Sunday Post - 08.12.1940, Blaðsíða 2

SUNDAY POST
is issued by S. Benediktsson
publisher of Daily Post.
Office: AlpySuprentsmiSjan
h.f. Teleph. 4S05. Reykjavik.
Sunday, Dec. 8th, 1940
News in brief.
London, Dec. 7th.
President Roosevelt in a
reply to an appeal from King
George of the Hellens has said
that the U.S.A. would assist the
Greeks as efficiently as poss-
ible.
Arriving this week
Dancing Records.
Gramophones — Springs
Needles*.
Music instruments
Violinbows — Strings etc.
HL J ODF ACR AHU SID
Teleph. 3656.
7, Bankastrseti.
Silver Fox.
You can get beautiful silver
fox skins at GUNNARSHOLMI
The farm Gunnarsholmi is a-
bout 10 miles from Reykjavik,
close to the road between Log-
berg and Geithals. Call and
look at the skins.
YOU ARE WELCOME. _
^identification
bracelets
Just what you desire. Sterling
Silver Bracelet, engraved by us,
is the best Christmas present.
MAGNUS BENJAMINSSON
& Co. Veltusundi 3 B. Close
by the English Bookshop.
GAMLA BIO. BURN’EM UP O’CONNOR with DENNIS O’KEEFE, CECILIA PARKER and NAT PENDLETON. Nightly at 7 and 9.

KAFFISTOFAN HVOLL. Hot meals, coffee, tea and beer from 6 a.m. to 11.30 p. m. Try our FRIED FISH and SKYR and CREAM. (The national: dish of Ice- land.) 15, Hafnarstraeti. Telephone 2329.
\
IN OCCUPIED NORWAY
Norwegians Defy Nazi Domination
by OLAF HANSEN.
Night comes to Oslo Fjord in
the late afternoon now, and it is
very dark and cold at six-thirty,
but every evening about that
time residents in the pinewooded
outskirts of Oslo open wide the
windows of their udghel rooms
so that their neighbours and
passers-by may hear the radio.
Through the loudspeakers a
voice calls from London. It is the
news in Norwegian.
Chancellor Hitler’s hordes have
occupied Norway. They lord it in
public places. Black-uniformed
Elite Guards stride the streets of
the capital, ready to pounce on
any indiscreet citizen who may
show his distaste of Germans by
iword or deed. Gestapo men lurk
in unexpected places. You can
never be sure that the stranger
beside you in the train or at your
table in a cafe is not a Quisling.
Yet, in spite of all those re-
pressive activities, the free, in-
dependent spirit of Norway is
still evident. It is~manifested in
various ways. One of them is the
almost ceremonial switching-on of
the radio at the hour of the news
in Norwegian from London. The
Germans have tried to stop it,
but they •'have failed.
One gets the impression that
Herr Hitler is reluctant to apply
to Norway the terroristic treat-
ment he has inflicted on some of
the countries he has occupied.
For instance, the Norwegian na-
tional anthem is still played in
the Nazi-controlled radio pro-
grams and at public meetings,
but after the Horst Wessel song
and ..Deutschland iiber Alles“.
Nazis Told to Re Polite.
Nazis appear to be under ord-
ers to show politeness to Nor-
wegians in public places and in
various ways to try to convince
the Norwegians that Nazi rule is
good for them. I hope I do not
need to add that if those are
their orders, they have entirely
failed. No words of mine can
convey the loathing in which the
Nazis are held by every Nor-
wegian.
If Quisling, Major Vidkum —
the head of thee puppet regime—
represented less than 1 per cent
of Norwegians when the Nazis
marched in, he has the support
of considerably less than that
now The Gleichschaltung of Nor-
way has made no progress what-
ever. i
The Norwegians are a fairly
easygoing, though industrious
and freedom-loving, people.
We do not resort to vendettas.
But I can assure you that, with
the exception of a very few Quis-
lings, every Norwegian is living
only for the day when he can
strike back at those who have
changed his comfortable, pros-
perous land into a bleak and
barren country where one indis-
creet word may lead a man to
the dreaded fortress prison of
Akershus.
That is why, when the Nazis
recently ordered Norwegians to
deliver up all firearms or wea-
pons they may have had, most
of us went digging.
I know that at the time of the
invasion of Norway, the im-
pression was gained that Nor-
way was full of traitors. But, be-
lieve me, Norway before the in-
vasion was full of Germans. They
had come into the country in
various guises. It is not generally
known that General von Falken-
horst, Commander in Chief of the
Norwegian campaign, was stay-
ing at a hotel in Oslo from last
Christmas almost up to the eve
of the invasion—“disguised” as
a commercial traveler.
Singing in the Dark
Not more than a month ago I
was sitting in a cinema in Oslo,
watching an Errol Flynn film.
Usually in Norwegian cinemas
now the main feature is preceded
by the German newsreel, but on
this occasion it happened to
follow the big film.
As soon as the newsreel had
started, a man stood up some-
where 'in the dark and started to
sing the Norwegian national ant-
hem. Soon every man and woman
in that cinema was standing and
singing fervently. And when they
bad finished they trooped out
quietly, leaving the newsreel to
run its course in an empty the-
atre. — r
In Oslo you might see here and
there a young woman with her
hail’ cut short right up to the
poll—a very rare sight in Nor-
Way, where short-hair fashions
have never been popular. They
are girls who have been asso-
ciating with German soldiers.
Their hair has been cut off in
the street.
That is, I suppose, a practice
you would not expect of Nor-
wegians, But it shows the fierce
feeling that is aroused in a natur-
ally orderly people by the sight
of Norwegian girls „walkingout“
with the hated Nazis.
Recently it was announced that
Josef Terboven, Herr Hitler’s hire-
ling in chief in Norway, would
make an important pronounce-
ment, and all Norwegians were
ordered to listen to it. The speech
was devoted entirely to threats
of dire punishment to any Nor-
wegian who attempted to prevent
a Norwegian girl from associat-
ing vith a German soldier.
Although Norwegians frequent-
ly take supposebly forbidden li-
berties because Herr Hitler appe-
ars to hesitate at ruthless repress-
ion sentiment, the Gestapo men
are everywhere, and frequently
they strike:
Punished for Printing Speech
A friend in Bergen printed and
secretly circulated a verbatim re-
port of King Haakon’s reply to
the Nazi demand for his abdi-
cation, of which only a censored
summary appeared in our Ger-
man-gagged newspapers. A Quis-
ling betrayed my friend, and he
has not been seen since the Gesta-
po men took him away.
Shortly before I lesfcapleid, I was
walking with another friend near
the Karl-Johan’s Gate in Oslo.
He was stopped by a German
officer, tall, monocled, spruce in
Reichswehr gray, who asked for
a direction. My friend hesitated-
The officer snarled at him:
“Can’t you answer, or won’t
you answer?"
Riled, the Norwegian shouted
back:
“I won’t answer."
Two Elite Guards were upon
him in a momment. He was hust-
led away and imprisoned for a
month without trial or question
img .
The most savage instance of
Gestapo terror was the arrest, of
fifteen persons at random when
a German soldier was shot dead
in a night brawl in rOslo. A
crowd quickly gathered in the
dark street. The Gestapo poun-
ced on the fifteen, took them to
the Akershus Prison, and with-
out asking any questions, lined
them Up and shot every other
man.
Yet in spite of the knowledge
that at any moment Herr Hitler
may find an excuse to unleash oh
(Continued on page 3).