6
Dec. 45
It is
headed, "The Political Preparation of the
Military Occupation of Norway during the War
Years 1939-40," and it reads:
"As
previously mentioned, of all political
groupings in Scandinavia only Nasjonal
Samling, led in Norway by the former
Minister of War and retired major,
Vidkun Quisling, deserved serious
political attention. This was a fighting
political group possessed by the idea
of a Greater Germanic community.
Naturally all ruling powers were hostile
and attempted to prevent by any means
its success among the population. The
bureau maintained constant relation with
Quisling and attentively observed the
attacks he conducted with tenacious
energy on the middle class, which had
been taken in tow by the English. From
the beginning it appeared probable that
without revolutionary events which would
stir the population from their former
attitude no successful progress of
Nasjonal Samling was to be expected.
During the winter 1938-39 Quisling was
privately visited by a member of the
bureau. When the political situation in
Europe came to a head in 1939, Quisling
made an appearance at the convention of
the Nordic Society in Lübeck in
June. He expounded his conception of the
situation and his apprehensions
concerning Norway. He emphatically drew
attention to the geopolitically decisive
importance of Norway in the Scandinavian
area and to the advantages that would
accrue to the power dominating the
Norwegian coast in case of a conflict
between the Greater German Reich and
Great Britain.
"Assuming
that his statements would be of special
interest to the Marshal of the Reich, Göring
for aero-strategical reasons, Quisling
was referred to State Secretary Körner
by the bureau. The Staff Director of the
bureau handed the Chief of the Reich
Chancellery a memorandum for
transmission to the Führer . . . . "
In
a later part of the document, which I shall read
at a later stage of my presentation of the
evidence, if I may, the Court will see how
Quisling came into contact with Raeder. The
Prosecution's submission with regard to this
document is that it is another illustration of
the close interweaving between the political and
the military leadership of the Nazi State, of
the close link between the professional soldiers
and the professional thugs.
The
Defendant Raeder, in his report to Admiral
Assmann, admitted his collaboration with
Rosenberg; and I will invite the Court's
attention once more to Document C-66, which is
Exhibit GB-81. In the page headed "Weserübung,"
the second paragraph of the Raeder report reads
as follows: