| Nazi Reich Commissioner of Norway. Country: Norway |
Josef Terboven (1898-1945) was a Nazi Reich Commissioner of Norway. He was born on May 23, 1898, in Essen, Germany. Terboven worked as a bank employee before entering politics.
In 1930, Terboven was elected as a member of the Reichstag, representing the Nazi Party for the Düsseldorf-West electoral district. In 1933, he was appointed to the Prussian State Council and became the Gauleiter (district leader) of the Nazi Party in Essen. His position within the party was solidified when Adolf Hitler attended his wedding on June 28, 1934, in Essen.
On February 5, 1935, Terboven was appointed as the President of the Rhine Province, and in September 1939, he became the Reich Commissioner for Defense of the VI Defense District. Following the Nazi invasion of Norway on April 9, 1940, Hitler deemed it necessary to appoint a trusted governor to the country. Dissatisfied with the actions of the puppet Norwegian Prime Minister Vidkun Quisling, who failed to garner support from the Norwegians, Hitler removed him from power on April 15, just six days after Quisling declared himself as the country's prime minister.
Initially, an administrative council consisting of six prominent Norwegian citizens, including Bishop Eivind Berggrav and Pal Berg, the president of the Supreme Court (who later headed the Norwegian Resistance movement), was formed in Norway. However, Hitler did not trust this council and on April 24, 1940, appointed Terboven as the Reich Commissioner of Norway, with the rank of Obergruppenführer in the SA (Sturmabteilung).
Terboven's leadership in Norway resembled that of Reinhard Heydrich in Czechoslovakia. In the early months of his rule, Terboven took measures that created an impression that Norwegian Jews would not be persecuted. However, the situation for Jews in Norway progressively deteriorated. In June 1941, shortly after the German invasion of the Soviet Union, Terboven organized a roundup of Jews in Tromsø and other northern cities of Norway, deporting them to Germany. Other individuals arrested in Trondheim were executed. Jews in Oslo were initially spared, but on February 2, 1942, Terboven ordered them to wear the Star of David on their clothing and marked their documents with the letter "J" for "Jew."
Terboven was suspicious of all Norwegians and, during his tenure, he organized the export of Norwegian granite to Germany, which was used in the construction of heroic statues of Hitler designed by Albert Speer. Terboven died in May 1945, presumably by suicide.