About the project
Particular emphasis was placed on shedding light on the volunteers’ backgrounds, motivation and recruitment, as well as the Norwegian units’ structure and position within the Waffen SS. The project examined the volunteers’ deployment with the various frontline forces, participation in fighting and potential war crimes. In addition, the project has examined the volunteers’ place, self-concept and public perception in Norwegian post-war society.
The work got underway in 2006 and the research group submitted its final report in the summer of 2010. The project was commissioned by the Norwegian government and funded by the Ministry of Justice and Police, the Ministry of Defence, the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The book Himmlers Norge - nordmenn i det storgermanske prosjekt [Himmler’s Norway – Norwegians in the Great Germanic Project] was published in September 2012.