History - Norway - page 946

» The German Invasion of Norway, April 1940, Geirr H Haarr
The Germans exacted bitter revenge on the local populace and among the civilian casu-
alties were 630 Norwegian Jews who were sent to central European concentration camps.
Serbian and Russian prisoners of war were coerced into slave labour on construction pro-
jectsinNorway,andmanyperishedfromthecoldandaninadequatediet.Thehighnumber
of worker fatalities during the construction of the Arctic Highway through the Saltfjellet
inspired its nickname, the blodveien (blood road).
HEADING INTO EXILE
When German forces invaded Norway in April 1940, King Haakon and the Norwegi-
an government fled northwards from Oslo. They halted in Elverum and on 9 April
the parliament met at the folk high school and issued the Elverum Mandate, giving
the exiled government the authority to protect Norway's interests until the parliament
could reconvene. When a German messenger arrived to impose the Nazis' version of
'protection' in the form of a new puppet government in Oslo, the king rejected the
'offer' before heading into exile. Two days later, Elverum became the first Norwegi-
an town to suffer massive bombing by the Nazis and most of the town's old wooden
buildings were levelled. By then the king had fled to Nybergsund (close to Trysil),
which was also bombed, but he escaped into exile.
Finnmark suffered particularly heavy destruction and casualties during the war. In
Altafjorden and elsewhere, the Germans constructed submarine bases, which were used to
attack convoys headed for Murmansk and Arkhangelsk in Russia, so as to disrupt the sup-
ply of armaments to the Russians.
In early 1945, with the Germans facing an escalating two-front war and seeking to delay
theRussianadvanceintoFinnmark,theGermanforcesadoptedascorched-earthpolicyand
devastated northern Norway, burning fields, forests, towns and villages. Shortly after the
German surrender of Norway, Quisling was executed by firing squad and other collaborat-
ors were sent off to prison.