Vidkun Quisling(1887-1945)

Norwegian traitor Vidkun Quisling was born in 1887. An army officer, he served as military attaché in Petrograd from 1918-19 and in Helsinki from 1919-21, later assisting Fridtjof Nansen in relief work in Russia. He was Norwegian minister of defence from 1931 to 1933. In 1940 he broke his oath and secretly aided Germany in its invasion of Norway, and was subsequently installed by the Germans as head of the collaborationist Norwegian government. Universally despised in Norway, and not particularly popular with his German masters, he remained in power until May of 1945, when he was arrested after the Germans surrendered. He was found guilty of charges including embezzlement, murder and high treason against the Norwegian state, and was sentenced to death. Since his death, Quisling has become one of history's most infamous traitors due to his collaboration with Nazi Germany. The term quisling has become a byword for "collaborator" or "traitor" in several languages. The term reflects the contempt with which Quisling's conduct has been regarded both at the time and in the present day.