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The Norwegian Resistance Movement During World War II

Test your knowledge about the Norwegian resistance movement during World War II with this engaging quiz. Explore key events, figures, and strategies that defined Norway's fight against German occupation.

#Norwegian history #World War II #Resistance movements #Military history #Scandinavian studies

1 In the mid-1980s it was revealed that ________ aided the Norwegian resistance movement with training and equipment in a series of camps along the Norwegian border.

2 The purpose of this was twofold: it counteracted ________, and it maintained nationalistic, anti-German feelings in the population at large.

3 Haakon VII of Norway Johan Nygaardsvold Carl Joachim Hambro ________ Otto Ruge Jens Christian Hauge

4 The more organized military defense and counter-attacks in parts of Western Norway and in ________, aimed at securing strategic positions and the evacuation of the government.

5 The Norwegian resistance also smuggled people in and out of Norway during the war, through Sweden or by fishing boats to ________ (referred to as the "Shetland bus").

6 Established by Arvid Storsveen, its members were students from the ________.

7 Anticipating German efforts to capture the government, the entire Norwegian parliament, the royal family, and cabinet hastily evacuated Oslo by train and car to Hamar and then on to ________, where an extraordinary session of parliament was called.

8 This involved, among other things, never speaking to a German if it could be avoided (many pretended to speak no German, though it was then almost as prevalent as English is now) and refusing to sit beside a German on ________.

9 Norwegian spotters aided in the destruction of numerous German ________, such as Bismarck and Tirpitz.

10 While stationed in ________, the government contributed Norwegian forces to the Allied effort and ordered the Norwegian Merchant Fleet to assist in transportation.

💡 Interesting Facts

  • before becoming a professor of the sociology of law, Vilhelm Aubert was a member of the Norwegian anti-Nazi resistance group XU.
  • after the German occupants shut down several underground newspapers in Norway in February 1944, Bulletinen was the only one remaining with contacts to the leadership of the civil resistance.
  • Per Jacobsen, a Norwegian resistance member who died in Natzweiler, was twice national champion in figure skating in the interwar period.
  • Odd Øyen, active in Norway's WWII resistance, later became the first non-Swede in many years to be decorated with the Order of Vasa for participation in the Congo Crisis.
  • during World War II, Richard Andvord conducted illegal resistance work through the company Rich. Andvord, founded in 1865 by his ancestor of the same name.
  • during the German occupation of Norway, Astrid Løken combined entomological field research with secret photography for the resistance group XU.
  • the monogram of King Haakon VII of Norway, H7, became a resistance symbol during the Second World War.
  • the SOE assassination operation Bittern received severe criticism from the Norwegian resistance movement.
  • the 1943 sinking by Allied aircraft of the Hurtigruten passenger ship SS Sanct Svithun (pictured) led to protests by the Norwegian resistance movement.
  • Jens Boyesen, who in his early twenties was a secretary in the Norwegian resistance movement, later went on to become a top diplomat.
  • Jan Birger Jansen, Johan Scharffenberg and Sven Arntzen, all with background in the Norwegian resistance movement, were later members of the National Association for Referendum.
  • Norwegian historian Tore Pryser has criticised the perceived importance of Norwegian resistance members during World War II.
  • Milorg resistance member Osmund Faremo later served as member of the national parliament and local mayor for the Norwegian Labour Party.
  • Max Manus referred to the release of Norwegian resistance member Kolbein Lauring from Grini concentration camp in 1943 as a "miraculous mistake" by the German authorities.
  • Norwegian resistance fighter Gregers Gram conducted several sabotage missions together with Max Manus, before being killed in an ambuscade in 1944.
  • anti-Nazi resistance fighter Joar Olsen once escaped apprehension by claiming that he drove a Red Cross truck.
  • Gunvald Tomstad, a double agent for Norwegian resistance in World War II, acted as a local "ideologist" of the Fascist party Nasjonal Samling.
  • Edvard Welle-Strand, father of the anti-Nazi resistance fighter Erling Welle-Strand, was an anti-Semitic writer especially active in the 1910s and 1920s.
  • Carl Platou was dismissed from the Ministry of Justice and the Police for listening to a Norwegian resistance radio broadcast in his office.
  • 29 Norwegian civilians were shot in reprisal by the Nazi regime in Norway following the Norwegian resistance's assassination of police chief Karl Marthinsen in February of 1945.
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