Knut Hamsun’s Eulogy for Adolf Hitler

 

Although he may not have been a National Socialist in a doctrinaire sense, Norwegian Nobel laureate Knut Hamsun counted himself as one of Adolf Hitler’s personal followers. On May 7, 1945, one short week after the Führer’s freewill death, the following eulogy for Hitler was published on the front page of the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten.

 

Adolf Hitler


I am not worthy to speak for Adolf Hitler, and his life and deeds do not invite any sentimental reflection.


Hitler was a warrior, a warrior for humankind and a preacher of the gospel of justice for all nations. He was a reforming character of the highest order, and his historical fate was that he functioned in a time of unequaled brutality, which in the end felled him.


Thus may the ordinary Western European look at Adolf Hitler. And we, his close followers, bow our heads at his death.


Knut Hamsun

 


Original Norwegian text:

 

Adolf Hitler

Jeg er ikke verdig til at tale høirøstet om Adolf Hitler, og til nogen sentimental Rørelse indbyder hans Liv og Gjerning ikke.

Han var en Kriger, en Kriger for Menneskeheden og en Forkynder av Evangeliet om Ret for alle Nasjoner. Han var en reformatorisk Skikkelse av høieste Rang, og hans historiske skjebne var den, at han virket i en Tid av eksempelløseste Raahet, som tilslut fældte ham.

Slik tør den almindelige Vesteuropæer se på Adolf Hitler. Og vi, hans nære tilhengere, bøier nu vaare hoder ved hans død.

Knut Hamsun