For Americans, VE Day, May 7, 1945 was the end of the war in Europe. It would take a year or so to bring most of the US troops home and for the United States to embark on post-war growth and normalcy. In Europe, it was chaos. There were millions of displaced persons released from concentration camps or as enslaved labor far from their homes to rehome and bombed out cities, factories and railways to repair. In addition, there were efforts to make those responsible for mass murder and loss of liberties accountable. Often justice came swiftly through reprisals and quickie trials that ended in executed.
The German occupiers in Norway did not surrender until the day after VE Day, leaving the country to deal with the 360,000 German soldiers remaining, the return of Russian POWs to the Soviet Union, and rebuilding ports and infrastructure destroyed by Allied bombings and in some cases, Resistance actions. British and American troops augmented by Norwegian police groups trained in Sweden arrived immediately to maintain order. In addition, the same day that Germany surrendered on May 8, 1945, local Milorg groups swiftly acted to arrest and secure those Norwegian collaborators who had worked with the Germans both in civil positions and with the Gestapo.
One of the most sought after collaborators was Norwegian Henry Oliver Rinnan, a psychopath and narcissist whom the Gestapo recruited in the summer of 1940. He would form the group named Rinnanbanden, a group of men and women who worked their way into resistance groups throughout Sor-Trondelag, a county in the middle of Norway. In Trondheim, his headquarters, known as the Cloister, was a scene of horror and torture as nearly 1,000 British agents and Norwegians in the Resistance passed through. Several victims were murdered there or later died of their injuries in prison. So on May 8, Milorg rushed to arrest him, but he had fled to the Swedish border with some of his men and two hostages. He was eventually found and returned to face trial for his deeds.
Four years ago I went to Trondheim, Norway to do research for my novel, The Quisling Factor. I was exploring the effect of Rinnan’s organization on agents and civilians who suffered under it. I wanted to know in particular about Rinnan, Norway’s #2 war criminal. His trial was the most expensive trial in Norway for decades. Part of my mission was to meet with someone from the Justice Museum to help me understand the period that Norwegians called the Legal Purge that ran from the summer of 1945 to 1948. In addition in getting a tour of all the Rinnan hideout sites in the center of this wonderful town (with terrible Gestapo history) and a drive-by of the Cloister, a house still standing after these years, I spent four hours at the Justice Museum with police advisor, Knut Sieverson. He is well versed in Rinnan’s history and trial.
During my interview, I was allowed to handle the court documents and objects from the trial. It took six hours to read the sixty-plus indictments against Rinnan. Sieverson also told stories of agents who testified against him after suffering time in Rinnan’s Cloister. Several broke down on the stand. These recountings fit into the memoirs I read about people in the Norwegian Resistance who suffered PTSD after the war and my own storyline in The Quisling Factor. I also learned that Rinnan was given the best lawyer in Trondheim to defend. It goes back to Norway’s repulsion of how collaborators on the continent were often hung without trial. Norwegians wanted their legal system to be “inclusive.” Under German justice during the occupation only Germans and members of the NS (Norway’s Nazi party) could get a fair trial.
The Quisling Factor was published a year ago July. It’s out in ebook and paperback. I’m now raising funds for narrator Chris Humphreys to return to tell the story of life after liberation and the hunt for justice. See my Kickstarter Campaign which ends November 19, for details.
J. L. Oakley, November 15, 2021
