A Norwegian who collaborated with the Nazis during World War II founded his party on this day in 1933. Quisling’s name has now entered the English language as a synonym for traitor
From communism ...
Vidkun Quisling graduated first in his class at the Norwegian Military Academy. Still in his twenties, he was sent to Russia as military attache, wrote William Shirer in The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich
... to fascism
Impressed by the success of Bolsheviks in the 1917 revolution, the young army officer initially offered his services to Norway’s Labour Party, then a member of the Comintern. Rebuffed, he soon veered to the opposite end of the political spectrum
Quisling’s May 17 movement
After serving as Norway’s Minister of Defense from 1931 to 1933, he founded his fascist party Nasjonal Samling on May 17, 1933. German dictator Adolf Hitler funded his party. After the Nazi invasion of Norway in 1940, the Germans tried to install him as PM with the Norwegian king’s acquiescence
Executed after the Nazi defeat
Nevertheless, Quisling was installed as the Minister President of Norway during the occupation. After Hitler’s defeat in WWII, he was convicted of high treason & executed by firing squad on Oct. 24, 1945