The project takes as its starting point the Act Relating to the Confiscation of All Property Belonging to Jews (Lov om inndragning av formue som tilhører jøder), which went into force at the same time as the mass arrest of Jews got underway in October 1942. The confiscation of Jewish property is the subject of this project, which was intended to result in an evidence-based book aimed at the general reading public.
All Jewish men over the age of 15 were to be arrested on 26 October 1942. On the same date, Minister President Vidkun Quisling and his collaborationist National Government, made up of members of the Norwegian national socialist party Nasjonal Samling (NS), enacted a law under which all property belonging to Jews should devolve to the Norwegian state. The law encompassed property of all types and decreed that the assets were to be “liquidated”. Together, the arrests and the new law constituted a watershed: Responsibility for the arrest of Jews and the liquidation of the assets belonging to them passed from German to Norwegian authorities. The liquidation of Jewish property was an extensive process. Many people took part in it, and a number of state, municipal and private bodies and enterprises were involved.
The book project traces a selection of individuals and families who were impacted by the Holocaust in Norway. It also focuses on the development of the legislation that underpinned the confiscation process and the bodies and individuals who carried it out. The book was published in 2021.