Well, that’s interesting. I never realized that so many Scandinavians and Dutch were Nazi sympathizers and supporters and even volunteered to fight alongside the Nazis.
Found on the Net:
A significant number of Scandinavians and Dutch populations either sympathized or identified with, supported, worked for and even fought alongside the Nazis in WW2. And unfortunately yes, it is true that they had their own battalions.
In fact, the Nordland Division, I believe also called or part of the 11th Panzer Division (mechanized armor) was a well trained, seasoned, and dedicated fighting unit throughout the war. They consisted almost exclusively of Swedish, Danish, and Norwegian soldiers who had volunteered after Himmler had initiated the campaign to recruit soldiers from other “Germanic” countries as they were regarded by the Nazis.
And the Nordland division fought bravely from the Gates of Moscow in 1941 to the last minutes in the battle of Berlin in May 1945. They actually fought on defending the Reichstag building well after Hitler had already committed suicide.
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It’s sort of against their image today. I believe Norwegians resisted on some level. Likely was a small group but some Norwegians are proud of their little Nazi resistance. It’s impressive how loyal some of Hitler’s followers were. I would’ve bailed as soon as I thought Hitler was losing the war. I admire such loyalty on some level but people like Goebbels loyalty to the point of killing his family strikes me as sick and cultish. Though I’ve also seen speculation that his family was murdered.
Goering I guess made a run for it. Smarter move but didn’t pay off. Loyalty from a distance might be healthier in this case.
The Dutch I’ve heard weren’t anti-Semitic but had 2nd highest number of Jew deaths after Poland. A theory is they assimilated and followed the rules of that time.