QUISLING’S STORY

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 21802, 27 August 1945, Page 4

QUISLING’S STORY

DENIED OSLO TRIAL EVIDENCE BID TO AVERT CIVIL WAR (10 a.m.) LONDON, Aug. 26. When the trial of Vidkun Quisling on charges of treason was resumed, a German Army officer testified that Quisling urged the Nazis to imprison certain Norwegian officers in Germany because it was impossible to work with them and they might make serious difficulties. The witness was an aide on the staff of General von Falkenhorst the Nazi Commander-in-Chief in Norway during the occupation. I-Ie added that •Quisling demanded forced labour service for Norway. A clerk in the Norwegian Defence Ministry gave evidence that Quisling and two German naval officers called at the Ministry on the day of the invasion, April 9, 1940. Quisling told the Ministry staff that the Nygaardsvold Government had been deposed and he had taken over. Quisling ordered the arrest of members of the Nygaardsvold Government and also instructed that messages for an immediate cease-fire be sent to the fortresses guarding Oslo and Trondheim Fiords.

Quisling denied he had had anything to do with the deportation of Norwegian officers or had proposed harsh punishment for Patriots or had sponsored forced labour. He asserted that the Germans were determined to fight on in Norway after capitulating on the Continent but he dissuaded them. The Germans had treated him shamefully during the occupation. Pie was aware of the danger from Sweden. Pie believed the Swedes could have driven the Gormans out of Oslo.

Witnesses gave evidence that Quisling looted King Haakon’s Palace and other public buildings to furnish his own home. Refused Chance to Flee

In a high-pitched voice, Quisling declared that he had always struggled to avoid any fighting in Norway. Pie was determined that civil war should never arise. He and several Ministers offered to resign after the death of Plitler, but were told that would create a much worse situation. The Nazi Commissioner. Terboven, offered him the opportunity of fleeing by submarine or plane to a foreign country, but he refused. Hitler, during the last meeting in January, 1945, told him that if Sweden entered the war and invaded Norway, the Germans would immediately destroy Stockholm, Malrno, and Gothenburg by bombing. Plitler assured him: “Germany will win. I am getting a new weapon soon.” Terboven on May 11 offered him the chance to flee from Norway. “He did not tel] me where, but I guessed it was Spain,” added Quisling. Events on Invasion Day

The prosecutor questioned the accused about his so-called adjutant, Franklin Knudsen.

Quisling said that on April 9, 1940, the day of the German invasion, Knudsen had no position with him. “He just came and reported to me,” he said. Quisling denied that he ordered Knudsen to broadcast messages recalling all merchant ships to Norway or to German-controlled ports. He said that Knudsen acted on his. own initiative. He was a ship-owner and was concerned with shipping. Plagelin, Quisling’s alleged agent in Germany, said in evidence that he knew Alfred Rosenberg. Witness had been under treatment for loss of memory since November, 1944. He denied all knowledge of the events described by the prosecution. His answer to every question was: “I cannot remember.” Hagelin, a Norwegian-born businessman, who returned to Norway after the invasion to become Quisling’s Minister of the Interior and who himself is awaiting trial for treason, said he never talked politics with Rosenberg, had never been a member of the Nazi Party, and had never been Quisling’s representative in Germany. He had never worked directly under Quisling or had been responsible for the Nazi terror in Norway.