Jonas Lie (government Minister) - Fascism

Fascism

It is also possible that Lie was introduced to Heinrich Himmler as early as 1935; in any event, they maintained a close personal relationship during the entire Nazi era. Lie became a rival of Vidkun Quisling's during the occupation of Norway.

Jonas Lie became one of the first Norwegian SS volunteers when he served for a brief period of time during the Balkans Campaign of 1940 as a war correspondent in Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler together with Minister of Justice Sverre Riisnæs. He later led the 1st Police Company of the Norwegian Legion of the Waffen-SS on the Leningrad Front in 1942–43.

Lie was also the official leader of the Germanic-SS in Norway. This organisation, first known as Norges SS (founded 1941) and Germanske SS Norge (re-founded 1942) was a Norwegian equivalent to the German Allgemeine-SS.

In late 1944, after pressure from Josef Terboven, Quisling appointed the Ministers Jonas Lie and Johan Andreas Lippestad as 1st and 2nd County Governors of Finnmark county in the extreme north of Norway. Lie, Lippestand others went to Kirkenes in the middle of October 1944 to order an evacuation of the civil population in order to assist the German plans for a scorched earth policy in the face of the Soviet forces who were about to push German forces back into Norway.

He died at Skallum on 11 May 1945, just before being arrested. The cause of death is unknown, as the autopsy was unable to find any evidence of suicide. It was highly believed a combination of stress, a large consumption of alcohol and lack of sleep was the cause of his death. It is also a fact that he had a heart condition, was a chain-smoker and had several other health problems.