Afternoon Session
M. GERTHOFFER: I had the honor, this morning, of relating to you how the occupiers were able to exact great quantities of the means of payment from Norway. We shall now see, from the first data which have been given us, the use to which the occupiers put these means of payment.
The Germans seized, as in the other occupied countries, considerable private property on some pretext or other—property belonging to Jews, Freemasons, or Scout associations. It has been impossible, so far, to make a very exact evaluation of this spoliation. We can therefore only give some indication from memory. According to the report of the Norwegian Government, submitted under Document Number RF-121, in 1941 the Germans seized all the radio sets. . .
THE PRESIDENT: Have you any evidence to support the facts you are stating now?
M. GERTHOFFER: This is based on information contained in the report of the Norwegian Government which I have submitted under Document Number RF-121.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes.
M. GERTHOFFER: According to that report, in 1941 the Germans seized almost all the radio sets belonging to private individuals. The value of these radio sets is approximately 120 million kroner. The Germans imposed heavy fines on the Norwegian communities under the most varied pretexts, notably Allied bombing raids and acts of sabotage.
In the report presented under Document Number RF-121 the Norwegian Government gives two or three examples of these collective fines: on 4 March 1941, after a raid on Lofoten, the population of the small community of Ostvagoy had to pay 100,000 kroner. Communities also had to support German families and families of “Quislings.”
On 25 September 1942, after a British raid on Oslo, one hundred citizens were obliged to pay 3,500,000 kroner. In January 1941 Trondheim, Stavanger, and Vest-Opland had to pay 60,000, 50,000, and 100,000 kroner, respectively. In September 1941 the municipality of Stavanger was obliged to pay 2 million kroner for an alleged sabotage of telegraph lines. In August 1941 Rogaland had to pay 500,000 kroner, and Aalesund had to pay 100,000 kroner.