DRAMATIC EPISODES IN QUISLING TRIAL

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 199, 23 August 1945, Page 5

DRAMATIC EPISODES IN QUISLING TRIAL

HEARING CONTINUED

Protestations Of Loyalty Provoke Laug:hter N.Z. Press Association—Copyright Rec. 1.30 p.m. LONDON, Aug. 22. Quisling pictured himself as the protector of Jews during to-day's hearing of his trial for treason. He told the Court that he worked closely with the Jewish World Organisations during the German occupation and helped Jews to escape to Sweden. He said he tried to prevent confiscation of their fortunes. Quisling professed complete ignorance of the German persecution of Jews and Norwegian Patriots, and denied that he even read about the persecution of Jews in Europe.

There was a murmur of incredulity in the Court when Quisling denied knowledge of tortures in the dreaded concentration camp at Grini, or starvation to death in Germany. Accused declared that the treatment both of prisoners and Jews was a German responsibility. His Government had been kept out of what he called the Jewish question.

Quisling maintained that the hirdmen (Storm Troops) was an innocent political organisation only carrying out police duties. He denied they were given arms or operated against their fellow countrymen. Letter To Hitler The prosecutor, Mr. Schjoedt, read a letter from Quisling to Hitler dated July 10, 1940, in which the accused referred to his fight for the great Germanic community. Judge Solem asked what he meant by the great Germanic community and Quisling replied: "A corporation of Nordic and Scandinavian States, with all other Germanic peoples, that is Germany, Britain, France and America."

Mr. Schjoedt interrupted, that in a memorandum dated October 25, 1940, Quisling gave another explanation of the phase: Great Germanic Community. He had referred to Norway as an independent kingdom bound to the Reich and also referred to a common foreign policy, the German supreme command over the defence system of the entire federation, the German Fuehrer to be president of the federation, and stabilisation of Norwegian currency based on Berlin. Tried to Put Brake on Germany Quisling admitted writing the memorandum and said the object was to try to put the brake on the German plans for the incorporation of Norway into the Reich. He was then fighting against German inter-' pretation of the Germanic community.

Quisling engaged in frequent clashes with the judges and the Court ended a long tirade on his Nordic beliefs by ordering him to sit down. . Quisling claimed that his second Government, formed on September 25, 1940, was 100 per cent Norwegian and in reality was fighting the Germans.

Laughter broke out in the court when he asserted that he had ordered the Quisling Guards to fight alongside the Germans against the Allied invasion forces to satisfy the Germans and thus save the Norwegian underground forces from being rounded up.

Mr. Schjoedt charged Quisling with the murder of Viggo Hansteen, Norwegian underground hero, which Quisling, with a sob in his voice, denied. Hansteen, whose widow is a member of the present Norwegian Government, was murdered by Germans in 1941, and the prosecutor accused Quisling of responsibility for asking the Germans to get rid of Hansteen because of his leadership of the 1941 strike.