General Jodl wrote a letter thanking him for the bottle of einersnaps he received from Reichskomtmisär Terboven. You can now read this and other archive material from the wartime archive at Digitalarkivet.
- Digitization of these archives offers great opportunities. Both researchers and private individuals can retrieve knowledge about our recent past on a scale we have previously only been able to dream of. In this case, we gain access to information that has previously been difficult to access," says National Archivist Inga Bolstad.
First box is digitized
The Norwegian Home Front Museum and the National Archives are collaborating to transfer archival material of German and state origin from the Second World War. The first box of archival material has now been digitized, and the archives will be continuously transferred to the National Archives and made available in the Digital Archives over the next two years. The Home Front Museum has stored the archives for much of the post-war period. Although they have been regarded as deposited from the National Archives, the National Archives and the Home Front Museum are taking steps to ensure the safest possible storage and to improve accessibility. In total, we are talking about approximately 300 shelf meters, and the ambition is to complete the transfers by the end of 2025.
Seized in 1945
The first transfer consists of «scattered German archive files» from the Norwegian Armed Forces High Command. The archive is a collection of documents seized by Allied liberation forces in the spring and summer of 1945. The documents were thus removed from ordinary German archives, and there is reason to believe that they should be of above-average interest to researchers and others interested in World War II. The archive consists of 79 folders with a wide range of content, including information about the German Chamber of Commerce, Nordag, the Wehrmacht and German consulates. The table of contents for this archive is published on the Archive Portal.
Curious from the Propaganda department
The Swedish National Archives has initially chosen to digitize one of the archives, which contains many interesting items from the Reichskommissariat's Propaganda Department. Here is the table of contents for this box on Digitalarkivet.
One of the more curious documents is a letter of thanks from General Jodl to Reichskommissar Terboven for having received a juniper drinking bottle as a gift. According to Jodl, the gift was suitable for increasing his knowledge in the field of «Alcoholica».
