Church Resistance to Nazism in Norway, 1940-1945 examines the evolution of the Lutheran state Church of Norway in response to the German occupation. While German Protestant churches generally accepted Nazism and state incorporation, Norway’s churches rejected both Nazism and ideological alignment. Arne Hassing moves through the history of the Church of Norway’s relationship to the Nazi state, from its initial confused complicities to its open resistance and separation. He writes engagingly of the people at the center of this struggle and reflects on how the resistance affected the postwar church and state.

Germany invaded Norway with a massive military force in April 1940. The author describes the Norwegian resistance movement including their effort to help Jews avoid Nazi death camps. Much of the resistance movement was led by clergy from the Norwegian Lutheran church and by school teachers. Section two describes our escape from western Norway via a fishing boat to Scotland, and then on a Norwegian freighter to Canada. On each leg of our trip we experienced a military attack from either a German airplane or a submarine attack. I was four years old at the time of our escape; one of my brothers was eight years old, and our younger brother was eighteen months old. My mother made all the arrangements and experienced the brunt of the stress of our escape, because my father had already escaped previously. The final section of the book focuses on reflections by us three brothers, now some sixty years after our escape. We have come to a painful realization that anti-Semitism has a long history in our Christian churches (Protestant and Catholic) that contributed to the silence and even collaboration with the Nazi plans for the holocaust.

In one of the darker aspects of Nazi Germany, churches and universities - generally respected institutions - grew to accept and support Nazi ideology. Complicity in the Holocaust describes how the state's intellectual and spiritual leaders enthusiastically partnered with Hitler's regime, becoming active participants in the persecution of Jews, effectively giving Germans permission to participate in the Nazi regime. Ericksen also examines Germany's deeply flawed yet successful postwar policy of denazification in these institutions.

The Holocaust in Norway (the only Scandinavian country whose Jewish population suffered great losses during the war) did not evoke mass protests amongst the Norwegian population. Even the resistance leadership was not eager to defend the country's Jews; in Norwegian rescue activities, the initiative often came from below, from courageous individuals. All measures for the segregation of Norwegian Jews, the roundups, and the deportations to Auschwitz in October 1942-February 1943 were carried out with the close cooperation of the state bureaucracy, especially the police, and also with the assistance of the Norwegian Nazi Party. Only the Norwegian Church valiantly opposed the persecution of Jews.

Daily Life in Nazi-Occupied Europe provides readers with information about political and military affairs, economic life, religious life, intellectual life, and other aspects of daily life in those countries occupied by Nazi Germany during World War II. By the end of 1940, the Nazis controlled most of Europe, and in 1941 they invaded the Soviet Union to complete their mission of domination. The pattern of human resistance to the occupation was equally widespread-in every country, at least a significant minority of the population fought for human dignity. Why did so many risk their lives and refuse to accept defeat? This book goes beyond the impact of the occupation on different European countries, examining that impact on individuals who, regardless of what country they lived in, faced a desperate search for food and the constant threat of death. This volume is intended to help readers to see the variety of struggles that contributed to the defeat of the oppressive occupation imposed by the Nazis. Readers will come away with an appreciation of the fact that there were as many types of daily lives as there were individuals under the occupation and that every person in the war had a unique experience.