Church Resistance to Nazism in Norway, 1940-1945

17. Between the Times

229 Chapter 17 Between the Times At a Crossroads Between 20 June 1942, when the PCL announced its formation, and 13 May 1943, when Hope and Hallesby were arrested, the PCL had led the church through historic changes: it had established an autonomous church, disentangled the church from the state, built an effective administration , undermined the NS state church, and protested the deportation of Jews and compulsory labor service; it had also lost its best known leaders. At the same time, its reputation abroad had never been higher: in a radio address to Nazi Germany on 1 June 1943, the German Lutheran theologian Paul Tillich observed that among churches in occupied Europe it “is particularly the Norwegian church that has offered, and is still offering, resistance.”1 But the church was at a crossroads, facing decisions that were related to the larger course of the war. After Stalingrad After Stalingrad, in the first half of 1943, the Soviets went on the offensive , but on the Western Front the tide did not turn until the second half of the year. In July, British and American troops landed in Sicily, and in September they invaded the Italian mainland and fought their way northward . From British airfields, Allied bombers penetrated deep into Germany , destroying factories and razing cities. Confident of victory, the 230 · Holding Out Allies entered into agreements on postwar cooperation, but not until the early summer of 1944 were they ready to open a western front. When they did, it was Germany’s turn to be taken by surprise. On the morning of 6 June 1944, Major Werner Pluskat peered through the narrow slits of his bunker overlooking Omaha Beach in Normandy, France. Facing him on the seas of the English Channel were hundreds upon hundreds of ships, as far as his eye could see, moving directly toward him. At that moment, he had a single thought: “This is the end for Germany.”2 Without Germany’s knowledge, the Allies had mobilized the largest invasion fleet in history. Final victory, however, was not as swift as the Allies expected. Germany had nine million men in uniform, the Allied advance was slow, and the German army had its own surprise in store. On 16 December 1944, the Wehrmacht counterattacked in the Ardennes, a forested region covering parts of France, Belgium, and Luxembourg, catching the Allies off guard. The Battle of the Bulge ended in late January, delaying the Allied crossing of the Rhine until March 1945, much later than the Allied Supreme Command originally thought. In Norway, uncertainty about the outcome of the war turned in early 1943 to confidence in Allied victory, and by the fall Quisling himself accepted that Germany would be defeated.3 In May 1944, he warned the public that Germany’s downfall meant a “new and worse” Bolshevik occupation, the end of Norway.4 Many in his own party had also ceased to believe and joined the so-called “rowing club” out of the party. Those who remained split into nationalist and pan-Germanic factions. The NS was fragmenting. As Germany weakened in late 1943, the British began to bomb selected targets in Norway, including the heavy water production plant in Rjukan, and the British Special Operations Executive expanded sabotage operations against shipping, industry, and railroads. Despite severe setbacks , Milorg increased its recruitment and training, built up arms caches, and carried out selective acts of sabotage.5 The “Secret Church Leadership” The beginning of the end of the church struggle may be dated to 13 May 1943, when Terboven arrested Hallesby and Hope. The most profound Between the Times · 231 impact of the arrests may have been on the their large following in the church and the mission societies. In his report to the Gestapo, Vilhelm H. Günther observed that the Christian community interpreted their arrests as outright persecution of Christianity.6 The arrest of its leaders forced the PCL to reconstitute itself as a secret organization. Leadership fell to Johannes Ø. Dietrichson, an Oslo assistant pastor and chair of the Council of Autonomous Organizations. Anticipating the possibility of arrest, Hallesby and Hope had recommended two replacements cut from their own cloth: Andreas Seierstad, an associate professor of church history at the Free Faculty of Theology, and Tormod Vågen, Secretary General of the China Mission Association. Rounding out the group were Ragnvald Indrebø, assistant pastor of the Jacob Church in Oslo; Ludwig Schübeler, assistant pastor of Frogner Church in Oslo; Johannes Smemo, Principal of the...