«Propaganda is rejected at school»: the resistance of Norwegian teachers

Abstract

In 1942, during the Nazi occupation of Norway, teachers were intimidated into joining the Nazi Teachers’ League to spread the ideology of the Reich. Eight thousand teachers protested against the threats issued and the authorities responded by imprisoning about a thousand teachers in Kirkenes camp. This led to a collective mobilization: teachers, together with the general population, staged a non-violent protest that forced the government into returning the imprisoned teachers to their classes. This contribution aims to highlight how this particular event constituted a paradigmatic moment in which awareness of the collective responsibility to safeguard free education as a common heritage for human formation emerged clearly among the teachers, society and people of Norway.