Armed with jokes, puns, and cartoons, Norwegians tried to keep their spirits high and foster the Resistance by poking fun at the occupying Germans during World War II. Despite a 1942 ordinance mandating death for the ridicule of Nazi soldiers, Norwegians attacked the occupying Nazis and their Norwegian collaborators by means of anecdotes, quips, insinuating personal ads, children’s stories, Christmas cards, mock postage stamps, and symbolic clothing. In relating this dramatic story, Kathleen Stokker draws upon her many interviews with survivors of the Occupation and upon the archives of the Norwegian Resistance Museum and the University of Oslo. Central to the book are four “joke notebooks” kept by women ranging in age from eleven to thirty, who found sufficient meaning in this humor to risk recording and preserving it. Stokker also cites details from wartime diaries of three other women from East, West, and North Norway. Placing the joking in historical, cultural, and psychological context, Stokker demonstrates how this seemingly frivolous humor in fact contributed to the development of a resistance mentality among an initially confused, paralyzed, and dispirited population, stunned by the German invasion of their neutral country. For this paperback edition, Stokker has added a new preface offering a comparative view of resistance through humor in neighboring Denmark.

Booklet accomanying an album dedicated to the people of Norway, containing lyrics for songs of the Norwegian resistance during WWII. The recording featured the chorus of the Zion Norwegian Lutheran Church, conducted and arranged by T. Benner.

The fierce naval battles fought in Norwegian waters during the spring of 1940 were recorded in documents that were once subject to restrictions under the Official Secrets Act. Fight for the Fjords includes the German account, written by the official historian within three years of the end of World War II, and the British report, which compiled previously unavailable Royal Navy records to produce one complete account. The combination of these two summaries forms a unique record.