Museum launches artworks probe

Officials at one of Norway’s leading art museums, the Henie Onstad Art Centre just west of Oslo, are now investigating the origins of 18 of its most famous pre-war artworks, following allegations that Henie Onstad has a Matisse painting in its collection that was stolen by the Nazis during World War II. Heirs to the Jewish art collector [...]

Still heroes, after all these years

Thursday marked the 70th anniversary of what some call Norway’s proudest moment during World War II, when Joachim Rønneberg and nine other Norwegian resistance fighters became the real-life “Heroes of Telemark” by sabotaging the heavy-water plant at Vemork. Rønneberg, the leader and last surviving member of the sabotage team, was back in Vemork this week [...]

Museum caught in painting dispute

A valuable painting by French artist Henri Matisse, now claimed to have been stolen by the Nazis during World War II, has been hanging on the walls of one of  Norway’s leading art museums, the Henie Onstad Kunstsenter, for decades. Now the Henie Onstad Art Centre finds itself caught in conflict over the painting, with [...]

Police apologize for deportation

Norway’s new director of the state police has issued an official apology for his department’s involvement in the deportation of Jewish residents in 1942. The apology, called both historic and long overdue, was made 70 years to the day when Jews were rounded up and literally shipped off to concentration camps in Nazi Germany. Odd [...]

Encouraging words as Utøya memorials loom

Just a few hundred meters away from the scene of Norway’s worst attacks since World War II is a well-preserved message from the war itself. The message may encourage those venturing towards the island of Utøya, either during the first anniversary this weekend of last summer’s terrorist attacks on the island, or anytime.  Motorists driving [...]

War hero to receive state funeral

Gunnar Sønsteby, Norway’s most highly decorated hero for his resistance efforts during World War II, is also receiving the highest of state honours after his death last week at the age of 94. His funeral announcement was published in newspaper Aftenposten on Wednesday. Sønsteby will receive a full state funeral from the Oslo Cathedral, with [...]

Norway hails its greatest war hero

It didn’t take long before ordinary Norwegians spontaneously started paying their final respects to their country’s greatest war hero, Gunnar Sønsteby, after his death was announced on Thursday afternoon. Sønsteby was Norway’s most decorated citizen and spent much of his life sharing his experiences from World War II with future generations. The mild-mannered man who [...]

War memorials listed in new register

For the first time, all of Norway’s roughly 3,000 war memorials have been compiled in a new register that soon will be available online. The list is a result of years of work spearheaded by Forsvarsmuseet (The Armed Forces Museum) in Oslo. Museum officials have been trying since 1979 to launch an accurate register of [...]

Royals feared Labour government

Norway’s newly established royal family feared for their future when the Labour Party won government power in the early 1930s. Labour opposed the monarchy and even managed to prevent Crown Prince Olav from turning Oslo’s Oscarshall castle into a royal residence. Political intrigue surrounding King Haakon, Queen Maud, their son Olav and his new wife [...]

Beloved king ‘naive’ about the Nazis

Norwegian historians, authors and commentators were scrambling on Friday to try to explain why Norway’s late and much-loved King Olav, long a symbol of Nazi resistance while crown prince in exile during World War II, actually wanted to negotiate with Hitler’s government and didn’t want to leave Norway when the Germans invaded. The revelations in [...]

War hero’s statue finally settled

For months, controversy has flared over where to place a statue of World War II resistance hero Max Manus. Now the arguing sides have finally agreed on a setting. The statue by Per Ung was initially earmarked for the popular Aker Brygge complex on Oslo’s waterfront, but other war heroes objected, claiming Manus’ most explosive [...]

‘Never again the ninth of April’

Friday marked 70 years since Norway was invaded by Germany, setting off an occupation unlikely to be forgotten. The bitter wars years began in many ways off Oscarsborg, an island in the fjord south of Oslo, where officials gathered Friday morning to remember, and discuss defense. The president of Norway’s Parliament, Dag Terje Andersen, planned [...]

State archives release war documents

Norway’s state archives (Riksarkivet) marked the 70th anniversary of the German invasion on Friday by releasing thousands of war documents online. The documents reveal new details about the resistance effort, the deportation of  Norwegian Jews and plans by Vidkun Quisling to set up a Norwegian Aryan colony in the former Soviet Union. Newspaper Aftenposten reported [...]

New era for Oscarsborg

Seventy years after playing a major role in Norway’s war history, the island that’s home to the Oscarsborg Fortress has been going through a renaissance of sorts. The former military installation is open to the public for historical sightseeing and a wide range of cultural and recreational activities throughout the year. Located in the narrowest [...]

Norway loses another hero of Telemark

Jens-Anton Poulsson, one of the last surviving members of the Telemark sabotage operation during World War II that blocked German development of an atomic bomb, died on Tuesday, just over a month after the death of fellow war hero Knut Haugland. Poulsson was 91. Poulsson was a highly decorated member of the Norwegian Resistance, whose [...]