Politics and Culure in 20th Century Europe- Blog #4

When I visited Norway this weekend, I visited the Norwegian Resistance Museum. It was by far my favorite museum I visited while I was there. The museum began with the April 9, 1940 German invasion to Norway and continued to show the next 5 years of occupation by the German Nazis. Each museum I go to I try to put myself in the shoes of the soldiers, nurses, or any individual directly effected by the war. As hard as I try, I am unable to be able to relate to the sacrifice of the men and women; however, the Resistance Museum put the sacrifice into perspective for me.
There was a section of the museum that was devoted to the teachers in Norway who resisted the German regulations of what they were and weren’t suppose to teacher. Since I am a future teacher, it hit me hard to see the role I could have possibly played during WWII. The teachers were ordered to teach the students the Nazis theology, but they refused to follow the Germans orders. The Germans would send out letters telling the teacher these are the new requirements in the curriculum, and the teachers simply disregard there wishes. The German’s continued to push for the teachers to do what they wanted them to do, which lead them to withhold the teachers salaries and only released it if they signed the document agreeing to teach Nazi beliefs. The teachers still didn’t budge. The new order of government was fed up with the teachers’ resistance and had a mass arrest of teachers in 1942. They took these teachers to different German camps in extremely poor inadequate situations. They made them work in the cold without proper clothing. The ships that transported the teachers were over the capacity level as well as unclean. The Germans would treat the teachers like this in order to make them sign the document agreeing to teach Nazis theology. Some teachers who were ill would give in to the treatment and sign the document, but the majority of the teachers held their ground. I couldn’t imagine being in that situation. I would hope that I would be that teacher that held her ground and didn’t give into the Nazis, but the brutality of the treatment could easily be too much to bare. I think all the teachers and people who resisted the Germans during occupation were brave and courageous people. The society that people had to live in during WWII was difficult. Whether it was dealing with occupation or war on their own home front, it was a time that people made sacrifices and held their ground for what they believed. I hope that I would be able to sacrifice as much as the Norwegian teachers did.

http://www.infonorway.com/?norway=essay/war/diary