For some reason, Scandinavia during WW2 is not a widely researched topic but a sidenote on the margins. Researchers mainly mention Norway as the potential source of the materials for an atomic bomb. NORWAY'S WAR: A PEOPLE'S STRUGGLE AGAINST NAZI TYRANNY, 1940-1945 fills the knowledge gap with a vivid, easily accessible account of the events.

Norway's Nazi occupation differs in many ways from the situation anywhere in Europe. Unlike in Denmark, King Haakon VII and the government fled the country, leaving it without a governing body. The belonging to the so-called Aryan race explains the relatively lenient attitude of Germans toward ordinary Norwegians: on May 12, 1940, Norwegian soldiers were disarmed - and went home. Rather than exterminate Norwegians, Nazis under the command of Reichkommissar Josef Terboven intended to Nazify the country by implementing national socialism in all spheres of life. To save the pretense of legitimacy, they operated through an unpopular local National Unity party.

Resistance against the Nazi policy took many forms. Milorg organization disrupted transportation, transmitted information to England, and transported refugees to neutral Sweden. The non-violent Conscience Struggle of 1942 involved ordinary priests, teachers, and parents who opposed the country's Nazification.

NORWAY'S WAR also describes the horrors of the Norwegian Holocaust, while providing a list of memoirs for interested historians. At first, Jews were required to have "J" stamped on their passport. Then the transportation to German concentration camps began. Out of thousands of men, women, and children, only twenty-nine returned home.

The book's blurb says, "The key players in the occupation, whether occupiers, collaborators or resisters, both non-violent and otherwise, are memorably characterised." It's true: the historical figures - Vidkun Quisling, Sverre Riisnæs, Gunnar Waaler, Ingrid Bjerkås, and many others - come to life within the book, acquiring depth and precision through personal details. As the story continues, the leaning toward historical fiction becomes more pronounced. It culminates in an epilogue dedicated to Karl Mathiesen's trial and execution, where the author ascribes thoughts and speculations to the characters. History and historical fiction, two respectable genres, are not the same, and, meshing them up, the author leaves the reader wondering about the extent of deliberate fictionalization.

NORWAY'S WAR's flawless writing style allows the general audience, totally unfamiliar with Norway's history, to get a comprehensive overview of the occupation. I recommend NORWAY'S WAR as the starting point for further deeper reading on the topic.

I obtained an advanced review copy through Netgalley, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Norway’s War is an exhaustively researched, very detailed but always readable account of the invasion in 1940 of Norway by Nazi Germany and the subsequent occupation of the country until 1945. It relates how the Nazis, aided enthusiastically by the minority Norwegian National Unity party, attempted to subjugate the Norwegian population and impose a National Socialist revolution on the country and how the majority of the Norwegian people resisted in a variety of peaceful and non-peaceful ways. The courage and ingenuity of the Norwegian people is rightly celebrated and the fanaticism, brutality and depravity of the Nazis and their National Unity collaborators is ruthlessly exposed. A minor quibble from this reader is that the epilogue which tells the story of the trial, sentencing and execution of a single resistance fighter is stylistically incongruous with the rest of the book and is overlong. Nevertheless, this is an important book about a period of fairly recent European history which should never be forgotten.