My Father's War
Confronting Norway's Nazi Past

Bjørn Westlie (Author), Dean Krouk (Translated by)

9780299343248

Paperback / softback, published 20 June 2023

224 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.8 cm, 0.272 kg

An important and timely contribution to the field, with an informative and lucid introduction. My Father's War is part memoir and part documentary narrative, an exploration of a son’s relationship to an estranged father intertwined with a terrifying history of Norwegian men who enlisted in the Waffen-SS and committed atrocities in Ukraine." - Marianne Stecher-Hansen, editor of Nordic War Stories: World War II as History, Fiction, Media, and Memory

"A book [Westlie] was made to write, a story that bridges the charged field between personal and universal dilemmas." - Dagbladet, praise for the Norwegian edition

My Father’s War is simultaneously a history of the Nazi occupation of Norway in World War II and a son’s sincere attempt to understand the silences, motivations, and experiences of an estranged father. In this carefully researched book, combining family memoir and historical retelling, BjØrn Westlie uncovers his father’s actions as a volunteer soldier for the Waffen-SS, the military wing of the infamous Schutzstaffel (SS), in the invasion of the Soviet Union. Balancing his role as both son and critical investigator, Westlie unflinchingly interrogates his father’s fascist convictions, which speak to the appeal Hitler’s ideology held for a small, disgraced segment of Norway’s mid-century population. A story of collaboration, tragedy, and treason, My Father’s War reveals the little-known history of Norway's frontkjempere (front fighters), the atrocities the Waffen-SS committed against Ukrainian Jews, and the complex legacies of ethnonationalism in Norway. 

With an insightful introduction from translator Dean Krouk, My Father’s War is a contemporary classic of war literature. Committed to genuine understanding without falling into undue sympathizing, this sober and reflective book presents an eye-opening, moving, intense, and necessary account of the allure of fascism in a world at war—and its personal costs.

Translator’
s Introduction
 

 

Prologue: The Little Wooden Box from Ukraine  
 

 

PART ONE
1. The Attack
2. The Transformation
3. The Path to the SS
4. The Soldier Factory
5. The Storm
6. Limitless Brutality
7. The Long, Cold Winter
8. Honor and Allegiance
 

PART TWO
9. Punishment
10. Fear
 

PART THREE
11.  
Black Dogs
12.  
The Good, Difficult Discussion
 

Epilogue: The Secret of the Little Wooden Box
 

Notes
Bibliography