April 1944. 9 April 1940. Under the codename “Operation Weserübung,” Nazi Germany invades Denmark and Norway.
Strategically, Denmark is important to Germany as a staging area for operations in Norway, where Germany seeks to secure naval bases for use against the British fleet in the North Sea and to ensure vital iron-ore shipments from neutral Sweden. While the invasion of Denmark lasts less than six hours, making it the shortest German military campaign of the war, Norway surrenders after two months, on 10 June 1940. During the German occupation of Norway, the Gestapo—the Nazi secret police—plays a key role in maintaining control through terrorizing the local population.
Among the Norwegians who support the far-right political party Nasjonal Samling, relatively few actively collaborate with the Nazis. The most feared Nazi collaborator and a central figure in the implementation of the Holocaust in Norway is the commander of the State Police, Karl Marthinsen. Karl Alfred Nicolai Marthinsen was born on 25 October 1896 on the island of Karlsøy, in northern Norway.
Marthinsen enlisted in the Norwegian Army toward the end of the First World War, which lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918. He then completed his training as a non-commissioned officer and was promoted to sergeant in 1919. After his military service, Marthinsen supposedly worked as a sailor until 1928, when he re-enlisted in the army.
Then he served as an intelligence officer in the local defense staff in Finnmark, the northernmost region of Norway, bordering Russia and Finland. At this time, he was already married to Agnes Jakobine Eidissen, with whom he had two sons: Bernt, born in 1921, and Kjell Andreas, born in 1924. On 30 January 1933, Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany by President Paul von Hindenburg.
As the Nazi regime swiftly consolidated power, its influence extended beyond Germany’s borders, inspiring far-right movements across Europe. In Norway, this political shift resonated with Vidkun Quisling, who had served as the country’s Minister of Defence from May 1931 to March 1933. In May 1933, Quisling co-founded the Nasjonal Samling—meaning "National Unity"—a fascist political party, and Marthinsen became one of its first members.
The Second World War started on 1 September 1939 when Nazi Germany invaded Poland. Shortly after, on 30 November 1939, the Soviet Union launched an attack on Finland, beginning the Winter War. This conflict lasted until March 1940, when Finland agreed to cede about 9% of its territory to the Soviets as part of a peace settlement.
While stationed in Finnmark, Marthinsen was introduced to Jonas Lie, the head of the Emergency Police, who, due to Norway’s geographical proximity to both Finland and the Soviet Union, was stationed there during the Winter War. Marthinsen, along with Lie, allegedly interrogated individuals suspected of being spies and monitored those believed to be communists. The German invasion of Norway began on 9 April 1940, and two months later, on 10 June, Norway fell to Germany.
Following the invasion, a diverse range of resistance activities emerged, including both organized groups and spontaneous civilian efforts. One of the most prominent organizations was Milorg, the military branch of the Norwegian resistance, which coordinated armed resistance and sabotage operations. Milorg's activities ranged from intelligence gathering and smuggling supplies to conducting guerrilla warfare and executing targeted sabotage missions against German infrastructure.
Civilian efforts also played a significant role, engaging in non-violent resistance such as spreading underground newspapers, organizing strikes, and maintaining communication with the exiled Norwegian government in London. The Norwegian resistance worked closely with the British Special Operations Executive—the SOE, an organization that supported local resistance movements and helped them conduct espionage and sabotage against Axis powers. Notable operations included the heavy water sabotage at the Vemork plant, which hindered German efforts to develop nuclear weapons.
The resistance also assisted in the escape of Jews and other persecuted individuals from Norway to neutral Sweden. Despite facing severe repression, including arrests, torture, and executions by the Gestapo, the Norwegian resistance remained resilient. Their efforts significantly disrupted German operations, contributed to Allied intelligence, and bolstered national morale, ultimately playing a vital role in Norway's liberation.
During the Nazi occupation of Norway, Marthinsen decided to collaborate with the Germans and joined the police. He was small and thin, with dark hair and dark eyes, but he was also extremely ambitious, energetic, and efficient. Marthinsen quickly rose through the ranks, eventually becoming the head of the entire Norwegian Security Police with the title of Police General.
He reported directly to the Minister of Police, Jonas Lie, a longtime friend from their days in Finnmark. Marthinsen played a crucial role as a key liaison between Norwegian police forces, the Quisling cabinet, and the German Gestapo. He assisted German authorities in suppressing anti-Nazi groups, overseeing arrests, interrogations, and deportations of political dissidents, Jews, and members of the Norwegian resistance.
His pro-German sympathies, fanaticism, use of the death penalty, and indifference to torture within the State Police made him a villain in the eyes of the Norwegian underground. Marthinsen showed little regard for the rule of law, believing that brutal measures were necessary to maintain control and eliminate opposition. His disregard for justice was evident in a letter to Norwegian officials dated 5 August 1942, in which he wrote: “It is better to detain an innocent person than to let a guilty one escape.
” Despite lacking a legal education, Marthinsen was appointed as one of the three judges in the Police Special Court during the Eilifsen case in 1943. Gunnar Eilifsen, a Norwegian police officer, was convicted of disobedience after refusing to arrest five young women who had failed to report for forced labor. Marthinsen, along with Judge Egil Olbjørn, voted in favor of the death penalty, while the third judge, Egil Reichborn-Kjennerud, opposed it.
As a result, Gunnar Eilifsen was executed on 16 August 1943, making him the first Norwegian police officer to be sentenced to death under the Nazi occupation. Marthinsen also became the leader of the nationwide paramilitary Hird organization, which was modeled after the German SA. The SA, or Sturmabteilung, was the Nazi paramilitary force also known as the Storm Troopers or 'Brownshirts' due to the color of their uniforms.
Moreover, Marthinsen actively advocated for sending Norwegian youth to the Eastern Front, urging them to join the fight against the Soviet Union as part of the German-led forces. His own son, Kjell Andreas Marthinsen, started SS training in the 11th Kriegs-Junker-Lehrgang, which lasted from 6 September 1943 until 11 April 1944. March 1944.
He was commissioned as SS-Untersturmführer on 21 June 1944. Kjell later served in 11. SS-Division Nordland, 23.
SS-Panzergrenadierregiment Norway, and on 20 August, he was wounded when he stepped on a mine. Twenty-year-old Kjell, Karl Marthinsen's youngest son, died on 16 October when the plane he was in crashed. He was buried on 24 October 1944, one day before his father's 48th birthday.
Karl Marthinsen was deeply involved in the persecution of Norway’s Jewish population, working closely with German authorities to enforce anti-Jewish policies. He oversaw mass arrests, deportations, and the confiscation of Jewish property, ensuring that Nazi directives were carried out efficiently. Marthinsen played an instrumental role in implementing the Holocaust in Norway, resulting in the murder of more than 700 Jews and the brutal mistreatment of many more.
There were approximately 2,100 Jews in Norway at the time of the German invasion. Among them were about 350 German and Austrian refugees who had sought haven from Nazi Germany. After numerous cases of harassment and violence against individuals, orders were issued to Norwegian police authorities on 24 and 25 October 1942, to arrest all Jewish men over the age of 15 and confiscate all their property.
A month later, Nazi officials working with Quisling’s Nasjonal Samling began to arrest women and children. Acting on plans that had been previously developed, the Norwegian police arrested Jews throughout Norway and brought them to Oslo for deportation to Germany. The first deportation of 532 Jews left Oslo on 26 November 1942.
Another 158 were deported on 25 February 1943, followed by transfers of smaller groups. In all, 772 Norwegian Jewish men, women, and children were deported from the Norwegian capital to Germany. From Oslo, Norwegian Jews were sent by ship to the German port city of Stettin, today’s Szczecin in Poland.
They were then transferred by train to Auschwitz, where most were gassed immediately upon arrival. However, 34 Norwegian Jews—all men—ultimately did survive to see the end of the war. Fortunately, however, many Jews received advance warnings of the roundups from Norwegian policemen and members of the underground.
As a result, many of Norway's Jews, about 1,000, escaped to neutral Sweden with the aid of the underground, and many others went into hiding. By early 1945, it was clear that Germany would lose the war. Both the Norwegian resistance and the government-in-exile feared that Marthinsen might rally the most desperate and fanatic members of the National Unity Party for a final battle, and as a result, they gave the green light to assassinate him.
The operation was carried out on 8 February 1945, by the Norwegian resistance group Milorg as part of Operation Buzzard. A team of trained gunmen lay in wait behind a woodpile near his home at Blindernveien 74 in Oslo, and as soon as his car started moving, they opened fire with automatic weapons, instantly killing the 48-year-old Marthinsen in the passenger seat and lightly wounding his driver. In the aftermath, questions arose about why Marthinsen had not taken greater precautions to protect himself.
Some believe that the loss of his son, the prospect of a trial, and the likelihood of a death sentence as the war neared its end made death a form of liberation for him. Marthinsen’s death sent shockwaves through Nazi-occupied Norway, where it became the most costly assassination of its kind during the entire war, measured by the number of lives lost in retaliation. On the very day of the assassination, Reichskommissar Josef Terboven called an emergency meeting with both the Norwegian collaborationist government and the German administration in occupied Norway.
He argued that the killing of Marthinsen threatened the credibility of the Nazi regime and demanded that 75 Norwegians be executed in retaliation. Norwegian leaders, including Vidkun Quisling, Police Minister Jonas Lie, and Minister of Justice Sverre Riisnæs, objected but were overruled. In the end, 32 victims—including four civilians who were randomly selected—were shot within two days.
A drunk Justice Minister Sverre Riisnæs personally took part in the shootings on 9 February, later stating: "I feel I’ve avenged my good friend Marthinsen. " Among those involved in the executions was Olav Aspheim, a fanatical member of the State Police, who indiscriminately fired at the corpses of resistance fighters even after they were already dead. The extent and severity of the reprisals shocked both the Norwegian population and the government-in-exile, leading to a general moratorium on targeted assassinations of high-ranking Nazi officials.
However, operations against informers were allowed to continue. Marthinsen was buried with full honors at Vestre Gravlund, the largest cemetery in Oslo, on 14 February 1945. Due to the high number of reprisals, the decision to assassinate him remained a topic of debate even years after the war.
There were no tears shed for Karl Marthinsen. Thanks for watching the World History Channel. Be sure to like and subscribe, and click the bell notification icon, so you don't miss our next episodes.
We thank you, and we'll see you next time on the channel.
