the Norwegian Jewish community as a second “betrayal,” the first being during World War II and the Holocaust.
Whether it is appeasement of Islamic groups or outright antisemitism, the behavior of Norway’s government is disgraceful. The leadership panders to terror while exhibiting hostility to a fellow democracy it owes a moral debt to in light of its Holocaust-related history.
