Norway’s police apology over war-time role

Published on 27/11/2012 00:00

Norwegian police have apologised for the first time for their complicity in the deportation and murder of over 700 Jews during the Nazi occupation in the Second World War, just months after the prime minister made a formal apology.

“Norwegian police officers participated in the arrest and deportation of Jews,” police chief Odd Reidar Humlegaard said yesterday on the 70th anniversary of Norway deporting the first group of Jews to Auschwitz. “It is fitting that I express my regret for the role police played.

Vidkun Quisling, Norway’s leader during the Nazi occupation, whose name has become a synonym for traitor, ordered the registration of Jews in 1942.