FRANCAISNorwegian People’s Aid - History
1939-1949
-September 1939, Norway: NPA is established by the trade union confederation LO (Lands Organisasjonen) on the 28th of September 1939 after the Allies declared war to Nazi Germany. The military attack against Finland by the USSR compels the organisation to be officially launched on the 7th of December, three months before the original plan. NPA then amalgamates a committee created in 1936 to help Spanish Republicans and a health programme (Arbeidersaniteten) started in 1932 for Norwegian workers. Chaired by Albert Raaen, from the Spanish Committee, the organisation includes a Health minister, Karl Evang, a future leader of the Labour Party (Arbeiderpartiet), Haakon Lie, and a secretary from the Workers Information Agency (Arbeidernes Opplysningsforbund), Neimi Lagerstrøm.
-1940, Finland: NPA sends food, clothes and medical items to the populations evacuated from the Eastern regions occupied by the USSR. But the distributions have to stop when Norway is invaded by Nazi Germany in April 1940. Out of two million Crowns given to NPA for the Finnish, half is eventually used for the war-torn Norwegians.
-1941, Norway: after refusing to help the Western regions of Finland occupied by the Germans in June 1941, NPA is dissolved on the 12th of September and forms a provisional committee in exile in Sweden, a country which proclaimed its neutrality in the conflict.
-1942, Sweden: as the Nazi government of Vidkun Quisling comes to power in Oslo, the remaining members of NPA leave to Stockholm.
-1945-1946, Norway: directed by Omar Gjesteby, NPA reopens an office in Oslo on May 14 while the country is being liberated from the Germans and Vidkun Quisling is executed on October 24 1945. The organisation, which channels American and Swedish relief for the reconstruction of Norway, helps former political prisoners and vulnerable persons. Thanks to its connections with the Labour Party, it also lobbies the new government to raise social expenditures as soon as July 1945.
-1946, Austria: with the Norwegian Red Cross, NPA starts in April to raise funds for the victims of the Nazis in Austria. This initiative is soon to be extended to other countries under the supervision of a NGO created in May 1946, Aid to Europe, which will become the Norwegian Refugee Council in January 1953.
-1947-1948, Norway: in two years, NPA collects 13.5 millions Crowns given to Aid to Europe and UNICEF (United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund) for Finland, Greece, France, Italy, Yugoslavia, Poland, Rumania, Hungary, Germany and Austria.
-1948, Norvège : with the Health Organisation of Norwegian Women (Norske Kvinners Sanitetsforening), NPA starts to send medical doctors abroad and participate to an international campaign to fight tuberculosis.
