Seraphic Secret has written here and here about Norwegian films we admire.
But we also recognize that Norway is one of the most anti-Semitic countries in the world. One has to wonder about the national character of a land where Jews and Israel are demonized, and IslamoNazis are given a pass.
Here’s a fascinating article about the Jews of Norway by Leif Knutsen from The Times of Israel.
In the cold, dark mist of the afternoon of Nov. 26, 1942, the SS Donau sailed out of the Oslofjord with 532 unwilling passengers. They were Jews, robbed of all their earthly possessions, kidnapped and imprisoned, on their way to the Polish port of Stettin, from which they would be transported to Auschwitz-Birkenau. All but nine were murdered there. There were other such deadly transports before and after, but the Donau was the largest.
In the early fall of 1942, there were about 2,100 Jews in Norway. Of these, about 780 were killed in the Holocaust. Norway’s Nazi occupiers initiated the genocidal program as directed by the Wannsee Conference, but it was the country’s Quisling regime, aided by Norwegian ”security police,” that implemented it: Only after the Jews had been brought to the pier in Oslo were they delivered into German custody. With a few brave exceptions, most Norwegians stood by as their Jewish neighbors disappeared.
Those Jews who had the means fled and found temporary homes, primarily in Sweden, but also in the United Kingdom and elsewhere. A disproportionately high number of Norwegian Jews volunteered for military and clandestine work for the Allied war effort, which they served with distinction.
Following the war, it took several years for Norwegian Jews to return to their country. The much-heralded White Buses program did not compile or present a list of Jewish Norwegians to Himmler or camp commanders, and those few Jews from Norway who walked out of the camps had to find their own way home. Many of the stateless Jewish refugees who fled to Sweden in the 1930s were refused re-entry into Norway after the war. Others were reluctant to attempt to reclaim stolen property or rebuild a community in shambles. Many families have yet to return, and probably never will.
Oslo and Trondheim’s synagogues and Jewish community centers are among the most heavily fortified buildings in Norway.
[Read more…] about The Jews of Norway: Past, Present and No Future
