Hans Otto Frøland: „Nevhodný hospodářský vztah s nepřítelem“. Norsko po okupaci nacistickým Německem [“Improper economic relationship with the enemy”. Norway after Nazi Germany’s occupation], Dějiny a současnost, XLVI (2024), No. 6, pp 38–42
In the June issue of the journal Dějiny a současnost (“History and Present”), Prof. H. O. Frøland, head of the Norwegian segment of the project team, published an article presenting the results of his long-term research on economic cooperation with the occupiers in Norway during World War II
The article examines economic collaboration and its post-war legacy in Norway. During the purges following World War II, when Norway was invaded and occupied by Nazi Germany from April 9, 1940, to May 8, 1945, the Kingdom of Norway convicted 46,085 of its three million inhabitants for treason due to collaboration with the enemy. The vast majority were found guilty of politically and ideologically motivated treason. In contrast, only 3,355 citizens were convicted of economic treason, even though significant portions of Norway’s civilian economy had been integrated into the German war economy shortly after the invasion. This phenomenon, often referred to internationally as economic collaboration, represented a grey area that introduced ambiguity into the post-war legal purges
The extent of Norwegians’ economic collaboration with the enemy did not align well with this adopted narrative. The term “collaboration” was largely reserved for foreign contexts, particularly in reference to the French, and was not commonly used in Norwegian discourse. Instead, the national narrative referred to national treason (landssvik), which encompassed economic treason as well. While it did not challenge the adopted binary narrative, the discourse explicitly condemned war profits, which served as the primary criterion for penalizing economic collaboration.