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ON THE SET: Director Alexander Kristiansen instructs extras during the filming of the documentary series “Frontkjempere” on NRK. The series premieres on April 26. Photo: Lukas Salnas, NRK
Several historians who participate in a documentary series on the so-called front fighters of World War II, now say that they would not have participated if they had known what the series would be like.
The conflict is based on how the series “Frontkjempere” portrays the Norwegian Waffen-SS volunteers.
– Those who have made the series have had a naive journalistic attitude, historian Terje Emberland, who himself has participated in the series, tells VG.
He is frustrated with the outcome of the series, which runs over four episodes and opens next Tuesday. On Good Friday, therefore, he wrote a post on Facebook expressing this frustration.
The post ends with “As this series has become, I don’t want to help legitimize it at all in my presence!”
– You have to protest
The historian’s problem is whether he likes it or not, he is part of the series.
– So, I feel like I have to protest. Only the trailer helps undermine my legitimacy as a researcher. I seem to accept the front line fighters’ own postwar story about their motives, says Emberland.
He feels that it is particularly troublesome because he is himself a researcher at the Holocaust Center and for several years he has been involved in a research project on Norway and the SS. The project concluded that the vast majority of the front fighters participated in Hitler’s war of extermination on the eastern front and in the fight for a Nazi Norway and Europe.
“Front fighters” is, according to the NRK itself, a “historical documentary series based on interviews with Norwegian front fighters, Norwegians who wore German uniforms and fought on Hitler’s side during World War II.”
The series is a mixture of interviews with the front fighters themselves and, among other things, with historians, as well as the dramatization of what is told.
NOT SATISFIED: Historian Terje Emberland reacts to how the war story is presented in the NRK documentary “Front fighters.” Photo: Kristian Helgesen
“The intention around the series has been to convey a story that is completely unknown to most Norwegians. How could thousands of Norwegians choose to fight for the occupying power? »NRK writes in his coverage of the series.
Terje Emberland and at least three other historians are far from impressed with how this is done.
– This is where the old myth that the Norwegian Waffen-SS volunteers developed in the post-war period that they were just “naive young men” who “wanted to fight communism” is transmitted here.
Now the historian fears that the public will be left with the impression that what these men say is true.
– Well, they were against the communists, but the vast majority of them were members of the National Assembly and they convinced the Nazis, says Emberland.
The historian Sigurd Sørlie also participates in the documentary. He is also unimpressed by the end result, although he acknowledges that in its final form it is not as bad as he had feared.
– But it suffers from two main problems: it draws too much on the front lines’ own perspectives, and its editing is weak and messy. The result is that it is very confusing and full of contradictions, he says.
The second is that the documentary reproduces the message of the postwar SS volunteers. Sørlie thinks this is a clear trend in the series.
Defend the series
Director and producer Alexander Kristiansen has been working on the series for ten years. He denies that they have taken the good fish version of the front fighters, and believes that the link to Nazism is clear in the series.
– Several of the wrestlers in the series say they admired Quisling’s ideas and were members of NS. But you also have to keep in mind that some vanguard fighters were between 15 and 16 years old when they signed up and that not all of them had a clear ideological conviction at the time, he says.
– Emberland accuses you of having a “naive journalistic attitude”. Do you have any comments on this?
– I have worked with this series for over 10 years and have spent a lot of time familiarizing myself with professional literature, so of course I do not share Emberland’s views. But ultimately, it is the participating historians who must be held accountable for what they say in the series, responds the director.
RECONSTRUCTION: Still image of the dramatization of the operations of the front warriors in the service of the Nazis.
– It is clear that there are different opinions on why they volunteered and to what extent they were involved in war crimes. I think it is positive that the story is illuminated from different sides, nobody owns the story and can affirm that their own opinion is the only correct one.
In addition, director Kristiansen thinks it is “a little strange” that Sørlie and Emberland are distancing themselves from the series.
– To the extent that they are contradicted, it is by other historians of the series, not by me as the creator of the series. Fortunately, not all participating historians feel the same way, which emphasizes that there are different points of view on history, he says.
Kristiansen notes that other historians who are also involved in the series, unlike Sørlie and Emberland, defend the series. VG has tried to contact them on Friday, without success.
Changes required
Historian Sigurd Sørlie says that the final product is not similar to what they first envisioned from production.
– Basically, we had the impression that we were going to be professional consultants. We thoroughly commented on an earlier manuscript and announced that we were going in the completely wrong direction, says Sørlie.
– When we received the files of what was more or less a finished film, we were surprised and wrote a long list of requirements for what we had to change so that we could participate more, says Sørlie.
The historian says he then got the clear impression that the producer and NRK would return to them in a few weeks with a new version, and that they should be allowed to decide whether to continue participating. However, they did not hear anything until they received the finished product and were informed when it was due to ship.
Director Alexander Kristiansen says these allegations “are not true at all.” He says he let the historians make several rounds of input, and that he prefers to let more people express their opinion, rather than let some win with their views.
At the same time, he had to keep control of the process himself.
– It would be contrary to all journalistic principles for participating historians to dictate the content of a documentary series. This was relayed to them several times, but sadly they have not understood their role, he says.
Historian Sørlie, on the other hand, is clear that the frustration is not that they wanted to directly shape the documentary themselves.
– We never thought that we would dictate a documentary, but it must be open for us to withdraw. We will not give a professional alibi to a product that we cannot answer at all.
– Aware that it can provoke debate
NRK believes that “Front Fighters” is a series that will shed light on a part of the history of the war that is not as well known to the general public.
– We are aware that it can provoke debate. We welcome you, but the series has yet to be released. We want the public to see it first, make up their minds, and thus benefit from the debate, says project editor Marie Sjo at NRK to VG.
– The subject remains inflamed and controversial. Seven different professional historians take part in the series, and not all of them agree with each other. NRK perceives that there has been an orderly process between Kristiansen and the historians, who have had many input along the way, explains Sjo.
