Sigmund Feyling: Deputy under-secretary of State in the Ministry of Education and Church Affairs and Chairman of the Israel Mission in Rogaland

• Church And State (1942)

Education and theological work

Feyling was a trained teacher and originally belonged to a radical and church-critical wing of the lay movement. He became a cand.theol. in 1924, took a practical-pedagogical seminar in 1926 and was ordained as a priest the same year. He became parish priest in Dalane in 1936 after serving as parish priest in Egersund and Ogna. He was for a time chairman of the Israel Mission in Rogaland.

Second World War

Feyling joined the Nasjonal Samling in November 1940. As head of expedition under NS from February 1941, he quickly came into conflict with the church. He believed that the priests should be obedient to those in power and not interfere in politics, but concentrate on the gospel. Feyling defended an authoritarian and anti-liberal line, and believed that Vidkun Quisling was God's gift to Norway. He was the main opponent of the temporary church leadership. Ragnar Skancke was Feyling's boss in the ministry, and Feyling was responsible for investigations and draft laws that affected, among other things, the Jews. In 1942, the NS regime wanted to replace Eivind Berggrav with Feyling as editor of the journal Kirke og Kultur, the journal then ceased operations. Feyling did not want to introduce Deutsche Christen in Norway. In his defense of the authoritarian state, he used, among other things, Ole Hallesby's Den kristelige sedelære. Feyling believed that Hitler's attack on communism after 1933 was an advantage for the Christians in Germany. He visited Germany in 1933-1934 and was inspired by Paul Althaus' Lutheran orthodox teachings based on an authoritarian and national understanding of the state.

The Jews

He thought it would be best for the Jews if they were given their own land and defended the arrest of the Jews. Feyling supported those who feared "Jewish power" and believed that Judaism was a danger to the whole world. He later stated that he had asked Quisling to be moderate on the Jewish question, which reportedly infuriated Quisling. Benkt Jerneck was a correspondent for Sweden's telegram agency in Oslo in 1942-1943 and described Feyling as self-righteous, ambitious, ruthless and sadistic. Feyling was described as an evil spirit who whispered things in Skancke and Quisling's ear when they showed signs of being moderate. Jerneck interviewed Feyling after the deportation of the Jews and there Feyling stated: "It is a great happiness for the Jews that they can now gather in one place, as they have wanted for so long. It may at the moment seem like a cruel step, but one day the Jews will thank us.”

Court settlement

At the court settlement after the Second World War, he was sentenced for disbanding the Mosaic religious community and for confiscation of funds and property. Feyling was sentenced in 1949 to 15 years of forced labor with deductions for 1,502 days in custody. He was also denied the right to work as a priest. He was released in 1951 and then received financial help from Eivind Berggrav and Ole Hallesby. The portrait of Feyling that hangs in Egersund church is disputed. Ragnar Skancke was the last Norwegian to be executed after the war, probably Feyling would also have been executed if the case had come up earlier according to Jostein Berglyd. In 1949, the mood in the country had softened. Among other things, due to extensive documentation, Feyling remained in custody for a long time. Wilhelm Wagner thought Feyling was the real church minister. Feyling was the last NS priest to be convicted and who received the longest sentence.