Resistance Museums in Sweden and Norway

We went to two military museums in Scandinavia, both good museums.

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The displays at the Brigadmuseum Värmlad (Värmland being the name of that region), near the Klarälven River in Karlstad, are presented in tribute to the Swedes who did their best to cope with the aftermath of World War II, during the troubled times of the Cold War. The museum also tries to answer the question VAD ÄR EN BRIGAD --- what is a brigade?

I was suffering from a painful back while touring this museum, having jarred a muscle, so I had to move gingerly and didn't take many notes. However, I was impressed by the many dioramas of the Swedish soldier's living conditions during his service from those days (late 1940s) to the end of the 20th century, and by the old photos.

Swedish point man on a bike, with blackened face

It was interesting to see how basic their mission was. Mass conscription was kept in place for fear of invasion by the Soviet Union (and conscription for both men and women is still in effect in this country). The Swedish infantry used skills acquired in the northern parts of their country to train what would effectively be guerrilla warfare, during the Cold War. They had dog-sledding squadrons that resembled detachments of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. While training in the summer season, they still kept things simple and appropriate to the rough terrain. For instance, cycling units were towed by tractors along the back country, gravel roads. A camouflaged soldier on a bike was the point man of his brigade. He and his eight man squad would be tasked with destroying the enemy's tanks; he'd be equipped with a signal pistol that would fire a red warning signal when contact had been made with an enemy tank, to say: "Pansar kommer!" Then the advance platoon would take up defensive positions. The cyclist would have anti-tank mines, loaded on his handlebars, which were to be laid across the road. As the enemy tank approached, they'd have to take cover by the roadside and fire rockets at it.

1950s Swedish conscript, off-duty

Even today, in case of invasion by a foreign power, Swedish people still receive pamphlets entitled "If a Crisis or War Comes" (based on the pamphlets of the mid 20th-century): Om krisen eller kriget kommer, distributed nationwide, including this (given here in translation):

Every statement that the resistance has ceased is false. Resistance shall be made all the time and in every situation. It depends on You - Your efforts, Your determination, Your will to survive. 

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The Akershus Resistance Museum, Oslo

The museum we toured at the 17th century Akershus fortress on the bluffs above Oslo harbour was called The Resistance Museum (in English) or Norges Hjemmefrontmuseum (in Norwegian, i.e. Norway's Home Front Museum), telling the story of Norwegians who had stood up to the Nazis and their supporters, most notably to Vidkun Quisling, during the 2nd World War.

At the start of the war, the German naval campaign in the northern seas involved high losses. Hitler had hoped that a short, sharp invasion of Norway would paralyse any resistance, yet the fighting lasted 62 days. Although the outcome was a "crushing defeat" for Norway, it sparked the resistance movement that was to be backed by the whole nation.

On April 9th, 1940, Quisling announced that he had taken control of the Norwegian government, declaring that resistance to German troops was henceforth to be designated a crime, and ordering the officers of the armed forces as well as civil servants to obey this law. In German, the declaration read:

Aufruf der Regierung an Volk und Wehrmacht, jeden Widerstand gegen die deutschen Truppen bei der Besetzung des Landes zu unterlassen.

A copy of this was pinned by the spike of a bayonet to a heap of guns near the entrance to the exhibition. It went on to demand "loyale Zusammenarbeit [...] mit den deutschen Befehlhabern" (= faithful cooperation with the German commanders). The German authorities were clearly uncertain about whether this would work, trying to enforce their improvisatory rules by means of bullying tactics, like insecure schoolboys playing games:

Zum Zeichen der Bereitschaft zur Zusammenarbeit ist auf den militärischen Anlagen, denen sich die Truppen nähern, neben der Nationalflagge die weisse Parlamentärflagge zu zeigen ...

Meaning: As a sign of willingness to cooperate, the military compounds which [German] troops approach must fly the white parliamentary flag alongside the national flag ...

I also found the following in the museum, headed UNDERGROUND:

Open resistance was the natural reaction of a community based on law. Norwegians, however, were soon forced to the conclusion that their struggle against a ruthless enemy would have to be organised in secret if it was to prove effective. This resistance was labelled "illegal" by the Germans. The Resistance movement proudly adopted this term: from now on, the eyes of all patriotic Norwegians, "illegal" received the cachet of legality.

In other words, normal civic obedience in such times of stress is turned upside down. Perhaps this has modern relevance!

Where the Norwegian merchant navy went in World War II

The attempted nazification of schools also failed. In the Autumn of 1940 the Nazi régime demanded that teachers teach propaganda. They refused to cooperate. A decree from Quisling in 1942 stated that all teachers must enrol in a National Socialist organisation. Again, the teaching profession resisted this pressure almost to a man. These rebels were supported by the church, the universities and by "hundreds of thousands" of Norwegian parents. Quisling consequentially closed down the schools, arresting every 10th teacher. Many were sent to forced labour camps in the harsh north, to remote Kirkenes on the Arctic coast.

The museum includes recordings of the heartening speeches made by Churchill to the British people in those dark days. In Norway too, courage was needed on both land and sea.

Model of camouflaged resistance quarters

Resistance posts were established in the forests, their prefabricated sleeping quarters camouflaged with branches on the roofs.

In January 1944, Quisling's so-called Minister of Justice proposed to the German Waffen-SS that 75,000 Norwegian troops be deployed with the German army on the Eastern Front. The Norwegian Nazis were therefore trying to get all able-bodied men born in 1921 and '22 to register "for work of national importance". The Norwegian resistance intercepted the proposal and planned a nationwide campaign to prevent this from happening, persuading "Labour Service" recruits to ignore the summons to report for service. Ordering these men into hiding, the Resistance destroyed the call-up premises in Oslo and sabotaged the register. In the end only a few hundred men were recruited.

At the end of the war, Quisling, whose name became synonymous with "traitor", got his comeuppance, being condemned and executed by firing squad at the place that had been his headquarters, here, at the Akershus Fortress. In another twist of historical irony, his family house eventually became Oslo's Holocaust Museum. His wife Maria survived until 1980.