Reidar Haaland

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Reidar Haaland (1919 - August 17, 1945) was a police officer from Stavanger, Norway and a voluntary frontline soldier for the German forces. A member of Nasjonal Samling, he became the first Norwegian to receive the death sentence during the post-World War II trials, and was executed on August 17, 1945 at Akershus Fortress, Oslo for treason.

[edit] A pawn in a bigger game?

It has been asserted^[1] that the cabinet's considerations about whether to execute the death sentence or not took place, partly so that Quisling would not be the first, and perhaps only one, but maybe even more importantly, in order for the changes to the citizenship law to slide through cabinet proceedings, which later have been alleged to contravene the constitution. These changes would allow for the deportation of about 3,500 Norwegian women who had been in relationships with German soldiers. And that is what happened; on the same day that the cabinet decided that the executions could commence, August 17, 1945, a provisional decision from the first cabinet of Einar Gerhardsen to this effect was decided.

[edit] Reference

[1995] in Dahl, Hans Fredrik: Norsk krigsleksikon 1940-45 (in Norwegian). Oslo: Cappelen. ISBN 82-02-14138-9. (available online)

^ An open letter to prime minister Stoltenberg, broadcasting director of NRK John G. Bernander and the Norwegian news media by former diplomat and jurist at the Norwegian department of Foreign Affairs, Synnøve Fjellbakk Taftø. From a letter to the editor of Vesterålen Online, dated February 17, 2006, submitted by Øyvind Aarsnes. Accessed March 12, 2007