The Norwegian resistance to the occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany began after Operation Weserübung in 1940 and ended in 1945. It took several forms:
Milorg was the main Norwegian resistance movement during World War II. Resistance work included intelligence gathering, sabotage, supply-missions, raids, espionage, transport of goods imported to the country, release of Norwegian prisoners and escort for citizens fleeing the border to neutral Sweden.
XU was a clandestine intelligence organisation working on behalf of Allied powers in occupied Norway during World War II. Though its work proved invaluable for operations against German operations in Norway, most of its operations, organization, etc., were kept secret until 1988.
Kai Christian Middelthon Holst was a Norwegian seaman, fur farmer and resistance fighter during World War II. When the leadership of Milorg was torn up by the Gestapo in 1942, he acquired a leading role in the organisation and participated in re-establishing the central leadership of Milorg together with Jens Christian Hauge. Holst had to flee Norway in the autumn of 1943 and stayed in Sweden until the liberation of Norway in 1945.
The occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany during the Second World War began on 9 April 1940 after Operation Weserübung. Conventional armed resistance to the German invasion ended on 10 June 1940, and Nazi Germany controlled Norway until the capitulation of German forces in Europe on 8 May 1945. Throughout this period, a pro-German government named Den nasjonale regjering ruled Norway, while the Norwegian king Haakon VII and the prewar government escaped to London, where they formed a government in exile. Civil rule was effectively assumed by the Reichskommissariat Norwegen, which acted in collaboration with the pro-German puppet government. This period of military occupation is, in Norway, referred to as the "war years", "occupation period" or simply "the war".
The legal purge in Norway after World War II took place between May 1945 and August 1948 against anyone who was found to have collaborated with the German occupation of the country. Several thousand Norwegians and foreign citizens were tried and convicted for crimes committed in Scandinavia during World War II. However, the scope, legal basis, and fairness of these trials has since been a matter of some debate. A total of 40 people—including Vidkun Quisling, the self-proclaimed and Nazi-supported Minister President of Norway during the occupation—were executed after capital punishment was reinstated in Norway. Thirty-seven of those executed were executed under Norwegian law, while the other three were executed under Allied military law.
In Operation Doomsday, the British 1st Airborne Division acted as a police and military force during the Allied occupation of Norway in May 1945, immediately after the victory in Europe during the Second World War. The division maintained law and order until the arrival of the remainder of Force 134, the occupation force. During its time in Norway, the division was tasked with supervising the surrender of the German forces in Norway, as well as preventing the sabotage of vital military and civilian facilities.
Karl Alfred Nicolai Marthinsen was the Norwegian commander of Statspolitiet and Sikkerhetspolitiet in Norway during the Nazi occupation during World War II.
Frank Olsen was a Norwegian resistance member who was executed during the occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany.
Storm Willads Weinholdt was a Norwegian resistance member who was executed during the occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany.
Einar Olav Christiansen Dønnum was a Norwegian Nazi collaborator who was executed during the legal purge in Norway after World War II.
Kolbein Widrik Lauring was a Norwegian resistance member during World War II.
Oskar Hasselknippe was a Norwegian newspaper editor. He is known for his work in the Norwegian resistance movement and as editor of Verdens Gang during its swift ascent among Norwegian newspapers.
Roy Nielsen was a Norwegian resistance member during World War II, a member of Milorg and involved in propaganda and sabotage. Among his sabotage operations was the destruction of 25 Messerschmitt fighter aircraft and 150 engines stored in a bus garage in Oslo, on 14 August 1944, together with Max Manus, Gunnar Sønsteby and others. Together with Max Manus he succeeded in sinking the German troop ship SS Donau in the Oslofjord 16 January 1945, by placing magnetic limpet mines with time delay on the ship's side.
The Quisling regime, or Quisling government are common names used to refer to the fascist collaboration government led by Vidkun Quisling in German-occupied Norway during the Second World War. The official name of the regime from 1 February 1942 until its dissolution in May 1945 was Den nasjonale regjering. Actual executive power was retained by the Reichskommissariat Norwegen, headed by Josef Terboven.
Odd Toralf Øyen was a Norwegian resistance member and anaesthesiological physician.
Hirden was a uniformed paramilitary organisation during the occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany, modelled the same way as the German Sturmabteilungen.
Terje Rollem was a Norwegian oberst and officer in Milorg during the German occupation of Norway. He is best known for assuming command of Akershus Fortress from the German occupiers at the end of the Second World War.
Statspolitiet was from 1941 to 1945 a National Socialist armed police force that consisted of Norwegian officials after Nazi German pattern. It operated independently of the ordinary Norwegian police. The force was established on 1 June 1941 during the German occupation of Norway. The initiative for the force came from the later chief Karl Marthinsen and other prominent members of the collaborationist party Nasjonal Samling. At its peak, in 1944 there were 350 employees in Statspolitiet, in addition to a larger number who collaborated or rendered services for them.
Olav Aspheim was a Norwegian member of the fascist party Nasjonal Samling, volunteer front fighter for the 5th SS Panzer Division Wiking and Statspolitiet constable who was sentenced to death and shot after World War II.
