Quisling

Vidkun Abraham Lauritz Jonssøn Quisling was born in 1887 in Fyresdal, Telemark, Norway, into a family with deep roots in the Norwegian church. He had a distinguished early career: he graduated at the top of his class from the Norwegian Military Academy, served as a military attaché in Russia and Finland, and worked with Fridtjof Nansen during the humanitarian famine relief operations in Soviet Russia in the 1920s. He served as Minister of Defence from 1931 to 1933. In 1933 he founded the Nasjonal Samling (National Unity) party, a Norwegian fascist party modeled on National Socialism, which never received more than 2.5 percent of the vote in any election.

On April 9, 1940, Nazi Germany invaded Norway. That same evening, Quisling made a radio broadcast declaring himself the head of a new government and calling on Norwegian forces to cease resistance. The broadcast was unauthorized, uncoordinated with the German invaders, and immediately counterproductive—Norwegian resistance stiffened after it. The Germans initially found Quisling an embarrassment and installed their own Reich Commissioner, Josef Terboven, to govern occupied Norway. Quisling was eventually installed as 'Minister President' in 1942, a position he held until Norway's liberation in 1945, when he was arrested.

The Times of London editorial of April 15, 1940—six days after the invasion—used 'quisling' as a common noun for the first time: 'To writers, the word Quisling is a gift from the gods. If they need a new word for traitor, the word quisling is there for them—a new word for an old deed.' Within weeks, 'quisling' was being used as a noun and adjective in English-language newspapers worldwide. Winston Churchill used it publicly. By the end of 1940, the word had entered common usage across multiple languages. The Oxford English Dictionary recorded it in 1940—one of the fastest entries into the dictionary from a proper noun.

Quisling was arrested in May 1945, tried for treason, murder (he was implicated in the deportation of Norwegian Jews to German death camps), and collaboration. He was found guilty on all counts and executed by firing squad at Akershus Fortress in Oslo on October 24, 1945. He reportedly said, before the execution, that he believed he had served his country faithfully. The 773 Norwegian Jews deported to Auschwitz during his government—of whom only 34 survived—were not available to contest this assessment. The word that bears his name has outlasted any other trace of his career.