Background
Jonas Lie took his examen artium in 1917 at Fru Ragna Nielsen's school in Kristiania. After completing his artium, he traveled as a war correspondent on the Eastern Front and revealed a strong sympathy for Germany. In the years 1918–1919, he attended the War College's infantry department, and in 1924 he took the legal civil service exam. Jonas Lie was appointed captain in 1935. He visited Germany several times both before and after the National Socialist takeover; while attending the Military Academy, he once traveled of his own accord wearing his cadet uniform. Germany was very troubled after the First World War, including a right-wing coup d'état attempt, a communist revolution threatened, the country suffered a period of hyperinflation, and there was occasionally a general mood of doom where Hitler was only one of several savior figures. When things started to improve again, Jonas Lie saw it as a German rebirth after the humiliations of the Treaty of Versailles, but he never expressed that he liked the German National Socialists, and he perceived the SA as political fanatics.
Police Service
After five years as a prosecutor in Holmestrand, he joined the police in 1930. The first year he served as a police deputy at the Bergen police chamber, and in 1931 he became a deputy at the newly established State Police in Oslo, where he became deputy chief under Bernhard Askvig the following year . Here he became central to several of the major conflicts in the 1930s, including the Battle of Menstad in 1931, the Randsfjord conflict in May 1932 and Meieritorget in Porsgrunn in November 1933. He also led the State Police's support in farm mortgages, also in conflict with Bygdefolkets Krisehjelp.
In the summer of 1934, he led the State Police's guard during the Nasjonal Samling's national convention in Stiklestad and in Trondheim on the days 26 to 29 July, where there were a number of counter-demonstrations.
Lie participated in the international police force that monitored the referendum in the Saargebiet in 1935. The referendum was about whether the area should join Germany or France, and the predominantly German population voted with over 90% majority to join Germany under the name of Saarland. For his efforts in the Saarland, Lie was awarded the German Red Cross' medal of honour.
Heinrich Himmler is said to have met Jonas Lie as early as 1935 when Lie was working in the Saarland.
Himmler was enthusiastic about Jonas Lie and saw him both professionally indispensable and as an exponent of the SS state and the Aryan Germania he wanted to build up.
Lev Trotsky applied for political asylum in Norway in 1935, but the Norwegian authorities doubted that he complied with the condition of the residence permit, not to engage in political activity, so in 1936 he was interned at Sundby farm near Storsand in Hurum. Lie was put in charge of the guard. When Trotsky was granted asylum in Mexico, Lie was given the task of escorting the expelled Trotsky on the 22-day long ship journey to Mexico. After handing over Trotsky in Mexico, Lie traveled to the United States and studied the FBI's working methods. The state police was disbanded the following year, and Lie then became emergency manager in Oslo and subordinated to police chief Kristian Welhaven.
Thanks to the experiences from the Saarland, Lie got a place in the League of Nations delegation which in 1938 was to organize a referendum on whether the province of Alexandrette should join Turkey or Syria, but the referendum was canceled and the area Turkish after France supported Turkey's demands.
During the Winter War, Lie was sent to Kirkenes to lead the surveillance service in Eastern Finnmark. Here he worked closely, among other things, with Lieutenant Karl Marthinsen. The two made good contact with the Finnish intelligence service and Marthinsen was several times over on the Finnish side of the border.
Resistance fight against the German invasion
When the Germans attacked Norway in 1940, Lie was still in Kirkenes. He did not welcome the German assault, but was determined to defend the country against any invading enemy. At the same time, he directed his anger at the Nygaardsvold government, which he believed had provoked the German attack by acting lenient towards England.
Lie was very upset when he received news on the evening of 10 April that Quisling had appointed him as Minister of Justice in Quisling's short-lived coup government on 9 April 1940. Lie compared Quisling's coup government to the Terijoki government of Otto Kuusinen and distanced himself from it.
On 12 April they crossed the border at Utnes by horse and sledge, traveled by car to Ivalo, by bus via Rovaniemi to Torneå where they crossed the border to Sweden. They then went skiing to Kiruna, and from there took the night train to Stockholm. Here, Lie spoke with Hambro at the Norwegian Legation and with the Swedish media about his distancing himself from Quisling and claiming he felt offended by being on Quisling's list of ministers.
Lie entered Norway at Drevsjø on 20 April 1940. Here he met Ragnvald Hvoslef, among others, who had also been involuntarily incorporated into Quisling's coup government. Lie then traveled across the Rena and by plane to a frozen body of water at Øyer.
On 21 April, he reported to the Army High Command, which was temporarily located in the school building on the road to Ringebu. Because he was a conscription captain, he was assigned to a newly formed military police force in the Ringebu area. On 30 April, he lined up at Lesja church in full field gear to wait for the advancing German forces. One of the motorcyclists stopped and asked him to surrender. This is how he became a German prisoner of war, but was released after a short time after giving his word of honor not to fight the Germans.
The Germans' man
After his experiences from the campaign in southern Norway, Lie was convinced that Germany would win the war, not least on the basis of what he perceived as a rather miserable English war effort in the area. In the current situation, the German-friendly Lie did not see German rule as the worst thing that could happen to Norway, and was of the opinion that the whole of Western Europe would sooner or later come under German rule.
The German occupying power treated Lie correctly and politely, and wanted him, in addition to continuing in his old position as head of the emergency police, to function as the criminal police's coordinating police inspector for the country's police districts. The position of inspector made Lie the superior of all political surveillance in occupied Norway. After Lie was appointed, police chief Welhaven in Oslo burned his surveillance file of registered communists to prevent it from falling into the hands of Lie and the Germans. However, Lie was aware that he was intended for a political role, and that the duties within the police were temporary, so he took a wait-and-see approach in the summer of 1940. His superior in the Administrative Council and head of the Ministry of Justice, Ole F. Harbek, stated that "Lie never harmed Norwegian interests in his current position".
But it was not to last long, because while Lie was leading the political surveillance in Finnmark during the Winter War, he had helped to build up an archive with information on people from all over Norway who were believed to be spying for the Soviet Union. The archive had been left behind on 12 April, but during a trip to northern Norway in the summer of 1940 together with Josef Terboven, among others, Lie found the archive again and handed it over to the Sicherheitspolizei and Sicherheitsdienst.
The German occupying power, with Terboven at the head, had very little confidence that Quisling was the right person to lead their Norwegian collaborators. They therefore looked around for another alternative within the National Collection, but found none, and searched outside this environment, among others they considered Jonas Lie. This met with great opposition among the pro-Quisling elements in NS, with Albert Viljam Hagelin in particular at the forefront, who considered that the German-friendly Lie would mean a German takeover of the party. The Norwegian National Socialist anti-Quisling milieu around the journal Ragnarok, led by Hans S. Jacobsen, Johan B. Hjort and Victor Mogens, sought out Lie to get him to take over NS. But despite the fact that Heinrich Himmler supported Lie, Quisling had Adolf Hitler's support, and this was decisive.
Throughout the war, both Lie and Minister of Justice Sverre Riisnæs were suspected by many in NS, both because of their previously stated opposition to NS and their strong German friendliness. The skepticism was not lessened by their closeness to Himmler and the fact that he got them into both governments during the war and into the leadership of Norway's SS and German SS Norway.
Constituted Minister of State
Himmler demanded of
Terboven that Lie should be Minister of Police in a Norwegian government. As a compromise, on 25 September 1940
Terboven appointed a state leadership referred to as Josef
Terboven's commissar minister (commissar German: "constituiert"), without Quisling and with Lie as head of the Ministry of Police, as
Himmler wanted. At the same time, Lie and Riisnæs joined NS on 6 July. This too was in line with Himmler's wishes; he recommended all his friends to work through NS, since the party had
Hitler's support.
Frontline fighter
Lie was a keen advocate of frontline service on the German side, and together with Riisnæs was selected to lead the Norwegian branch of the Allgemeine SS. Riisnæs was Lie's closest confidant in the government and, like Lie, was met with great distrust within NS. At a meeting in connection with Himmler's departure after the visit to Norway in February 1941, it was agreed that Lie and Riisnæs should gain front-line experience. This was in line with the SS', and especially
Reinhard Heydrich's, opinion that the leaders of the SS had to have combat experience (Kämpfende Verwaltung). One wanted to avoid a withdrawn and distant bureaucracy without knowledge of the realities, so for those who wanted to make a career in the SS, frontline experience was a condition.
On 28 March 1941, Lie, Riisnæs, Gauleiter Paul Wegener and Heinrich Fehlis flew to Berlin to meet Heinrich Himmler. Himmler asked Lie and Riisnæs to report to Sepp Dietrich, head of the Leibstandarte SS
Adolf Hitler at his temporary headquarters in Bulgaria. Riisnæs, who had no military background, became a war correspondent, while Lie was promoted to Hauptsturmführer and served in the 1st Battalion's staff during the invasion of Yugoslavia and the Battle of Greece.
On 6 May,
Himmler arrived in conquered Greece and awarded the Iron Cross to 70 SS officers, including Lie. Lie and Riisnæs then met with, among others,
Himmler to discuss the future formation of Norway's SS and Quisling's initial skepticism about the plans. Later there was a victory parade in Athens, and Lie took part in the parade past
Himmler and the German commander-in-chief of the campaign, Wilhelm List.
Lie and Riisnæs traveled by plane to Munich on 10 May, and were scheduled to have met
Hitler in the Berghof, but this was canceled as a result of
Rudolf Hess's flight to Scotland on the same day. On 14 May they returned to Norway.
Lie's next frontline assignment came 16 months later, after he had become police minister in Vidkun Quisling's second government. Enlistment for Lie's front unit took place at the same time as the German SS Norway was established. In this connection, in an article in Norsk Politiblad on 20 July 1942, Lie advocated the creation of a separate Norwegian police department on the eastern front. Policemen who joined were lured with officer careers in the Norwegian police after returning home. Lie had had the recruitment campaign going since January of the same year, but it went slowly.
Lie was decorated with the Iron Cross first class, and returned to Oslo at the end of February 1943 as SS-Sturmbannführer. However, he was greatly weakened, both physically and mentally: infected by malaria and reduced by alcohol use, and after the defeat at Stalingrad, the defeat in North Africa, the deposition of Benito Mussolini, the invasion of Sicily and the loss of southern Italy, things had begun to go It dawned on him that Germany might lose the war.
Pan-Germanism
Lie was, together with Sverre Riisnæs, Hans S. Jacobsen and Klaus Hansen, among the central banner bearers for pan-Germanism in German-occupied Norway. But neither Lie nor Riisnæs was part of the pan-Germanic circles which, especially after the German defeat at Stalingrad 1943, worked to get Quisling deposed.
Germanic-SS Norway
In order to break
Terboven's monopoly of power in Norway, it was important for the SS to establish its own institutions in Norway. Gottlob Berger therefore came to Norway on Himmler's behalf to be able to restore Norway's SS. At this point there were only 50 members left, and these were seen by Hirden as traitors. However, Berger was skeptical about Lie. He believed that Lie was not able to lead the police, was unable to see the broad lines and lost himself in details, while at the same time he lacked support within NS.
Berger appointed his son-in-law, Karl Leib, as head of the Germanische Leitstelle in Oslo, but they did not succeed in getting past Lie. On 21 July 1942, just a few weeks before he left for the Leningrad Front, he became the leader of the Norwegian SS's successor, the Germanske-SS Norge (GSSN), which was likewise a Norwegian section of the Germanske-SS. Together with Riisnæs, he was among the initiators of establishing these organizations, which were more pan-German oriented. They wanted the GSSN to become an alternative power factor to the Nasjonal Samling vis-à-vis the German occupying power and a continuation of the idea of creating an SS state.
The GSSN received the former black uniforms of the German Allgemeine SS, but with Norwegian insignia sewn on. The funding came from the NSDAP in Munich and a separate SS school was established at Kongsvinger and SS newspaper called Germaneren. GSSN constantly came into conflict with Hirden about who should have which tasks, and herd leader Oliver Møystad complained to Quisling that GSSN was taking tasks from them. Furthermore, GSSN had far more resources and better conditions for its members, which meant that a number of church members switched to GSSN.
When Lie returned from Northern Norway on 27 November 1944, he had increasingly lost support among leading Germans; Among other things, Gottlob Berger suggested that Lie should be removed as head of GSSN. This is due to both Lie's physical and mental deterioration, his working style, but also to the fact that he had allegedly left GSSN's pan-German line. Lie is said to have joined NS's general secretary
Rolf Jørgen Fuglesang's nationalist line, which caused great outrage within the GSSN. This change of line is said to have come as a result of Lie being disillusioned with the Germans, partly because of the German breach of promise to the Norwegian front fighters, partly by turning the "Norwegian" divisions into pure German divisions, under German command.
After
Finland withdrew from the war following the conclusion of the Finnish Continuation War, the German soldiers stationed in both
Finland and in Finnmark and North Troms were to retreat to a defensive line at the Lyngenfjorden and implement scorched earth tactics in the areas that were evacuated. When
Terboven prepared the forced evacuation and burning of Finnmark and Nord-Troms in October 1944, he ordered Quisling to contribute. Lie was then appointed leader from the Norwegian side, with the title of "director" and NS man Johan Andreas Lippestad became his deputy, both with "separate powers in wartime". Eventually Lie and Lippestad divided the area, so that Lie took responsibility for Finnmark, while Lippestad took responsibility for Nord-Troms.
However, Lie found himself on a collision course with the Wehrmacht's commander-in-chief, the Austrian Colonel-General Lothar Rendulic, who wanted to burn everything down and slaughter the livestock. Lie saw it as his task to protect Norwegian culture, life and home against the hordes from the east. In this way, he would only evacuate the part of the civilian population that wanted to, excluding public officials and officials who were necessary to keep society intact. But to Lie's dismay, the population preferred to wait for the Soviets rather than allow themselves to be evacuated voluntarily. His weakened appearance and heavy consumption of alcohol meant that he was not taken seriously, as he and his traveling companions were "staur drunk".
The battle was lost for Lie when
Hitler on 28 October decided on forced evacuation and incineration. Lie then saw his role as protecting the civilian population through the forced evacuation. However, Lie used the opportunity to pursue racial politics, aimed at the Sami, especially the Sea Sami. This attitude towards the Sami was, however, on a collision course with Himmler's perception of this people group, which he wanted to preserve as "the fury".
Lie returned to Oslo on 27 November, and before Christmas 1944 put forward a proposal to Quisling aimed at Tatars and Gypsies, where he wanted forced sterilization, the building of a separate camp for them in Norway, and eventual deportation to Eastern Europe. However, the plans were not implemented, as they came too late in the war.
Personality
In the first years of his life, Lie only had adults around him, he developed quickly and became quite a weasel. As he had a quick mind, he quickly obtained what he wanted and could allow himself to be lazy; for example, he took the examen artium and juridikum after some quick skippers just before the exam. He created a notion that he was a natural gift that did not require effort, and since he was conflict-shy by nature and mainly surrounded himself with like-minded people, he developed little and did not catch on of new knowledge, understanding and maturation that people usually gain with age. This becomes clear when you compare what he wrote during different phases of his life.
Anti-Semitism
Jonas Lie was influenced by his uncle Nils Kjær's strong anti-Semitism, and reveals clear anti-Semitic views in his writing and other writings, but not much more than what was common in his time. Although he subscribed to Germanic thinking with its opposition to Jews, Catholics and big capital, Lie was more strongly nationally oriented than the cross-national racial orientation that characterizes pan-Germanism.
After witnessing the einsatzgruppen's actions in the Ukraine, he seems to have subscribed to the theories that Jewish Bolshevism was civilization's greatest threat, and came home a more convinced anti-Semite than before. The romanticism of war and the lack of respect for the value of human life may have contributed to his not attaching much importance to the murders of Jews he must have observed, at least while he was in Ukraine, and during the Odessa massacre in the autumn of 1941.
Towards the end of the war, Lie's racism was also aimed at the Sami, Gypsies and Taters, but neither he nor other NS people succeeded in getting Himmler's support to carry out sharp actions aimed at these people groups.
.png)
Inga kommentarer:
Skicka en kommentar