A new generation | NS antisemittism | Alte kameraden | Jewhate and freemason paranoia | No remorse from Myklestad
In recent months, Searchlight‘s Norwegian sister magazine Monitor
has conducted an in-depth investigation of background of the so-called
Institute for Norwegian Occupation History (INO), and the still active war-time
nazis who stand behind it.
In the INO, approval of revisionism and “understanding”
of war-time traitor Vidkun Quisling‘s collaboration with the invading Nazis,
continues to run in tandem with anti-Semitism.
The real history of the INO * began just after the war when former members of the Norwegian Nazi party (Nasjonal Samling - NS) formed a network of veterans‘ clubs in a bid to salvage something from their shattered organisation and discredited ideology.
One of these nazis, the teacher Nils Vikdal, produced the stencil Skolenytt
( “Schoolnews”) which later turned into the still-published newspaper Folk
og Land ** (People and
Country).
The purpose of this activity in the first place was to re-open treason cases
from the immediate post-war period after the war. These cases, in which
Norwegian fascists and collaborators were punished for the assistance given
to the Germans, were described by the nazis lawsuits as “court-settlements”.
The campaign, aimed at clearing the names of traitors was organised through the "Sambandet for sosialoppreisning" (Union for Social Rehabilitation). Because the organisation‘s prime aim was to get treason verdicts overturned, the old nazi network steered clear of active involvement in everyday politics in Norway but maintained very close links with the post-war international fascist network.
Top luminaries in these circles, including the Swedish fascist Per Engdahl, the Austrian former SS commando Otto Skorzeny and the Belgian SS-general Leon Degrelle were all numbered among the good friends of the Norwegian war-time traitors while, at the same time, Union‘s members participated secretly in international nazi-assemblies, including the so-called Malmö International and the European Social Movement. Norwegian nazi exiles in Sweden and South-America were also to be found helping out with cash and political links.
These nazis, who were waiting for better days, got their first real good
news in two decades when, in the 1960s, a new generation of right-wing extremists
emerged. Some of these rightists were ultra-liberal and right wing radicals
who later drifted into political passivity or joined more conformist ultra
right-wing parties like the Fremskrittspartiet (Progress Party).
Others, the “activists”, had more important goals and a bigger agenda than
could be addressed by hiding inside the political mainstream. The most important
among those who chose to be RactiveS are today visible as key figures men
in the fascist scene, both in Norway and internationally, men like Erik
Rune Hansen, today‘s leader of Norges nasjonalsosialistiske bevegelse
(NNSB, formerly Zorn 88), Olav Hoaas who has been convicted for racism and,
of course, Erik Blücher, formerly the leader of the nazi Norsk Front
(Norwegian Front) and today a big wheel in the merchandising of nazi hate
music.
These people made some of their formative political contacts amongst the
old nazis. In the office of The Union for Social Rehabilitation the young
fascists were able to receive political training and support from the nazi
old guard which saw them as the repository of great hopes for the future.
Those who oversaw this training were the former chief of staff of the Norwegian
nazi militia Orvar Sæther and the former editor of the nazi
war-time newspaper Fritt Folk Odd Melsom.
By 1975, the Union for Social Rehabilitation had outlived its usefulness
and was dissolved. In its place, the Institute for Norwegian Occupation
History (INO) was formed.
INO was not the only new right-wing extremist group to surface in that
year. At the same time, Erik Blcher appeared on the scene with Norsk Front
cheered on by the war-time nazis in the INO. At the start, Erik Rune Hansen
was both in the leadership of Norsk Front and an editor of Folk og land.
Later INO and Norwegian Front drew apart, partly as a tactical manoeuvre,
and partly because of disagreements among the war-time nazis despite Folk
og land‘s assurances that they were all still good friends.
Some of the war-time nazis remained in Blücher‘s Norsk Front, while
others worked through the extreme right-wing pressure group, Frie Folkevalgte,
led by Vera Grønlund. This outfit later became the Frihetspartiet
mot EU-unionen (Freedom Party against the EU).
Generally, though, the old war-time nazis who were backing the Norsk Front
agreed with and shared Blücher‘s dreams and hopes of parliamentary
success. The most well-known of these where SS-veteran Ole Darbu (see
separate article), Nils Andreas Nilsen, who would later be convicted
for racism and Asbjørn I. Bru who wrote a book denying the Holocaust.
After several failed attempts to get the Norsk Front registered as a legal
party, they gave up and looked around for other parties to influence. In
1976, the nazi old guard mounted a takeover bid in the Ensliges parti (The
Singles Party), but were thrown out. Undeterred, in 1979 they attempted
to promote a election candidates` list with a tiny party called Norges Demokratiske
parti (Norwegian Democratic Party), but failed because of bureaucratic
errors.
In that same year, however, there was an event that dramatically
deepened the rifts between the generations. Norwegian nazi and Norsk Front
member Petter Kristian Kyvik bombed the May Day demonstration in Oslo, forcing
INO to try instantly to renounce Norsk Front and to deny its former role
as political "midwife" to the younger nazis.
Ever since then, the old nazis have kept a low profile towards the younger extremists. Nevertheless, they do crop up from time to time on the election-lists of hard core racist and anti-immigration organisations like Hvit valgallianse, Fedrelandspartiet or the Nasjonaldemokratene. The SS-veteran Arne Grønlund Borgir (see separate article) was the leader of one such organisation called “Help the aliens home, or we‘ll lose our country”.
After all their strenuous efforts to nurture a new generation of nazis,
1980s was distressing for the old nazis. Most of the Norsk Front members
had dropped out and the nazis revival was quickly discredited through a
series of shootings and bombings. The circulation of Folk og land plummeted,
their financial situation was so dismal that, by the beginning of the 1990s,
they were forced to sell their run-down and shabby premises at Oslo‘s east-end
for only 12,000 pounds.
Then, suddenly, something happened. An old war-time nazi
Rolf Ingebrigtsen gave them access to a property he owned in Tiedemannsgate
4, in one of Oslo‘s most expensive and fashionable areas. Ingebrigtsen
had inherited the premises from his extremely anti-Semitic uncle Eugene
Nilsen. After Ingebrigtsen‘s death his widow let them stay in the premises.
In the same period money started to roll in from other sources. A
foundation, Norsk okkupasjonhistorie (Norwegian Occupation History), was
formed, handing out scholarships to students researching WW2.
INO also fostered contact with several writers who helpfully
gave its version of Norwegian history. INO wrote in its internal bulletin
INO-nytt no. 3,94/95 that the organisation “has achieved useful concrete
results by pointing out our views in different connections. We here refer
partly to long-term projects”. By this the old nazis meant enterprises like
the foundation that they had established.
The results of this more low profile and more cautious approach has become
visible in recent years. There are several books on the market presenting
nazi facts and conclusions but with enormous errors and factual holes in
them. These publications carry the very evident fingerprints of INO.
After a long career at the different publishing companies
the INO activist Einar Rustad had Quisling‘s book Russland og vi (Russia
and ourselves) published. To have printed it with a preface by distinguished
History professor Hans Fredrik Dahl was a massive success for INO.
Coincidentally, Rustad is one of the most active writers
in Folk og land, but he is not easily recognised because he uses seven different
pseudonyms. One of his pen-names is Hans Olavsen which he uses for
book reviews.
Another book published from INO circles is Refleksjoner etter 50 år,
(Reflections after 50 years) by Hans Gervik. The book is just one big attempt
at a rewrite of Norway‘s wartime history. The literary quality of the book
is abysmal, and the nazis had problems getting it published. In the end,
it was published by Trans forlag in Hafslundøy . Behind this publishing
company is SS-veteran and Folk og land writer Håkon Glosli.
As time goes on, the old Quislings are become fewer and weakened by age
and sickness. They are now seeking worthy inheritors. As early as
the start of the 1990s they recognised this pressing problem and tried to
resolve it by running historical discussion groups for young people through
INO‘s youth-office Helge Sæther.
Sæther did manage to gather some teenagers at INO,
but we know little of the results except that, coincidentally, Rune Hansen‘s
Zorn 88 recruited some schoolkids at the same time.
The children of war-time Norwegian nazis were treated in a disgraceful
way. This is one of the darkest chapters in post-war Norwegian history.
Many of the children suffered harassment and were often held responsible
for their parents‘ crimes.
Some of them formed the Foreningen av norske NS-barn (the Union for Norwegian
NS-children), having explicitly decided not to work with INO. Instead, the
group works as a support group for those struggling with the after-effects
of their parents‘ choices. To rival this group, which it cannot control,
INO have therefore formed its own “children’s group” led by an aggressive
medical doctor from Skien, Inger Cecilie Stridsklev.
Ms Stridsklev has presented herself as a scientist and delivered a report
on the liquidations by the anti-fascist resistance movements during
the war. To nobody‘s surprise, her report concluded that the resistance
killed at least twice as other sources claims. Stridsklev‘s report is extremely
defective. and looking closer at its author we find her to be one of INO‘s
younger activists, and a spokeswoman for the grotesquely misnamed “Institute”.
She has infamously claimed that Quisling‘s nazi party was not anti-Semitic.
Last year, on 28 October 1997, when the old guard
met to honour Quisling‘s memory, they gathered at Stridsklev’s home, no
doubt, for a touching ceremony. Stridsklev is an active participant
at all SS-veterans celebrations, wearing both an original NS-member‘s badge
and a star of David! At these gatherings, she hands out her invitations
for Rmeetings of friendsS of the NS-children and encourages the old nazis
to invite the young.
Her endeavours have, to date, shown little success but despite the fact that her soires attract few visitors ,the atmosphere is said to be good with the gatherings lasting into the late hours. Recordings of old speeches are played and the songs heard and sung. Those taking part get free literature, too: Gjallarhorn,the magazine of the NNSB, is mailed to them from Poland where presumably the leader of NSB Erik Rune Hansen is present.
Stridsklev is also fond of the postal system, indefatigably mailing hundreds
of invitation letters for “meeting of friends”. Most of the addresses
are derived from INO‘s extensive archives. The costs of this activity
must be high, and, even though Norwegian doctors are well paid, outside
contributions must be helping Stridsklev‘s work.
One of the key contributors is a man called Petter Kahrs
who lives in Argentina and has already given several hundred pounds to the
“meeting of friends”. Kahrs is no ordinary Norwegian expatriate but is the
son of big war-time nazi and SS-officer Sofus Kahrs from Bergen.
Sofus Kahrs escaped from imprisonment and left with ten other traitors
for Argentina in the boat Solbris for a life in Argentina‘s Norwegian nazi
colony. Petter Kahrs has defended his father‘s actions during WW2
in several newspaper interviews, describing SS-volunteers as “men fighting
for what they believed in”.
In a newspaper debate concerning INO‘s NS-children related “meeting of friends,”
an ex-participant labelled INO as vampires sucking blood from their children.
If this will give the old enough strength to hand over Quisling‘s legacy
is uncertain. Stridsklev and her bogus children‘s group are not the only
ones active. Other and more political forces are ready and waiting to reap
the harvest that Quisling sowed.
A new generation | NS antisemittism | Alte kameraden | Jewhate and freemason paranoia | No remorse from Myklestad
A whole range of nazi groups and circles are candidates are competing to inherit the mantle of the war-time nazis. Among them are those around the magazine Alternativt samfunn and Norges Patriotiske Enhetsparti (NPE), led by Knut Westland.
The INO is wise enough to not to put all its cards on a single would-be
crown prince or group and it possible to see the emergence of an axis of
different persons and groups. The biggest contender, though, is the NPE.
NPE founder and leader Knut Westland is a very busy man. He is a captain
in the Norwegian army‘s supply corps and was a founder of the notoriously
racist FMI (Peoples movement against immigration).
With his companion from the FMI, Vilfred Hansen and Fritt Forum‘s Lillian
Evant, he attempted two years ago to form a Norwegian pagan Aasa-belief
society but the government refused to recognise this gang of Odin worshippers
as a genuine religious society. At the start of the 1990s, he set up the
fascist NPE.
The NPE, which promotes territorial claims against Sweden, is ultra nationalistic.
It is also rather bizarre. To quote its political programme:
“Nationalism is the only one of our political “isms” to take its starting
point in nature and natural law. It is instructive to watch nature.
Most animals, birds and fishes do the same, but of course in different
ways.
They mark their boundaries or area and protect this until they must leave
as a result of a superior force. Even plants do the same. We therefore think
we are in good company in wanting to protect Norway for the Norwegian people.”
Westland‘s party also fights against battery farming for hens, calls
for the death penalty and demands more Norwegian march-music in the radio.
Some people merely believe Westland to be a oddball but this is not entirely true. The NPE has supporters from the old INO milieu, and some former members of the now defunct nazi Norsk Front/Nasjonalt Folkeparti as well some members from the current NNSB. Among those with especially good relations with NPE is the former Norsk Front activist and former comrade of Erik Blücher, Tor Petter Hadland.
At the same time as declaring a open and aggressive nationalism, the NPE‘s
political programme does not openly advocate racial theories and white supremacy.
It is full of allusions in addition to an uncompromising resistance
to immigration. In an “ABC for young patriots” the NPE writes under the
headline “Who is against us?”: "Our real enemies, those who are also
directly and indirectly behind immigration to Norway and Europe, those managing
the international banking and finance-worldIIt is those people who are behind
the so-called money-market, living off speculations and usury. We refer
to them with the common-title “bankers.”
The parallells to the anti-Jewish hate propaganda of
Hitler‘s Nazis are obvious. For the war-time nazi old guard, this
attempt to give the nazi message acceptable sound is very welcome and Westland
gets a lot of credit from them for his efforts.
In the small town of Elverum sits Westland‘s main future rivals for
credibility, cash and the old nazi franchise. From his bunker there, Even
Lorch-Falch publishes a weird magazine called Alternativt Samfunn (Alternative
Society).
The magazine, whose self-proclaimed heritage originates in Bertram Dybwad
Brocmann‘s cranky Samfunnsparti (Society Party) in the 1930s, is full
of strange anecdotes. It covers articles on alternative teaching theories,
the use of amalgam in dentistry and could form a united front with the NPE
on the question of caged hens. It also contains a lot of excruciatingly
bad poetry and rambles on about the use of force within psychiatry.
In between all this trash however, can be found contributions by well-known
racists like Olav Hoaas and rabid historical revisionists like Ola Misvær.
Significantly, the war-time Norwegian nazi party‘s propaganda chief
in Oslo, Ørnulf Myklestad also pens articles for writes in
Alternativt samfunn.
Alternativt samfunn likes to pose as a journal that challenges
accepted ideas and offers a so-called “Heresy Prize” to those whose articles
are outrageous enough to merit such a reward. The farmer Sigurd Lyngstad
from the west coast is one of the recipients of the RHeresy PrizeS. In addition
to his articles in Alternativt samfunn, Lyngstad also writes the nazi NNSB‘s
magazine Gjallarhorn. Lyngstad‘s own publication Tenk selv (Think
for your self), which mounts vitriolic attacks on the European Union-system
is promoted by the NPE.
Another eager author is Rolv Olsen from Tolga, former editorial secretary in Folk og land . He is one of the most insistent defenders of the war-time nazis, and is especially occupied with research about the sole case of fighting between the Norwegian Waffen SS and the Norwegian resistance in Eggedal during the war. He frequently brags about alleged meetings of INO with WW2 resistance veterans. We assume that he is referring to the well-known opponent of immigration and would-be parliamentarian, Erik Gjems Onstad. Onstad, who was in the resistance, has also been defence lawyer in a number of cases against known criminals on the extreme right.
Various writers from Folk og land also write in Alternativt samfunn. A
prominent example is Inger Cecilie Stridsklev, who specialises in historical
revisionism. In one article she makes her own definition of the concept
of “liquidation” citing the example of a political prisoner who, after escaping
from starvation and torture by two men, shoots himself. Stridsklev asks
if his freedom was more worth than the lives of the torturers who were shot
during his escape.
Vilfred Hansen, the author of the NPE‘s economic programme figured for a
while period in the editorial staff of Alternativt Samfunn, and the magazine
printed a long article praising the NPE was printed. Party führer,
Knut Westland then ordered thousand copies to use as recruiting material.
It is in these muddy waters that the tired old nazis of INO are fishing
to find worthy inheritors. Inger Cecilie Stridsklev can play the role of
open revisionist while Alternativt samfunn can be the place to say those
things that cannot be said in the rather the old fashioned and staid Folk
og land. Westland, on the other hand, is beavering away to build an extremist
party liberally garnished with democratic phrases in the forlorn hope of
restoring honour and credit to Quisling.
A new generation | NS antisemittism | Alte kameraden | Jewhate and freemason paranoia | No remorse from Myklestad
The history of the Quisling movement‘s antisemitism is a major problem for these fascists. In addition to claiming ludicrously that German attacks and general warfare were liquidations perpetrated by the Norwegian resistance, Inger Cecilie Stridsklev exert herself frantically to whitewash NS.
In an article in the Oslo paper Aftenposten at the turn of the year, Stridsklev claimed tha Quisling‘s Nasjonal Samling (NS) was not anti-Semitic. She also asserted that Quisling was one of the Norwegians to “save” most Jews. Because some might naively accept this, we will take a closer look at her claims.
In the book Den norske nasjonalssosialismen (Norwegian National
Socialism) by Dahl, Hagtvedt and Hjeltnes, it is emphasised that the NS
did not get much political support before the war as a result of its anti-Semitism.
Several leading members left NS, finding the persecution of the Jews to
be an unbearable political strain. But antisemitism there was a-plenty.
One of the party‘s founders, J.B.. Hjort, made this clear in a political
lecture in 1934: “Anyone just seeing the faces of those people today
leading Russia, will immediately see that this people belongs to an inferior
race, mainly from those Mongolian and Semitic races, which have not anywhere
been able to build or restore an independent national-state.”
One of the most extreme exponents of anti-Semitism in NS was Mrs. Halldis
Neegård Østby, the editor of NS-magazine Fritt
Folk (Free people). Østby was also - unusual for a woman to reach
such prominence at the time - the party‘s propaganda leader.
She wrote the book Jødenes krig (The JewsU War)
claiming the Jews to be responsible for all wrongs in the world. Oslo NS‘s
propaganda leader, Ørnulf Myklestad is one of the worst Norwegian
anti-Semites ever and he is still, despite his advanced years, an active
nazi.
The claim that traitor Quisling was a saviour for the Jews originates from
his defence speech in court. This referred to Quislings work as Fridtjof
Nansen’s co-worker in Russia and Armenia in the 1920s, and had nothing to
do with Quisling‘s actions and ideas after the foundation of the Nasjonal
Samling.
Anyone reading Nasjonal Samling (NS’s) publications from after 1935 can
only consider the NS to have been a virulently antisemitic party.
The only conclusion we can draw, therefore, is that either Stridsklev has
not read all the most obvious books and publications or she chooses
to ignore the facts and present lies as truth. This is enough to label her
as a 24-carat historical revisionist.
A new generation | NS antisemittism | Alte kameraden | Jewhate and freemason paranoia | No remorse from Myklestad
There exists a myriad of different “veterans” associations for former Waffen SS-members. Many of the latter are very camera shy but there are also some which have nothing against posing for the pictures while holding their commemorations.
Kameradenwerk Korps Steiner (KKS) *** is one of the more clandestine of the associations, in its own eyes, the elite among former soldiers of the SS. The KKS organises soldiers who fought under the SS general Felix Steiner, one of Hitler‘s favourites.
In Hitler‘s fantasies, Steiner was the general who would rescue besieged Berlin in the days of April and May 1945 and turn the tide of imminent defeat. The deranged and drugged Fhrer was not aware that Steiner’s Panzerkorps was by then no more than a few hundred ragged and badly equipped soldiers.
In 1951, German SS-veterans formed the organisation HIAG, led by ex-SS
general Paul Hausser together with Felix Steiner and Herbert Gille. HIAG
was to become a very successful lobbying group for Germany‘s most dedicated
nazi soldiers. It organised a service to search for missing soldiers, and
a very strong relief fund.
One of its biggest successes came when former SS-soldiers
were awarded official war pensions, with additional payment from the
day the war ended, by the German government.
HIAG, now officially dissolved, published the magazine Der Freiwillige, a publication full of militaristic nostalgia. The cover of the still published magazine is always printed, appropriately, in the colours of national socialism P red, black and white P and leaves no doubt about its politics.
When Felix Steiner died in 1966, Kameradenwerk Korps Steiner was formed. It soon had members in Germany, The Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, the Baltic states and Norway. The highlight in the KKS calendar is the three day reunion in Germany every second April but members of the Kameradenwerk have attended the annual nazi rallies in Diksmuide in Belgium.
From the Kameradenwerk, there have also been links to groups like the banned Wiking Jugend in Germany, the Swedish nazi terror network formerly known as Vitt Ariskt Motstånd, nazis in Southern America and to Erik Blücher‘s former Norsk Front and Jack Erik Kjuus‘ Hvit Valgallianse in Norway.
When the organisation‘s membership and contact list was obtained by Searchlight
a few years ago, it was found to contain the names of several hundred former
SS-soldiers who had served under Steiner, together with details of their
former service and current addresses.
On this list were 78 Norwegians, with Arild Elsodd from
Sandefjord figuring prominently as leader of the Norwegian branch. Several
persons intimately connected to The Institute for Norwegian Occupation History
(INO) are also numbered on the list.
To illustrate the way in which the KKS has maintained the continuity of
fascism, we have chosen to focus on three of these now elderly men who have
been influential, each in their own distinct way.
Olaf T. Lindvig
Lindvig is the only Norwegian to have received both the Norwegian war medal
and the German Iron Cross for his participation in the same war. The Norwegian
honour, however, had to be returned when the authorities became aware of
Lindvig‘s very active participation in the Waffen-SS.
When the Germans invaded Norway, he fought in battles on the Norwegian
side. After the surrender, policeman Lindvig, a policeman, became
a member of Vidkun Quisling‘s Nasjonal Samling (NS).
Here, he became one of the driving forces in the German SS Norway and was
responsible for recruiting Norwegian policemen to the Waffen-SS. Lindvig
reported for duty in The Norwegian Legion and was later transferred to the
23rd SS Panzergrenadierregiment (Regiment Norway), where he attained the
rank of Hauptsturmfhrer (captain) and became a platoon commander.
The tall and well built Lindvig more than matched the Nazi German ideal
of an Aryan man. He was frequently engaged in front-line combat, and was
seriously wounded three times.
For his efforts for Hitler, Lindvig deservedly received a long sentence
for high treason. In nazi circles, this enhanced his reputation and ever
since he has been one of the central figures among the nazi old guard
who term themselves Rformer front-fightersS.
Since 1973, Lindvig and his wife Ilsa have not just been socialising with
the declining band of old SS men but have been busy trying to win compensation
for estates and properties that Lindvig‘s father-in-law left behind in Germany.
Lindvig‘s father-in-law, the infamous high traitor Olaf Willy Fermann, who
died in 1975, was the Nasjonal Samling‘s chief envoy in Hitler-Germany from
1933 to 1939. In 1939, he refused to abandon his Norwegian citizenship,
and as a
consequence had to leave the control of his German factories to others.
According to Lindvig, the value of his factory in Burg in the former East
Germany, combined with Fermann‘s bank deposits, added up to 450.000 Reichsmark
in 1939. Information we have gathered from the Bank of Norway suggests that
this amount could have grown to about #1,300,000.
This figure is based on the rate of exchange in 1939, and is adjusted for
inflation. Because of German legislation, it currently looks like
Lindvig will never see this money, although he still hopes to get his hands
on it.
Hauptsturmfhrer Lindvig does not participate in INO‘s daily activities but he is always present at “front fighters” gatherings and on their trips to the old battle grounds on the Eastern-front. When the old nazis in the sinister Kameradenwerk Korps Steiner drew up their list, his name was an automatic inclusion.
Arne Grønlund Borgir
Originally from the little town of Porsgrunn in southern Norway, Borgir
has been living in Stovner, a suburb of Oslo, in recent years. Borgir is
a former member of the Waffen-SS, where he initially served in Division
Wiking, and later in the 23rd SS Panzergrenadierregiment (Regiment Norway).
The Wiking Division is infamous for the slaughter of 600 Jewish civilians
in Galicia in Poland.
For a time, Borgir edited Rapporten (The Report), the internal magazine
for SS veterans from Wiking Division . Those who know Borgir, describe him
as an uncompromising and inveterate revisionist. Not content with just writing
about the “heroic” deeds of the “good old days”, he is also active on the
current political scene.
When the former Referendum Party changed its name to the almost unbelievable
“Help the aliens home, or we‘ll lose our country”, Arne Borgir stepped up
to become its leader. The party‘s lack of success prompted it to enter an
electoral alliance with the Stop Immigration party, led by recently convicted
racist Jack Erik Kjuus .
The two parties later formed the Hvit Valgalliannse (White Electoral Alliance). Borgir is said to be working on a book where the theme of “world Jewry” is a prominent part of the plot. He has on several occasions been observed sneaking around the edges of anti-racist demonstrations and gatherings in Oslo.
Ole Darbu
Another name on the KKS contact list is that of Ole Darbu. True, Darbu served
in an SS medical unit some distance away form the front, and consequently
does not enjoy the same military status as Olaf T. Lindvig.
Darbu, however, has compensated for his lack of combat experience with political
activities, of which some have been quite bizarre. He belongs firmly to
that wing of old-timers which has been trying to create a nazi party in
Norway since the 1950s.
When Erik Blücher‘s Norsk Front was created in 1975, Darbu enthusiastically
helped the party to get on its feet. When the new nazis tried in the
following year to take over the “Singles party”, Darbu was one of
the persons who supported the idea most strongly.
In 1979, Darbu was part of the National Peoples Party‘s attempt to contest elections through the sleeping mini-party Norwegian Democratic Party. Indeed, he headed the party list for the local elections in Oslo, ahead of the former intelligence agent Hans Otto Meyer.
Darbu, however, was of the opinion that Blücher‘s approach was far
too cautious. Because of this he started, for the second time in Norwegian
history, the Nasjonal Samling in 1980. Even though Darbu travelled around
the country, claiming to have 200 members, the attempt flopped. This was
partly due to intrigues among his former “front-fighter” comrades. A disappointed
Darbu returned to the National Peoples Party.
In spite of the all the internal plotting and counter-plotting, Darbu sits
today around the cafe tables with Rdie alte KameradenS.
Here he reminisces about the deeds of the past, deeds that are unlikely
to appear any less great to him when through the dusty glasses of
history.
A new generation | NS antisemittism | Alte kameraden | Jewhate and freemason paranoia | No remorse from Myklestad
The INO milieu likes to present itself as “mild” revisionists, defending Quisling, but not National Socialism and antisemitism. A look at the background of two important activists, Eivind Saxlund and Ørnulf Myklestad, indicates that this is not the whole truth.
Eivind Saxlund was already a member of Quisling‘s Nasjonal Samling (NS)
before the war and on the 9 April 1940 he renewed his membership. He claims
that he joined so that he “would contribute so the country should get
a national government able to defend our interests against the (German)
occupiers.”
So committed to Norway‘s cause was Saxlund that he decided
to stab his country in the back by signing up, aged 19 years old, in the
Waffen-SS Norwegian Legion and taking part in the 900-day siege of Leningrad.
From the Legion, he transferred with many other Norwegian volunteers to
23. SS Panzergrenadierregiment “Norwegen”, led by SS general Felix Steiner.
The regiment fought in the Baltic states and at the end of the war it participated
in the final defence of the Reich capital, Berlin.
After serving sentence for treason, Saxlund completed his education and graduated from law school to become a lawyer. As time went by, he ended up in the Norwegian Department of Finance, where he, before he retired, he ended up as a deputy director.
Saxlund has never tried to hide his past as a NS member. He has participated
in several TV series and book releases connected with Norwegian war-history.
Such occasions, he uses to defend Quisling and the Nasjonal Samling, but
claims he lost his faith in national socialism during the war: “The belief
that national socialist ideology would bring anything good was lost.
At the same time I still thought that the Nasjonal Samling could slow down
the occupiers.”
This public remorse has been necessary, not only because of his position
as a public servant, but also because he, for several decades, has been
an active Christian leader, among other things as leader of Strømsø
parish-council in Drammen and as leader of the “Prayer week for Christian
unity”, one of the most important annual ecumenical events in Norway.
It is the case though, that other facts indicate that Saxlund has not by
any means finished his relationship to fascism. In particular, he is very
active in the wartime nazi INO milieu. He has sat on INO‘s election committee
and has led, for many years, “The aid organisation for war-wounded”, an
organisation for former Norwegian Waffen-SS men. He has also taken part
in trips by SS-veterans to the battlefields of the Eastern front.
Another disturbing fact about Saxlund is that his name appears on the contact
lists of the Kameradenwerk Korps Steiner. This last fact indicates
that Saxlund‘s engagement is not only social and nostalgic, because the
Kameradenwerk cultivates close connections with today‘s German neo-nazis
and violent skinheads. Another fact that tells much about Saxlund is that
he is a subscriber to the German fascist publication Junge Freiheit, a magazine
for the more intellectual German right-wing extremists.
In an interview with Norwegian TV, Saxlund said that the news that the German
Jews had to wear a yellow star “made a disturbing impression on me”.
If he wanted to distance himself from antisemitism, he was breaking a strong
family tradition.
His grandfather of the same name, Supreme-Court lawyer Eivind Saxlund,
was a national socialist before the term was invented. In 1910, he
published the book Jøder og Gojim (Jews and goyim) which, alongside
The Protocolls of the learned elders of Zion, is without a doubt the worst
antisemitic book published in Norway before the Second World War.
Inspired by the racist philosopher and proto-nazi, Houston
Stewart Chamberlain, Saxlund the elder ranted about “The Jewish danger”,
supposedly threatening the country:
- “The danger that threatens us from the Jews, is considered
by many, as being the greatest threat to our society, not because of the
prospects of Jewish financial mastery in it self, but because the Mosaic-Talmudic
way of thinking infects our character, confuses our moral standards and
damages our best racial qualities, changes the character of the people and
threatens to turn us all into Jews.”
Saxlund‘s book was published in several editions until the 1920s and caused a celebrated law-suit in 1923, when the author sued the journalist Paul Gjesdahl, who had called the book by its right name: “Antisemitic trash-literature”. The court ruled unanimously in favour of Gjesdahl.
Saxlund, however, continued his crusade for racial purity. The same year
he published his main work, Livsanskuelse på biologisk grunnlag (Biological-based
World View).
The book was published three years later in Germany with the title Blut
und Geist (Blood and Spirit). It is, therefore, no surprise that, in the
1930s, he was a keen subscriber to Hans S. Jacobsen‘s extreme nazi and pan-Germanic
magazine Ragnarok, which opposed the “soft” Nasjonal Samling and its
chief, Vidkun Quisling.
This antisemitic Saxlund family tradition was continued by one of Eivind
Saxlund the elder‘s sons, the academically well qualified Sigurd
Saxlund. This man, the uncle of the still-living Eivind, tried as early
as 1933 to publish his anti-Jewish, racial-biological tirades in the
pamphlet Rase og Kultur (Race and Culture).
The time was, however, not yet ready for statements like:
“Racial chaos rules. One does not know what to do. Our fathers
wanted a better kin, they had goals in their lives. Europe has no goal.
Sports idiocy, cubism, cultivation of Indians, psychoanalytic masturbation
chat, nervous weakness and the lack of courage characterises Europe today.(...)
The Asian has thought us to count life-values as gold and silver, the African
that jazz is music. And all the mongrels tell us that race is an antiquated
term. But there is still a reservoir of pure blood. When shall it
awake?”
As headmaster of an high school in Arendal in southern
Norway, and as nazi NS mayor in the city, Sigurd Saxlund made his
own distinctive contribution to the “awakening of the race”.
According to Jøde og Gojim, the Jews use many instruments in
their struggle for power and wealth. Among these are secret societies. Eivind
Saxlund the elder was, however, rather careful in his criticism of the Freemasons:
“It could be questioned whether the existence of secret societies is justified
these days.”
Nevertheless, we can still see the contours of the conspiracy-paranoia
that frequently accompanies antisemitism. Such considerations preoccupy
another important activist in the INO-milieu, Ørnulf Myklestad.
“A victory for those forces, are who today the bearers of
the Jewish-freemason and communistic ideas, will forever seal the destiny
of the Nordic race and the western European culture. Here is no second or
third alternative given. Only a victory for a Germanic Europe can save our
race and culture from the certain death,”
he wrote in the final chapter of his book Bak frimureriets
kulisser (Behind the scenes of Freemasonry) published in 1944.
The book was only an early chapter in Myklestad‘s career as a dedicated
fascist. Having joined the Nasjonal Samling in 1933, he stayed for
a long period in prewar Berlin “to study national socialism at close range”.
He was to become fanatical nazi, holding many important positions in the
nazi-movement. He was NS secretary for the counties of Bergen and Hordaland
and county propaganda chief in greater Oslo.
During the war, in this latter capacity, he suggested
the confiscation of all radios belonging to non-NS members and organised
several black-propaganda campaigns, like a fake English radio station and
forged illegal newspapers.
From July 1942 until February 1945 he was also the nazis‘ political leader
at the Asker og Bærum Budstikke, a big local newspaper outside Oslo.
After the war, the paper, in an editorial, characterised Myklestad as “an
especially unkind nazi.”
It was, however, the struggle against “Jewish Freemasonry”, that was closest
to Myklestad‘s cold heart. Already in 1938, he launched the Nasjonal Samling
section “Norsk front”, whose purposes were
“To struggle against Jewry, Freemasonry and Marxism
P those destructive international forces which suffocate the Norwegian people.
We will, through our information work, seek to raise public opinion against
the activities of the Freemasons and against the “Jews” dominant position
in our society.”
Both his book about the Freemasons and the third Norwegian edition of
infamous “Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion” were published by his
own publishing company, Brage boklag.
Before and during the occupation, Myklestad made a series of public speeches
exercising his obsession with Freemasons. When the German authorities opened
the Grand Lodge of Norway to the public, Myklestad saluted it as “a red-letter
day in Norwegian political history”.
After the war Myklestad was sentenced to seven years forced labour and was deprived of his civil rights for ten years for his treason. The years in prison did little to moderate his political views. During his imprisonment, Myklestad invented a health-food product that later made him a rich man.
Today, Myklestad keeps a low profile, but is, at 81 years old, still an active behind-the-scenes nazi and antisemite, with connections, not only to INO, but also to younger right-wing extremists such as the infamous Jew-hater and Auschwitz liar Alfred Olsen.
During the past few years Myklestad has funnelled some of his money into the INO-rag Folk og Land, sponsoring extra pages in the paper. When he does this, he uses the cover-name Brage, after the old Nordic god of poetry and, of course, after his old publishing company in “the good old days” when the swastika was flying over Oslo.
A new generation | NS antisemittism | Alte kameraden | Jewhate and freemason paranoia | No remorse from Myklestad
Ørnulf Myklestad remains a spokesman for the most poisonous
and malicious brand of antisemitism.
Posing as researchers for a critical book on freemasons, a Monitor
investigator met Myklestad in a cafe in Oslo. Nothing in the 90 minutes
long conversation indicated that Myklestad has changed his point of view
one iota.
Quite the opposite, he was proud of his work in the Nasjonal Samling section Norsk Front and of his propaganda-skills. Altogether, Myklestad was far more conserned about “world Jewry” than about the freemasons.
With visible pride, he boasted about how he had published two of the Norwegian editions of the infamous forgery “The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion”. When we indicated that we had no knowledge about this book, Myklestad eagerly told us that this was “the Jewish plan to gain world-mastery”.
He also gave us the information about how “the Jews are organising the freemasons.” When we asked him whether he knew other persons who could contribute material about the Freemasons, Myklestad immediately volunteered the name of the convicted gun-runner and nazi antisemite Alfred Olsen.
Myklestad, who remembered Olsen‘s telephone number without consulting his
address book, characterised Olsen as “an intelligent devout Catholic”, but
doubted Olsen‘s tactical skills and called him “a bulldozer”. Myklestad
especially praised Olsen for distributing “The Protocols of the Learned
elders of Zion” on the Internet.
If we wanted to contact Olsen, we could tell him that “Myklestad had sent
us”.
INO
Institutt for Norsk Okkupasjonshistorie (Institute for Norwegian Occupation
History)
Formed in 1975 as a successor to the Union for Social Rehabilitation. INO
exists both as a membership organisation, with ge Berg from Oslo‘s fashionable
west-end as leader, and as a foundation called Norsk okkupasjonshistorie
(Norwegian Occupation History) and led by former Waffen-SS man Knut Baardseth.
INO‘s political environment has spawned Erik Blcher‘s Norsk Front and Erik
Rune Hansens NNSB as well as parliamentary candidates‘ for Ensliges
parti, Norges demokratiske parti, Frie folkevalgte, Najonaldemokratene,
Fedrelandspartiet and Hvit valgallianse. Many INO supporters are today members
of Vilfred Hansen‘s nazi Norges patriotiske enhetsparti (Norway‘s patriotic
unity-party).
Folk
og land (People and Country)
First published 1946 by the teacher Nils Vikdal from Kristiandssund. Under
the name Skolenytt (School-news) it functioned as membership bulletin for
former members who had belonged to the nazis‘ stooge teachers union during
the war. In 1948, its name changed to 8th May and, in 1954, to Folk
og land.
The publication consists mainly of war nostalgia and attempts history.
It maintains a low profile on current political news. Folk og
land is published by A/S historisk forlag led by Helge Morgan Sæther
from Kristiansand. Its editor is Kjell Blich Schreiner.
Kameradenwerk Korps
Steiner.
Felix Steiner, one of Hitler‘s favourite generals, was appointed to supervise
the final defence of Berlin. Korps Steiner consisted of the
remains of the Nordland, Germania and Viking SS divisions. The members of
these divisions came from Holland, Flanders, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland
and Latvia. Before the final battle of Berlin, the corps was supplemented
with French and Spanish volunteers.
When SS-veterans created HIAG in 1951, Felix Steiner was one of its leaders.
Kameradenwerk Korps Steiner was created after Steiner‘s death in 1966. The
organisation is currently led by Kurt Meyer. The leader of the Norwegian
branch is Arild Elsodd from Sandefjord.
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