Quisling

Quisling, after Norwegian fascist politician Vidkun Quisling, is a term used to describe traitors and collaborationists. It was most commonly used for fascist political parties and military and paramilitary forces in occupied Allied countries which collaborated with Axis occupiers in World War II Europe, as well as for their members and other collaborators.

That Quisling's name should be applied to denote the whole phenomenon of collaborationism is probably due to the place of Norway on the list of countries occupied by the Third Reich. There were few Polish collaborators, other than the Volksdeutsche, and Denmark fell within a few hours. Thus, Norway was the first country where local, non-German, fascist parties took part in the conquest of their own country after the start of the War.

In contemporary usage, "Quisling" is synonymous with "traitor", and particularly applied to politicians who appear to favour the interests of other nations or cultures over their own.

Quislings in World War II Europe

Quisling forces were formed in most occupied European countries. They were used by the Axis to control the local population and free German forces for major military operations against Allies. However, as they were unpopular, German forces had to stay behind anyway.

European Quisling organizations of World War II included:

Countries occupied in the 1940 Blitzkrieg:

Denmark

• National Socialist Workers Party of Denmark

Norway

• Nasjonal Samling

The Netherlands

• Nationaal-Socialistische Beweging

Belgium

• Flemish National Union

France

• Mouvement Franciste
• Légion Française des Combattants
• Amis de la Légion
• Légion Française des Combattants et des volontaires de la Révolution Nationale
• Service d'Ordre Légionnaire
• Parti Populaire Français
• Rassemblement National Populaire

Countries occupied and partitioned during the 1941 Balkan Campaign:

Greece

• Greek National Socialist Party
• National Union of Greece
• ESPO
• Security Battalions
• Forces of Konstantinos Logothetopoulos and Ioannis Rallis

Yugoslavia

• Bela garda (Slovenian "White Guard")
• Domobranci (Slovenian "Homeland Defense")
• Ustasha
• Domobrani (Croatian "Homeland Defense")
• Forces of Dimitrije Ljotić and Milan Nedić
• Forces of Kosta Milovanović Pećanac

In popular culture

• In a wartime Norwegian cartoon, "Audience with Hitler", Quisling says: "I am Quisling", and Hitler replies: "And what is your name?".
• In John Steinbeck's novel/play The Moon Is Down, written for the OSS as propaganda to encourage resistance efforts and underground movements, there is a Quisling character named George Corell.
• In Max Brook's novel World War Z, "quisling" refers to a human that had broken down psychologically due to the presence of zombies and thus begun acting like a zombie. These humans are traitors and will attack other humans mindlessly, but will not fight zombies despite zombies attacking quislings.
• The eighteenth episode on the first season of the television series House, House jokes angrily with Cuddy saying, "You know, there is a new biography on Quisling you might find interesting." Cuddy doesn't understand, requiring House to explain and thus spoil the joke.
• In an episode of the British TV series "Filthy, Rich and Catflap," Richie Rich calls the milkman "Quisling" while accusing him of carrying knowledge that could "put back the British game show 50 years."
• In the board game Renegade Legion: Interceptor, there is a character named "Ronald Quisling" who is an ingratiating but traitorous man, who seeks to backstab and replace his commanding officer.
• In the 1944 Warner Bros. cartoon Tom Turk and Daffy, on Thanksgiving Day, Daffy Duck at first hides the turkey from Porky Pig and then tells Porky where the turkey is. The turkey hears this betrayal, turns toward the audience and simply says, "Quisling!"
• In one of Charles Schulz's "Peanuts" comic strips, Linus called Snoopy "Quisling!" after revealing his hiding place in a game of hide-and-seek.
• In the song 'Insect Nation' by comedian Bill Bailey, he describes Crabs - who would supposedly ally with the insects in enslaving mankind - as "Sideways Quislings".
• In the Irish rebel song "Patriot Game", the last line refers to those who signed the compromising treaty with Brittian that left Ireland divided as "qwislings".
• On January 7, 1998 Norm MacDonald was a guest on the Late Show with David Letterman just after it was announced that he had been fired from Saturday Night Live. Through out the interview David Letterman kept referring to Norm MacDonald as a "Quisling" for not having fought with NBC executives to keep his job at SNL, this was made even funnier by the fact that Norm MacDonald had no idea what the word meant. During a commercial break Norm MacDonald was given a dictionary to look up the word and later in the interview he read the definition on the air.
• In the David Thomas and foreigners song, '15 Seconds', Thomas refers to music journalist David Fricke as "one of the apologists, one of the Quislings/for the repopulation of the American continent with clones".
• In the Robert Silverberg novel The Alien Years the term refers to humans who collaborate with the Entity invaders.
• In an episode of the BBC's "The Thick Of It" spin doctor jamie accuses Character Julius Nicholson of leaking political information to the press and calls him a "Mimsy bastard fucking Quisling leak fuck".

See also

• Fifth column
• Benedict Arnold
• Collaborationism