The Secret Nazi Documents Captured in a British Commando Raid

Confidential papers seized during a British special-forces raid in Norway in 1941 offer a glimpse into the inner workings of Nazi military occupation. They were originally published that same year by the British Government.

British officers with a captured Nazi flag after the raid on the Lofoten Islands, photo by Capt. Tennyson d'Eyncourt, British War Office official photographer

British officers with a captured Nazi flag after the raid on the Lofoten Islands, photo by Capt. Tennyson d'Eyncourt, British War Office official photographer.

Leafing through the frayed pages of the old, brown booklet, one large German word, its letters appearing in dark, bold print, jumps out at the reader : GEHEIM!…Secret!

These papers were not meant to be seen by unauthorized personnel. They relay instructions from high ranking German officers in the Wehrmacht to rank and file soldiers engaged in the occupation of Norway. The language is laconic and to-the-point, as befits military documents, but there can be no mistake: The instructions were written in the spirit of National Socialism.

The orders appearing in the booklet essentially form a brief, practical manual on how to take over a democratic country and suppress its population.

The story of this stash of confidential German military documents takes us back to the early stages of World War II.  The Miracle at Dunkirk, where over 300,000 soldiers were barely evacuated to safety, was still fresh in the memory of the British population. France, Belgium, Holland, Poland, Denmark and Norway were all already under the Nazi boot. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill was preparing his country for the long and difficult fight ahead. The situation was dire and the national mood was grim.

This was the setting for Operation Claymore: a large-scale raid by British special-forces on the Norwegian Lofoten Islands in 1941.

In the early morning hours of March 4th, hundreds of British commandos quietly entered the Vestfjorden. They immediately set about destroying German-controlled ships, some of them laden with thousands of tons of cargo. The main objective of this mission, however, was something else: fish oil. This substance was being shipped at a rapid pace from Norway to Germany, where glycerin would be extracted from the oil to be used in the production of powerful explosives. Around 800,000 imperial gallons of fish oil were set alight during Operation Claymore as the commandos descended upon factory after factory.

Burning oil tanks as seen from the destroyer HMS Legion, photo by Lt. R.G.G. Coote, Royal Navy official photographer
Burning oil tanks as seen from the British destroyer HMS Legion, photo by Lt. R.G.G. Coote, Royal Navy official photographer.

The Germans were caught by surprise – 228 prisoners of war were captured in the operation. In addition, the ranks of the free Norwegian forces were strengthened by 300 volunteers who jumped at the chance to join the war against fascism, boarding the British ships as they began their return voyage. Perhaps most importantly – the commandos managed to seize the rotor wheels of an Enigma cypher machine and several code books, which would help Allied ships to avoid German U-boats for some time.

“My congratulations on the very satisfactory operation” wrote Churchill in a memo addressed to all those involved after their safe return. The large British force had suffered only one injury. The operation provided a badly needed boost for Allied morale and the Norwegian volunteers proved “that the people of the Occupied Territories were still spiritually with us in the fight.”

Fires burning in Stamsund, Lofoten, Norway as British commandos leave. Photo by Capt. Tennyson d'Eyncourt, British War Office official photographer
Fires burning in Stamsund, Lofoten, Norway as British commandos leave. Photo by Capt. Tennyson d’Eyncourt, British War Office official photographer.

There was another interesting find among the items seized in the raid: German documents captured at the military Harbor Control Post at Svolvaer.  These secret papers addressed to German soldiers stationed in Norway provided a glimpse into the nature of Nazi military occupation and what life was like under it. The documents were quickly translated and published in the form of a small booklet by the British government that same year. A rare copy of the booklet, complete with facsimiles of the original documents in German, has recently been found in the archives of the National Library of Israel.

The papers show that the Norwegian people did not make things easy for their German occupiers: “Appearances would indicate that the temper and attitude of the Norwegian population have recently stiffened against our endeavors” wrote General Nikolaus von Falkenhorst, the commander of German forces in Norway in one of the documents.

A facsimile of the first page of General Nikolaus von Falkenhorst's letter to his troops, as it appears in the booklet published by the British Government, from the National Library collections.
A facsimile of the first page of General Nikolaus von Falkenhorst’s letter to his troops, as it appears in the booklet published by the British Government, from the National Library collections.
A facsimile of the second page of General von Falkenhorst's letter, as it appears in the booklet, from the National Library collections.
A facsimile of the second page of General von Falkenhorst’s letter, as it appears in the booklet, from the National Library collections.

When Hitler notified von Falkenhorst that he was to be in charge of the invasion of the Scandinavian country, the Nazi leader ordered the general to have a basic plan ready by 5 pm that same day. On the way back to his hotel, with no time to consult military charts, von Falkenhorst stopped by a local shop and purchased a Baedeker tourist guidebook of Norway. He planned the invasion in his room that afternoon using the maps in the tourist book. Hitler promptly approved the plan.

Svolvaer, Lofoten, Norway, 2010, photo by Vincent van Zeijst
Svolvaer, Lofoten, Norway, 2010, photo by Vincent van Zeijst.

In his written address to his troops, the general surprisingly called for calm in the face of Norwegian stubbornness: “…it has become necessary, and it is more than ever urged, that restraint and caution be exercised.” Von Falkenhorst ordered his soldiers to avoid all political discussions or controversies (these matters were the responsibility of the Gestapo, not the army). But there was less tolerance whenever a threat emerged against troops or army property:  “In such cases […] Military force should be brought into action in its full severity […] where action is taken it must be ruthless and employ the severest measures“.

Left to right: Vidkun Quisling, Heinrich Himmler, Reichskommissar Josef Terboven and General von Falkenhorst in Norway 1941. Photo: German Federal Archives.
Left to right: Vidkun Quisling, Heinrich Himmler, Reichskommissar Josef Terboven and General von Falkenhorst in Norway, 1941. Photo: German Federal Archives.

A separate document from the collection offers a string of examples of various possible “offences” by the local population, along with the acceptable response to be taken by German soldiers.

Offence:

A German National is insulted or struck because he is German.

Measure to be taken by the Wehrmacht:

Provisional arrest of the culprit if he is caught in the act.

 

Offence:

A local commander is informed on a Wednesday that on the previous Tuesday a German National was struck.

Measure to be taken by the Wehrmacht:

Report to Security Police (Gestapo).

 

Offence:

A Norwegian girl of friendly disposition towards Germans has her hair cut short.

Measure to be taken by the Wehrmacht:

Provisional arrest of the culprit, but only if caught in the act, or if strongly suspected of attempting to escape. In other cases report to the Security Police.

 

Offence

Public statements by fortune tellers or members of sects derogatory to Germany.

Measure to be taken by the Wehrmacht:

In cases of serious insults, for example, in respect of the Fuehrer, provisional arrest, otherwise report to the Security Police.

 

Offence:

Subversive preaching by Ministers of Religion either in the pulpit or at the graveside.

Measure to be taken by the Wehrmacht:

Particular restraint and caution necessary. In all cases only report to the Security Police.

We can see from the above that even those who were merely suspected of even the slightest offence against the German occupiers would soon attract the attention of the Security Police, the Gestapo, which did not bode well for those under suspicion.

Another document makes clear that “All political parties in Norway, together with all branch and subsidiary organisations are dissolved and forbidden […] the Nasjonal-Samling, with its affiliated branches and organisations, is the only exception to these prohibitions. Its activity is subject to no restrictions.

Vidkun Quisling, founder of the Nasjonal Samling party, whose name has become synonymous with the word 'traitor'. Photo: the National Archives of Norway.
Vidkun Quisling, founder of the Nasjonal Samling party, whose name has become synonymous with the word ‘traitor’. Photo: the National Archives of Norway.

The Nasjonal Samling was a far-right Norwegian political party that had never been able to gain even a single seat in the Storting, the Norwegian parliament. The German army however, was ordered to aid its transformation: “No difficulties, either of a personal nature or of organization, must be allowed to obstruct the granting of every aid in building up the Nasjonal Samling.” The party’s founder, Vidkun Quisling, was appointed Minister-President of Norway by the German authorities in 1942. He would serve in that role until the final Nazi defeat more than three years later. To this day, the world “quisling” is synonymous with “traitor” in several languages. Knut Hamsun, the Nobel Prize winning author, was another of the few Norwegian Nazi sympathists, who even eulogized Adolf Hitler after his death.

A facsimile of a German document which details how the Norwegian press ought to be handled under the military occupation, as it appears in the booklet, from the National Library collections.
A facsimile of a German document which details how the Norwegian press was to be handled under the Nazi occupation, as it appears in the booklet, from the National Library collections.

One of the most interesting documents in the collection relates to the handling of the local Norwegian press, which was ordered to “publish only such news as is designed to further, or at least not to hinder, the policy of the German Reich“.

Here are some of the specific directives included in the document:

German and Italian official communiques must be published daily and, wherever possible, on the front page.

The greatest care must be taken in publishing every sort of report that it contains nothing that might lead to unrest among the population in any way.

All reference to former political questions in Norway (the question of the King, the Nygaardsvold Government, the Party System, Trade Unions &c.) is forbidden.

In publishing German news and news from countries with which Germany is at war, preference has to be given to German news. This extends to typography as well (make-up, head-lines, size of type, etc.).

Weather reports are absolutely forbidden. In this category are included weather surveys dating back over long periods, damage through bad weather, lightning, temperature, snowfall, and indirect reference to weather in sporting news.

Reports on economic matters, regardless of whether they are short announcements or detailed surveys, must avoid showing the slightest negative tendency.

When reporting on domestic politics in Norway:

All attacks on the German authorities, either in direct or veiled form, must be suppressed.

The following reminder to encourage an optimistic and happy atmosphere was also included:

Editorial staff cannot be too often prompted not merely to write in the sense of their instructions without comment, but to adopt a positive attitude, i.e. in their articles Editors must give full support to measures taken in Norwegian domestic politics and express themselves in a positive sense.

In conclusion, the document adds:

The above outlines should form the subject of intensive oral instructions to editors. In no circumstances must these instructions be made public, nor must the fact that such instructions have been given to editors become known in any way. Editors should, however, make notes while they are receiving oral instructions.

The document is signed “Dr. Ehmer, Captain, Army Press officer.

 

Amy Simon, a cataloguer in the National Library’s Foreign Languages Department, contributed to this article.




A Personal Story of Migration as Told in a 1000-Year-Old Jewish-Afghan Letter

Broken promises, a lack of piety and a wife left behind – What forced a young Jew to leave his home and family in 11th-century Afghanistan?

The first page of the 11th-century letter, written in Judeo-Persian, from "Yair" to Abu al-Hasan Siman-Tov, the National Library Collections.

The first page of the 11th-century letter, written in Judeo-Persian, from "Yair" to Abu al-Hasan Siman-Tov, the National Library collections.

What has become known as the Afghan Genizah is a collection of thousands of manuscript fragments originating in medieval Afghanistan. A large portion of these texts were written in Afghan Jewish communities that we previously knew almost nothing about. In recent years, the National Library of Israel has been able to acquire nearly 300 pages of material from the collection. The study of these documents has shed a great deal of light on the lives of Jews living in Afghanistan nearly a thousand years ago – how they lived, worked, prayed and communicated, as well as how they interacted with their Muslim neighbors.

In the early 13th-century, these same Jewish communities were decimated by Genghis Khan’s Mongol hordes, along with the entire surrounding region of Khorasan. The fact that these documents were able to survive the devastation is likely a matter of luck more than anything else. The collection preserved at the National Library includes personal letters and business records, as well as legal, administrative and literary papers. The oldest were written in the 11th-century and the newest date to the early 13th-century.

One of the most interesting items in the trove is a letter written by a young Jewish man by the name of Yair, who had run into some trouble: Failed business ventures caused him to migrate from his hometown of Bamiyan to the community of Ghazni, some 94 miles away (over 150 kilometers), leaving behind his wife.

The Afghan city of Ghazni, as it appeared in 2010, a thousand years after the writing of Yair's letter. Photo by Tech. Sgt. James May, U.S. Air Force.
The Afghan city of Ghazni, as it appeared in 2010, a thousand years after the writing of Yair’s letter. Photo by Tech. Sgt. James May, U.S. Air Force.

The young man also faced accusations that he had failed to observe the Sabbath and “committed falsehood regarding property.” Yair’s letter is addressed to a man known as Abu al-Hasan Siman-Tov, who may very well have been his brother-in-law. It was written in the 11th-century in Judeo-Persian (Persian written in Hebrew letters).

The first page of the 11th-century letter, written in Judeo-Persian, from "Yair" to Abu al-Hasan Siman-Tov, the National Library collections.
The first page of the 11th-century letter, written in Judeo-Persian, from “Yair” to Abu al-Hasan Siman-Tov, the National Library collections.

Here are some excerpts from the letter, as translated and transcribed by Ofir Haim:

“A thousand greetings to the beloved brother Abu al-Hasan Siman-Tov, may he have a long life, son of Abu Nasr, son of Daniyal. May God’s blessing and praise upon (his) body and soul (increase)…

The letter of the beloved brother arrived, may God keep him alive. I read (it). I was joyful at the news of his good health, may God bestow good tidings. Also I inform the beloved brother that these several letters (which) were written (saying) that I committed falsehood regarding property and broke promises, are all false claims. There should not be so much reproaching. If I took property, my affair and my reply are with the Merciful. I did not do a thing by which the Merciful was not pleased. If one says that I do not observe the Sabbath, I know such, brother, that the Mericful will not punish him because of that. These many reproaches should not be done by anyone. I did nothing contrary to (the customs of) people…

…this much should be known to you, that anyone who marries a woman does (this) for his own well-being, as all people have a (wife), not for this that I sit in Ghazni and she in Bamiyan. If I could have made a living in Bamiyan, it is true that I would have acted according to your will. 

Furthermore, if this portion of the alms and what should be given that people must give had not existed, I would have come there immediately, whether I could have done a certain work or not…

You know that I own goods, and God, blessed be His name, has apportioned (to me) as you see – not with a generous hand, a hundred thousand thanks to God, blessed be His name. I cannot do any other work and I am not a man who is accustomed to travelling and being remote from home, and I cannot do (this). And you know that this business and work that I do, if I am absent from the shop for one day, I will be needy that day. Therefore, when I must be workless for half a year, the door of the shop is closed here, the supplies run out, and I sit there workless. If you say that the answer to that is that I sit here and they in Bamiyan, by no means do I accept this.

I cannot bring this work to an end, but I will make an effort that perhaps (if) I set aside these alms, I will immediately come there. I am concerned about the mother that I am very troubled about her, for I know that she is full of sorrow. However, she should not search for her happiness, others should look after some of it…

From Yair son of ‘ymyd/’ymyr

(To be sent) to Bamiyan…God, almighty and exalted, willing.

The ninth of (the month of) Elul

A page from the 11th-century letter, written in Judeo-Persian, from Yair to Abu al-Hasan Siman-Tov, the National Library collections.
A page from the 11th-century letter, written in Judeo-Persian, from Yair to Abu al-Hasan Siman-Tov, the National Library collections.

We do not know what response Yair received to his letter, or whether he was ever reunited with his family.

This article is based on research conducted by Ofir Haim, a graduate student in the Department of Middle Eastern History at the Hebrew University, and Dr. Yoel Finkelman, curator of the Judaica Collection at the National Library of Israel.

You can find more information on this subject in the article An Early Judeo-Persian Letter sent from Ghazna to Bāmiyān published in Bulletin of the Asia Institute New Series, Vol. 26 (2012), pp. 103-119

 

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Immigration on Agenda as Top Figures Gather in Jerusalem

Third gathering of the Global Forum of the National Library of Israel to focus on immigration, borders and identity — in Jewish, Israeli and universal contexts

Arrival of the Exodus, 1947, Photo: Keren HaYesod, from the National Library of Israel Photograph Collections

Arrival of the Exodus, 1947, photo: Keren HaYesod, from the National Library of Israel Photograph Collections

On March 17-19, some 80 prominent figures from Israel and around the world will gather in Jerusalem for the third meeting of the Global Forum of the National Library of Israel to discuss this year’s topic, “Migration-Borders-Identity.” Conversations will address universal cultural, sociopolitical and philosophical issues, as well as their specific Jewish, Israeli and Zionist dimensions. 

Participants include Thomas Friedman, Jamaica Kincaid, Natan Sharansky, Stanley Fischer, Jack Lew, Dan Kurtzer, David Makovsky, Abby Joseph Cohen, Mark Lilla, Mustafa Aykol, Anita Shapira and other leading figures from the worlds of literature, diplomacy, journalism, academia, economics, and more.

Though libraries are generally associated with enforced utter silence, this is not the case with the National Library in Jerusalem, which serves as the collective memory of the Jewish people worldwide and Israelis of all backgrounds and faiths. 

Now in the midst of a transformative renewal, the 125-year-old institution is opening access to the cultural treasures of Israel and the Jewish world as never before – in person and online – serving as a cutting-edge global center at the forefront of knowledge dissemination and cultural creativity. The stunning new National Library campus, now under construction between the Knesset and the Israel Museum, will serve as the clearest manifestation of this renewal. 

 “Traditionally Jews studied in noisy environments, as opposed to the traditional librarian demanding complete silence. We need to find the balance between the two,” says National Library of Israel chairman David Blumberg.

The bi-annual Global Forum gathering is one way this delicate balance is found, and a central element of the National Library’s renewal. The Forum serves as a singular platform for contemporary discussions inspired by the Jewish, Israeli and universal intellectual traditions embodied by the National Library’s collections, values, and vision.

The Global Forum of the National Library of Israel, photo: Hanan Cohen, the National Library of Israel
The Global Forum of the National Library of Israel, photo: Hanan Cohen, the National Library of Israel

In this context, the current gathering will address pressing questions relating to the challenges and opportunities posed by human migration: Which factors lead immigration to strengthen cultural development as opposed to eroding it? What justifies decisions about who is permitted and who is refused to cross borders? What are the implications of migration on international world order and the political stability of countries? How have personal experiences related to migration influenced the work of prominent authors? How have the Jewish people’s wanderings influenced and shaped their fate, identities, and values throughout the generations? How do Israeli elected officials view the dilemmas of refugees and infiltrators to which they must respond?

Discussions will be made available to audiences around the world on the Global Forum website. Select materials and related original content will also be featured on the National Library blog and Facebook page. The Times of Israel is the proud media partner of this year’s gathering of the Global Forum of the National Library of Israel.

The chairman of the Global Forum is Prof. Moshe Halbertal, renowned scholar and co-author of the Israel Defense Forces code of ethics. Ninth president of the State of Israel Shimon Peres served as the Global Forum’s founding honorary chairman. 

Rare Books That Kept Prayer Alive During the Jewish Migrations of the 19th Century

These miniature prayer books were designed to be small enough to fit in the traveler’s pocket so they could be taken along for journeys across the sea.

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A century before the Holocaust would destroy large percentages of the Jewish communities of Europe, long before even the First World War, Jewish migration from Europe to the West was already underway. From the 1820s through the 1880s, approximately 150,000 Jews immigrated to the United States from European countries. In the 1840s, German Jews, in particular, began to leave their home country in waves in search of a better life in “The Goldene Medina” (“The Golden Country”) of America.

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Jews in Germany at that time were facing many hardships including persecution, restrictive laws and economic struggle as industrialization and modern improvements eliminated the need for several standard Jewish professions. The Jewish community was forced to take a hard look at their social status and many recognized that, if they hoped for a better future, they would need to look for it in another country.

Join our group to learn more about Jewish life in Europe:

 

These German Jews took with them their culture and their heritage on their long and arduous journey across the ocean – including the traditional prayers, chanted by the Jewish people for centuries. In fact, the National Library of Israel holds several rare payer books from this time period of Jewish migration.

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In the 1840s, the S. B. Gusdorfer and Zuerndorffer & Sommer publishing houses in Fürth, Germany, began printing new prayer books (siddurim) intended specifically for these immigrants. What made the books unique was their size, as the siddurim contained all the required prayers for every day of the year, but the books themselves were easy-to-carry miniature versions of the standard full-sized prayer books used in everyday prayer services.

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Each of these books is smaller than a fist, intended to be carried in the pocket of a traveler who was heading out on a long journey. The cover page of the siddur reads, “Prayers for the entire year, for those on a journey and those crossing the sea and for those traveling to the country of America” in Yiddish. The books contained everyday prayer services as well as prayers for Shabbat, the various festivals, the High Holidays, and of course, the wayfarer’s prayer, a supplication read by travelers embarking on a long journey.

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It seems that these miniature books were somewhat popular as the publishing houses printed multiple editions over the years. The National Library holds copies printed in 1842, 1854 and 1860. These books are considered to be very rare as many of them were either worn out from use by their owners on their journeys and in some cases they did not survive the trip at all.