The Paperclip Was Used As a Symbol of Resistance During World War II
September 9, 2013 Emily Upton
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- The Norwegians found other ways to resist the Nazis, too. 12,000 of the teachers who were told to teach Nazism went on strike. 1000 of them were deported and sent to prison camps immediately, but after six months the remaining educators hadn’t relented, and the Nazis gave it up as a lost cause—having teachers out of the classroom was more detrimental to the war effort than having them in classrooms, but not teaching Nazi party ideals.
- Similarly, the churches that were told to teach “obedience to the leader and the state” found themselves in desperate need of people to lead church services. Every bishop in Norway resigned, along with 90% of the clergy. The humiliated German soldiers were forced to rescind the doctrine—another win for Norway.
- Meanwhile, the general public of Norway were waging a silent war of their own. In addition to donning paperclips, they made life difficult for the German soldiers in various subtle ways. Many of them refused to speak German, even though it was a widely known language at the time, and would point the soldiers in the wrong direction when telling them how to get from point A to point B. They refused to sit beside German soldiers when they rode on public transportation—an act of defiance that enraged the Germans so much that they made it illegal to stand on the bus if there were seats open.
- An illegal press was established in order to keep everyone informed after the Nazis attempted to cut Norway off from the BBC. When the German military began to conscript young men into the army, thousands fled to neighbouring Sweden to escape service. The Germans promptly withheld ration cards from those who didn’t sign up—at which point the resistance stole some 150,000 ration cards, and the military was forced to stop their efforts on that front.
- As for the Norwegian Jews, although 700 were shipped to Auschwitz, the remainder—1000 or more—were smuggled into Sweden by the resistance, which was no small accomplishment.
- Germany occupied Norway until the end of the war. Around 40,000 Norwegians were imprisoned during the interim, and over 10,000 lost their lives. Another 40,000 or so had escaped to Sweden and slowly began returning home when the Germans began to leave.
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I would hope that “We, The Sheeple” would be as brave and corageous in resisting the tyranny of the Federal Gooferment
—30—
Reinke Faces Life 