Martyr in Norway?

In Norway, another Niemoller is in the making.

Broad-shouldered, fearless Lutheran Bishop Eivind Berggrav of Oslo, who has led Norse opposition to Quisling and the Nazis, resigned his post last week in protest against their latest coercive measure.

Norway's six other Lutheran bishops followed his lead and resigned in a body, stating that they could not carry on their work "while the Quisling Government continued to cooperate with the enemy." Stockholm heard rumors that Bishop Berggrav, suspended by the Government, had been thrown into the Grini concentration camp near Oslo.

Norway's overlords have good cause to hate Bishop Berggrav. As Primate of 97%-Lutheran Norway he has stubbornly fought them at every turn, with the result that only 27 of Norway's 700 parish pastors back Quisling. Last year Eivind Berggrav and his fellow bishops defied a Nazi ban and circulated a pastoral indicting the Nazis for their interference with churches, courts and schools, their effort to make pastors break their oath of silence on matters confided to them, and "the systematic rule of terror by Nazi storm troopers."

Bishop Berggrav's resignation last week was inspired by a new decree, that all children between ten and 18 must join the Nazi youth organization. He called this order a menace to the influence of the home and the church on youth. Norway's teachers agreed, and when they were further required to join a Nazi union, they went out on strike and closed every Norwegian school.

Physically as well as spiritually, Bishop Berggrav is equipped to cope with the Nazis. Tall, blue-eyed, with hair that is still bright blond in his 50s, he is an enthusiastic hunter, fisherman and sailor. A hard-working bishop, who before the war was constantly on the move visiting his flock, he also found time to write newspaper and magazine articles and best-selling travel books. He has never been a man to keep quiet on any issue. If the Nazis have indeed imprisoned him, his very silence will be loud.

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