(3 of 6)
Dream and Awakening. Bishop Berggrav had not always seen so clearly. Once he thought that peace could be won without battle. In the first seven days of the German invasion, a state of chaos existed in Norway under the dictatorship of Vidkun Quisling, head of the Nasjonal Samling, the Norwegian Nazi organization. To calm the tumult, Reichskommissar Josef Terboven sought the aid of Norway's Primate in forming a provisional government under King and Storting (Parliament). Quisling was quietly shoved into the background and Eivind Berggrav, man of God and man of peace, took to the radio to appeal for order. "The civil population must refrain from any interference," he said. "Civilians who forcibly mix themselves up in the war by sabotage or in any other way, commit the greatest crime against their own countrymen."
Terboven purred with pleasure and circulated the slogan: "Let us follow our leaders, Quisling, Hamsun,* and Berggrav." The people of Norway muttered "pacifist" at mention of their Bishop's name. But Berggrav held fast. Adolf Hitler had promised Norway religious freedom and a legally constituted government. In the interests of peace and order, the Bishop proposed to do his part.
But Hitler's word proved as worthless in Norway as elsewhere. After five months, Terboven abruptly dismissed the King, dissolved the Storting, and decreed a "New Era" of Nazi government for Norway. Berggrav and his Church awoke from their dream of peace. Rallying to the defense of Norwegian liberty, representatives of all branches and factions of the Church met to form the Christian Council for Joint Deliberation, and Eivind Berggrav cried: "God made us Norwegian. He will not put you in uniform and destroy your individuality. He will save you and liberate you. All Christians in this land are now facing in the same direction."
But the people of Norway were still skeptical. They wanted proof that all Norwegian Christians were facing in the same direction. Thanks to the Nazis, they soon got it. The puppet government ordered the Church to alter its Common Prayer, omitting the King's name and substituting those of the quisling authorities. Bishop Berggrav flatly refused.
"The Great Forest." His defiance loosed an organized campaign of persecution, beginning with the arrest of Ronald Fangen, Christian leader and author, for an article published in Berggrav's magazine. Churchmen protested vigorously, and the people of Norway, whose lives are lived among the tall pines that point toward heaven, began to talk of their clergy as "The Great Forest."