Norwegian Nurses in the Service of the Third Reich: A Criminological Study of Atrocity Perpetration and Claims to Victimhood
Talk with Lilli Wolland Blomberg, PhD Law, University of Edinburgh.
The purpose of this project is to study a controversial and debated group in Norwegian post-war memory, answering the main research question of ‘what explains Norwegian nurses’ contribution to Nazi atrocity crime in their role as part of the German Red Cross’? This group is often referred to as ‘Frontsøstre’, broadly understood as women who volunteered to serve as part of the German Red Cross (DRK). Many were prosecuted and sentenced in the Norwegian treason trials (1945-1957), one of the most comprehensive criminal justice processes in Europe after the Second World War. The complex group were mainly prosecuted and sentenced for the crime of treason by having ‘aided the enemy’ through the DRK (1942-1945), often combined with other accounts of Nazy Party membership, German work, and informant work. And as a result, punished with time in prison, loss of civil rights, and fines. In addition to various forms of extra judicial measures that speaks to gendered forms of punishment. While the group is well-debated in terms of Norway’s post-war criminal justice process, there remain many knowledge gaps and puzzles about their claims to victimhood and complicity in Nazi crime.
In response, this qualitative and interdisciplinary research applies criminological theory and conceptual tools (victimology, perpetrator studies, memory studies), critically engages with historical literature, and collects primary data mainly from the National Archive of Norway. By utilising archival material few have seen and accessed before, and forming an original combination of source material, this project offers new empirical findings about the nurses’ experiences of punishment and claims to victimhood. Theoretically, the study finds that applying conceptual tools enables us to move beyond the dichotomous understanding of them as either victims or accomplices, towards recognising the groups' many complexities. Finally, the study finds there is a need to epistemologically challenge post-war knowledge of the group by looking at when, how, and by whom this knowledge is produced.