When Ben McPherson realised he could rent Vidkun Quisling's cabin, it struck him as weird His Norwegian wife disagreed
Modern Norway is the kind of rights-based social democracy Quisling would have hated, with a progressive attitude to gay rights and a large immigrant population. Now a new generation has started asking difficult questions about the country's wartime past, yet until very recently the war stories people wanted to hear emphasised Norwegian heroism and resistance. Quisling was simply not part of the national conversation.
My English friend Nick took his two young children to stay there. By mistake. "I just thought, nice little place, lots to do," he tells me. "They loved the little beach. There are ducks and goats. It was great, before you told me what it was." My wife thinks that using it as a cabin diminishes its power. When I ask Thorgeir, a Norwegian friend, what he thinks, he agrees. "It's a perfectly good cabin. Be wrong to burn it to the ground."But… Quisling's cabin is unexceptional. Yes, there's the image of a woodcutter carved into the front door, and yes, it's the kind of Nordic folk art the Nazis loved. But ordinary Norwegians like wood carvings too.
United Kingdom Latest News, United Kingdom Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
‘I love the perversity of it’: Bad Seed Warren Ellis on how Nina Simone’s gum inspired a bookAn unlikely keepsake taken from Simone’s last London concert has become the basis of an unusual memoir by the longtime Nick Cave collaborator
Read more »
Polish law on property stolen by Nazis angers IsraelA new law will make it harder for people to recover property lost in World War Two.
Read more »
Six no-contact sex activities for when it's too hot to touchFor those sweaty nights when the last thing you want is your partner's warm embrace.
Read more »
Border agents have seized thousands of counterfeit CDC vaccination cards from China headed to New OrleansCustoms and Border Protection officer in Memphis intercept phony shipments ‘every night,’ agency says
Read more »
Arteta’s Arsenal already on back foot after bruising first night failure | Nick AmesA comprehensive defeat by Premier League newcomers Brentford laid the Gunners’ problems starkly bare
Read more »
30 best most likely to questions, from dirty to funny and everything in betweenThese are the best 'who's most likely to' questions, from the dirty ones to the funny ones, guaranteed to spice up your party.
Read more »