Per Asbjørn Pedersen Tjøstland (27 February 1918 in

Fister Fister is a village in Hjelmeland municipality in Rogaland county, Norway. The village is a small community approximately 600 inhabitants, and is located on the mainland, along the Fisterfjorden, a branch off the main Boknafjorden. The village l ...

Rogaland Rogaland () is a Counties of Norway, county in Western Norway, bordering the North Sea to the west and the counties of Vestland to the north, Vestfold og Telemark to the east and Agder to the east and southeast. In 2020, it had a population of 47 ...

- 14 December 2004 in

Stavanger Stavanger (, , American English, US usually , ) is a city and municipalities of Norway, municipality in Norway. It is the fourth largest city and third largest metropolitan area in Norway (through conurbation with neighboring Sandnes) and the a ...

), né Per Asbjørn Pedersen, was a Norwegian Nazi activist and SS volunteer. As editor of the Norwegian SS newspaper ''Germaneren'', he belonged to the radical and

anti-capitalist Anti-capitalism is a political ideology and Political movement, movement encompassing a variety of attitudes and ideas that oppose capitalism. In this sense, anti-capitalists are those who wish to replace capitalism with another type of economi ...

wing of Nazism, and was a proponent of "a total revolution" and

racial war An ethnic conflict is a conflict between two or more contending ethnic groups. While the source of the conflict may be political, social, economic or religious, the individuals in conflict must expressly fight for their ethnic group's positio ...

SS volunteer

In 1941, he was among the first Norwegians to volunteer for service with the SS, where he held the rank of Rottenführer, and by his own admission took part in massacres of Jews on the Eastern Front.

Nazi writer and editor in Norway

After returning to Norway in 1943, he became deputy editor and then, in 1944, editor of the newspaper ''Germaneren'', the official publication of

Germanske SS Norge The Germanic SS () was the collective name given to paramilitary and political organisations established in parts of German-occupied Europe between 1939 and 1945 under the auspices of the ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS). The units were modeled on the '' ...

. Tjøstland belonged to a radical and

anti-capitalistic Anti-capitalism is a political ideology and movement encompassing a variety of attitudes and ideas that oppose capitalism. In this sense, anti-capitalists are those who wish to replace capitalism with another type of economic system, such as ...

Nazi faction that supported

Pan-Germanism Pan-Germanism (german: Pangermanismus or '), also occasionally known as Pan-Germanicism, is a pan-nationalist political idea. Pan-Germanists originally sought to unify all the German-speaking people – and possibly also Germanic-speaking ...

. His newspaper was, to the extent permitted by the circumstances, openly critical of the ruling Norwegian fascist party Nasjonal Samling for not being supportive of Pan-Germanism, for not being radical enough, for only being lukewarm Nazis, for its perceived corruption and infiltration by people motivated by opportunism rather than conviction, and for being more concerned with Norwegian national interests than Nazism. Tjøstland was a supporter of a "total revolution" and

. He chastised "false National Socialists" who "declared themselves to be National Socialists in order to destroy National Socialism." He adopted the name Tjøstland in 1943.

Prison

In 1946, he was sentenced to five years of

forced labour Forced labour, or unfree labour, is any work relation, especially in modern or early modern history, in which people are employed against their will with the threat of destitution, detention, violence including death, or other forms of ex ...

for treason, and was released from prison in 1949."Dømte landssvikere," '' Verdens Gang'', 10 May 1946 p. 5

Family and legacy

He had six children and 20 grandchildren. In 2014, his granddaughter Ida Jackson (née Tjøstland Søland) published the book ''Morfar, Hitler og jeg'' ("My Grandfather, Hitler, and I"), after discovering by reading the

Norwegian Wikipedia There are two Norwegian language editions of Wikipedia: one for articles written in Bokmål or Riksmål, and one for articles written in Nynorsk or Høgnorsk. There are currently articles on the Norwegian Wikipedia edition in Bokmål/Riksmål ...

article about her grandfather that he was a well-known Nazi activist.Ida Jackson (2014). ''Morfar, Hitler og jeg''.

Aschehoug H. Aschehoug & Co. (W. Nygaard), commonly known as Aschehoug,() is one of the largest independent publishing companies in Norway, founded in 1872. Headquartered in Oslo, the publishing house has 480 employees. The Aschehoug group also comprises ot ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tjostland, Per Pedersen Norwegian Waffen-SS personnel Holocaust perpetrators Norwegian editors People from Hjelmeland People from Lillesand People convicted of treason for Nazi Germany against Norway 1918 births 2004 deaths