18. WWII’s Most Infamous Traitor
Norwegian army officer and right-wing politician Vidkun Quisling (1887 – 1945) led a fascist party in the 1930s, but it met with little success. He betrayed his country to the Nazis during WWII and collaborated with its German conquerors who, after rejecting him early in their occupation as too seedy even for them, finally relented to his entreaties and placed him in charge of a puppet government on their behalf. The son of a pastor, Quisling’s life had a promising start that gives little hint of coming ignominy. He did well in school, and graduated from the Norwegian Military College with the highest-ever score since its inception. He was sent to the USSR as a military attache in 1918, and became Norway’s military expert on all matters of Russia.
In 1922, Quisling worked on League of Nations humanitarian relief efforts in Ukraine and exhibited considerable administrative talent and skill. While there, he also met and married two Russian women in quick succession. The second marriage, which lasted until his death, was either bigamous or unofficial. Discharged from the army during a period of cutbacks, Quisling traveled throughout Europe for much of the 1920s. He returned to Norway in 1929, and launched a political career marked by anti-Semitic, anticommunist, and anti-liberal positions. Joining a movement called “Rise of the Nordic People“, he became Norway’s defense minister from 1931 to 1933. In 1933, the Nazis’ victory in Germany inspired Quisling to launch a Norwegian fascist party, and appoint himself its Fuhrer.