NORWAY IN THEIR HEARTS

Yet as these Norwegians became assimilated, proudly adopting American ways and watching their children forego much of the mother tongue, they went about their new lives "with Norway in their hearts," a phrase that summed up the blend of memories and sentiments that they experienced on the deepest level, according to historian Christen T. Jonassen.

Nordisk Tidende was the largest Norwegian-language newspaper outside Norway, and the most influential. It was to play a key role during the war. When the German Army invaded Norway in April, 1940, it "quickly became a key source of information about the Norwegian war effort. Because the Norwegian press was strictly censored, the newspaper also became an important tool-not only on paper but also over the radio-for disseminating news to Norway," notes David Mauk in his recent book about the Brooklyn Norwegians, "The Colony that Rose from the Sea."

Nordisk Tidende editor Carl Søyland learned that the Germans had invaded Norway from telegraph operator Arnulf Olsen, who provided the community with news from Norway over his short-wave station. Søyland spent most of the night listening to radio news reports with Sigurd Arnesen, the owner of Nordisk Tidende. When they showed up at the newspaper office in the morning, they were greeted by a throng of American journalists who wanted information and photographs. The next issue of the paper came out on April 11, with the banner headline: "NORWAY DRAGGED INTO THE MAELSTROM OF THE WORLD WAR."

In an era without the Internet, decades before television could instantaneously pipe news into living rooms around the world, the offices of Nordisk Tidende played a vital role. The Nordisk Tidende offices served as a virtual Norwegian embassy, with members of the community arriving at its door almost immediately after learning of the invasion, laden with gifts of money and goods to help embattled Norway.

As Norway's free press was tied down by the Nazi occupying forces, Nordisk Tidende became the semi-official mouthpiece of the Norwegian resistance and the exiled government. The paper relayed messages and printed letters from Norway that had been smuggled out by the merchant fleet. Writers in the paper during the war years encompassed some of Norway's top intellectuals who were in exile, including Nobel Prize winning author Sigrid Undset.

During the war years, the circulation of Nordisk Tidende rose tremendously. It was now a thick, full-format publication, put out by a staff that reached its peak, with more than 40 employees. Carl Søyland, former editor of Nordisk Tidende, estimated that the war prolonged the life of the Brooklyn Norwegian community by ten years, as Norwegians joined together-exiles, sailors and immigrants--making the colony their base for the duration of the war. Nordisk Tidende played a vital role during that time.

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