ABSTRACT
All spheres of Norwegian society collaborated with the German occupier through the 5 years of occupation from 1940 to 1945. After the war, the Kingdom of Norway convicted 46,085 citizens of treason because of their relations with the enemy. According to Lorentz Vogt, the director of the Federation of Norwegian Industries from 1924 to 1942, the occupation confronted industry with two alternative approaches, either to sabotage or to cooperate.10 Supported by Norwegian civilian authorities, business and industry chose the latter. A legal basis for prosecuting economic traitors already existed in the Criminal Law, which covered crimes against the integrity of the State. The Treason Ordinance was valid from December 1944 but published only in August 1945, when the legal purges started. The ordinance dealt with economic treason in Article 2, which said that “improper” economic collaboration was criminal. Peircean theory holds that new meaning occurs when signs are reinterpreted.
