Fra skolehjem til tysk tjeneste

Abstract

This chapter explores the German recruitment of boys whom the Norwegian authorities labelled delinquent and sent to reformative schools during the years 1940–1945. Several of the boys were enrolled in the National Youth Association (NSUF) before they arrived at the reformative schools, and the chapter dwells on whether the boys were indoctrinated by the German propaganda. NSUF was the youth organization of the Nazi party Nasjonal Samling in Norway before and during the Second World War. One question regarding the NSUF is how the organization worked with social responsibility and education for poor youth as a central part of their political project. The focus in this chapter is on the extent of and reasons for this recruitment at three different schools: Falstad in Levanger, Bastøy in the Oslofjord, and Ulfsnæsøen (Ulvsnesøy) outside Bergen. Central research questions are: How many of the boys from these schools were conscripted into German war duty? Which factors were decisive for conscription? The vast majority of the 4,500 Norwegians who served the German occupying power during the Second World War had a burning desire to be recognized as good soldiers, both individually and as a group – was this also the case for the boys from the reformative schools?