Execution of Jewish Leaders in Norway Demanded in Reprisal for Death of Nazi

The chief rabbi of Norway and other Norwegian Jewish leaders who were recently imprisoned by the Nazis in Oslo and Trondheim are now in danger of being executed as hostages as a result of the killing of a Quisling frontier policeman by two Jews in a train on route to the Swedish frontier.

The policeman, Arne Vam, was a clerk in a cooperative store in Oslo until the Nazis invaded Norway. He then joined the Quisling Party and worked for the Gestapo, denouncing Jews and anti-Nazis. Last Thursday night he was shot when he entered the compartment of a train near the station of Skicborg, to ask the passengers to produce their passports. The passengers in the compartment, Hermann Feldman from Trondheim and William Scherman from Oslo, both Jews, are reported to have shot him, later jumping from the train together with a third passenger, Harald Jenson.

The train was stopped at the next station and all Jewish passengers on it were arrested. According to press reports the two Jews who jumped from the train were also arrested later and are alleged to have told the police that they killed the Quisling official because of his activities against the Jews of Norway. It is believed that they intended to illegally cross into Sweden since the position of the Jews in Norway has become more precarious during the last two weeks as a result of mass-arrests and Nazi threats to deport all Jews to occupied eastern territory.

Further arrests of Jews, as well as executions of Jewish hostages and the possible expulsion of all Jews from Norway are feared here since it is expected that the Nazis will use the death of the Quisling official as a pretext for severe measures against the Jewish population. Some of the pre-Nazi papers, in reporting the murder of the Quisling policeman, demand that some of the 800 Norwegian Jews who are now imprisoned by the Nazis in various jails as hostages, including the chief rabbi, be executed in reprisal.