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Quisling
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Quisling, after Norwegian politician Vidkun Quisling, who assisted Nazi Germany to conquer his own country, is a term used to describe traitors and collaborators. It was most commonly used for fascist political parties and military and paramilitary forces in occupied Allied countries which collaborated with Axis occupiers in World War II, as well as for their members and other collaborators.
The term was coined by the British newspaper The Times in its leader of 15 April 1940, entitled "Quislings everywhere." The editorial asserted: "To writers, the word Quisling is a gift from the gods.
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Encyclopedia
Quisling, after Norwegian politician Vidkun Quisling, who assisted Nazi Germany to conquer his own country, is a term used to describe traitors and collaborators. It was most commonly used for fascist political parties and military and paramilitary forces in occupied Allied countries which collaborated with Axis occupiers in World War II, as well as for their members and other collaborators.
The term was coined by the British newspaper The Times in its leader of 15 April 1940, entitled "Quislings everywhere." The editorial asserted: "To writers, the word Quisling is a gift from the gods. If they had been ordered to invent a new word for traitor... they could hardly have hit upon a more brilliant combination of letters. Actually it contrives to suggest something at once slippery and tortuous." The noun has survived; for a while during and after the War the back-formed verb "to quisle" (pronounced "quizzle") was used. One who was "quisling" was committing treason.[3]
That Quisling's name should be applied to denote the whole phenomenon of collaborationism is probably due to the place of Norway on the list of countries occupied by the Third Reich. Unlike Poland, Norway was considered 'Aryan' in Hitlerian ideology, and unlike Denmark, it was further off, nearer Britain, and did not share a land border with any territory under German control. Thus, Norway was the first country where local, non-German, fascist parties took part in the conquest of their own country after the start of the war. The universality of the term in the English language may be due to the involvement of Britain in the battle for Norway so early on in the war.
In contemporary usage, "Quisling" is synonymous with "traitor", and particularly applied to politicians who appear to favour the interests of other nations or cultures over their own. In American English, the term is less well known than the equivalent phrase "Benedict Arnold". Also, in Norwegian, when one removes the "q" and the "i" in "quisling" - the result is "(a) usling" which means "someone who is ignoble or iniquitous". This was used more or less humorously during WWII in Norway.
Quisling organizations in World War II
Denmark
- National Socialist Workers' Party of Denmark
Belgium
France
Greece
Hungary
Norway
The Netherlands
- Nationaal-Socialistische Beweging
Yugoslavia
- Bela garda (Slovenian "White Guard")
- Domobranci (Slovenian "Homeland Defense")
- Ustasha
- Domobrani (Croatian "Homeland Defense")
- Forces of Dimitrije Ljotic and Milan Nedic
- Forces of Kosta Milovanovic Pecanac
In popular culture
The many references in cartoons, television entertainment programs, and the like, show how widespread the word quisling became after the Second World War.
- In a wartime cartoon by a Norwegian cartoonist published in Sweden in 1944, "Audience with Hitler", Quisling says: "I am Quisling", and Hitler's adjutant replies: "And what is your name?".
- In the 1944 Warner Bros. cartoon Tom Turk and Daffy, on Thanksgiving Day, Daffy Duck at first hides the turkey from Porky Pig and then tells Porky where the turkey is. The turkey hears this betrayal, turns toward the audience and simply says, "Quisling!"
- In Max Brooks' novel World War Z, "quisling" refers to a human that had broken down psychologically due to the presence of zombies and thus begun acting like a zombie. These humans attack other humans mindlessly but are still attacked by normal zombies who can tell the difference. Being bitten by a "Q" (Quisling) does not result in zombification of the victim, but nonetheless imposes sincere mental stress on the victim since he/she believes to be ultimately infected - thus, the "Q's" are being described as a danger which must not be underestimated.
- In the eighteenth episode on the first season of the television series House ("Babies and Bathwater"), House jokes angrily with Cuddy saying, "You know, there is a new biography on Quisling you might find interesting." Cuddy doesn't understand, requiring House to explain and thus spoil the joke.
- In an episode of the British TV series Filthy, Rich and Catflap, Richie Rich calls the milkman "Quisling" while accusing him of carrying knowledge that could "put back the British game show 50 years."
- In the board game Renegade Legion: Interceptor, there is a character named "Ronald Quisling" who is an ingratiating but traitorous man, who seeks to backstab and replace his commanding officer.
- In one of Charles M. Schulz's "Peanuts" comic strips, Linus called Snoopy "Quisling!" after revealing his hiding place in a game of hide and seek.
- The 1972 story Day of the Daleks, in the BBC science fiction series Doctor Who, sees the Doctor accuse the controller of Earth of being a Quisling for his collaboration with the Daleks.
- In the song 'Insect Nation' by comedian Bill Bailey, he describes Crabs — who would supposedly ally with the insects in enslaving humanity — as "Sideways Quislings".
- In the Irish rebel song "Patriot Game", the last line refers to those who signed the compromising treaty with Britain that left Ireland divided as "qwislings".
- On January 7, 1998 Norm Macdonald was a guest on the Late Show with David Letterman just after it was announced that he had been fired from Saturday Night Live. Throughout the interview, Letterman kept referring to MacDonald as a "Quisling" for not having fought with NBC executives to keep his job at SNL; this was made even funnier by the fact that Macdonald had no idea what the word meant. During a commercial break, MacDonald was given a dictionary to look up the word, and later in the interview he read the definition on the air.
- In the David Thomas and Foreigners song 15 Seconds, Thomas refers to music journalist David Fricke as "one of the apologists, one of the Quislings/for the repopulation of the American continent with clones".
- In the Robert Silverberg novel The Alien Years, quislings were humans who collaborated with the Entity invaders.
- In an episode of the BBC's The Thick Of It, spin doctor Jamie accuses character Julius Nicholson of leaking political information to the press and calls him a "Mimsy bastard fucking Quisling leak fuck".
- In an episode of the BBC's My Family, Ben Harper refers to his son Nick as a "cash and carry Quisling."
- In E. E. Knight's Vampire Earth series, the inhabitants of the Ozark Free Territory refer to humans who collaborate with the Kurian invaders as Quislings.
- The song Green Shirt, on Elvis Costello's album Armed Forces, contains the line, "...cause somewhere in the quisling clinic / there's a shorthand typist taking seconds over minutes. / She's listening in to the Venus line. / She's picking out names. / I hope none of them are mine."
- In the video game Mass Effect, Ashley Williams claims she does not want her family name to "go down with Arnold and Quisling" after she reveals that she is a descendant of a human general made infamous by his surrender to alien forces.
- The Hives have a song called "B is for Brutus" on their Tyrannosaurus Hives album, which contains the lyric "Judas, Brutus, Quisling time has come to do / What's expected of you", namedropping two other notable traitors.
- In episode 2x23 of Boston Legal, Denny Crane, upon suspecting another lawyer of having become an opposing witness, says, 'Don't tell me you've turned Quisling.'
- In the Bed and Brake Fast episode (5x18) of Corner Gas, Dog River police officer Davis borrows Brent's car to catch unsuspecting speeding vehicles. To keep Brent oblivious (and cooperative), Davis always returns the car clean and in a better shape. Upon getting a ticket issued by Davis -- in Brent's car -- a furious Wanda calls Brent a quisling.
- In the role-playing game Over the Edge and the collectible card game On the Edge, a quisling is a human who performs duties for an ancient race that is set on ruling humanity but is unable to perform the simplest of tasks in the modern world.
- In a 1998 episode of As Time Goes By, the British TV sitcom series, Jean (Judi Dench) refers to her husband, Lionel (Geoffrey Palmer), as "quisling!" when he refuses to help her with a protest to keep road construction through a country community.
See also
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