Gunnar Eilifsen

Gunnar Eilifsen

Gunnar Eilifsen (born September 12, 1897 in Kristiansand , Vest-Agder , † August 16, 1943 ) was a senior Norwegian police officer and the first Norwegian to be sentenced to death and executed in 1943 at the instigation of the fascist Nasjonal Samling government under Vidkun Quisling .

Eilifsen was a police officer and police lawyer in Bergen and, like many of his colleagues, joined the fascist Norwegian Nasjonal Samling (NS) after the start of the Second World War , obviously not least under pressure from Police Minister Jonas Lie . A little later he was appointed Politimester (i.e. about police director, here head of a police district) von Halden . When he then announced his resignation from the Nasjonal Samling in the spring of 1941, he was demoted to the police force and transferred first to Hønefoss and then in the spring of 1943 to Oslo , where he became head of the civil crime department of the Oslo Political Chamber.

His direct superior, the fascist Politimester of Oslo (Police President) Bernhard Askvig , ordered Eilifsen to hand over five of his constables to the Norwegian State Police . These subordinates later told him that they had been ordered there to arrest five girls who had not shown up for labor . They had refused this order and Eilifsen supported them in this attitude.

The German authorized representative, d. H. Practically the head of the German occupying power, Josef Terboven , was informed of the process and found that such refusal of orders could have demoralizing effects. He stressed that it is essential to be able to rely on the entire police force, especially in a situation where a possible Allied invasion of Norway is to be feared. Terboven therefore demanded that Eilifsen should be sentenced to death immediately by a Norwegian court because Eilifsen had violated Norwegian rules (and not German ones). Eilifsen was in fact immediately brought to court, but was acquitted by the three judges because they saw no legal basis for sentencing him to death.

Eilifsen was then in the custody returned and his lawyer went home. Terboven was furious and demanded an immediate new sentence in his favor. Later that afternoon, Eilifsen was taken to the courthouse again, this time only two judges and the prosecutor were present and no defense. Eilifsen was immediately sentenced to death and executed the next sunrise . He was not given opportunities to contact his family or defense lawyer after the final verdict was announced. The Nazi Justice Minister Sverre Riisnæs initially protested and pointed out that there was no legal basis for such an approach. However, he was put under great pressure and immediately had to sign a new law in which it was stipulated that the police, the "Führer Guard" Quislings and the "Germanische SS Norge" would also be subject to the Military Criminal Code (and thus also a possible one Death penalty ). This law was often referred to by critics as "Lex Eilifsen" and it also formed the basis for the establishment of a new special court for the police. Vidkun Quisling signed the new law three days after Gunnar Eilifsen was executed .

The law and the new special court were immediately exposed to severe criticism, including a. by Albert Wiesner , especially since it was apparently supposed to come into force retrospectively. Police Minister Jonas Lie appointed the judges at the Special Court for the Police and the judges Karl Marthinsen and Egil Olbjørn imposed the death penalty, only objected by Egil Reichborn-Kjennerud . This was the first time a Norwegian court had imposed the death penalty during World War II.

At the same time as the shooting of Eilifsen on August 16, 1943, numerous members of the Norwegian police were arrested by German police and German troops across the country. In Oslo alone 700 police officers were arrested by armed German guards and a declaration of loyalty was required from them. About 300 of the arrested police officers were later deported to the Stutthof concentration camp in Poland, and about the same number were imprisoned in the Norwegian internment camp Grini fangeleir . This action had already been secretly prepared some time beforehand under the name “ Aktion Arctic Circle ” and the events around Eilifsen were the starting signal for its practical implementation.

The Eilifsen affair received a great deal of attention and caused consternation both in Norwegian resistance circles and among Norwegian Nazi supporters, where submissive obedience to German dictates was particularly problematic. Within the Norwegian police, the work ethic sank significantly afterwards and new recruits for the police in Norway were practically completely absent until the liberation in May 1945.

literature

• JB Hjort: Justice murder. Gyldendal. Oslo 1952.
• Nils Johan Ringdal: Mellom barken and veden. Politiet under okkupasjonen. Aschehoug, Oslo 1987, ISBN 82-03-15616-9 .

Web links

• Norwegian War Lexicon on Eilifsen (Norwegian)
• Detailed biography of the Norsk biografisk leksikon (Norwegian)