CONTENT WARNING: This post discusses war crimes, antisemitism, and the use of feigned insanity to escape justice. Purpose: historical education and remembrance only.
Sverre Riisnæs (1897–1988)
The Norwegian Minister of Justice who murdered in a suit and escaped justice by howling like an animal
When Nazi Germany invaded Norway on 9 April 1940, few could have predicted that a respected former state prosecutor would become one of the most fanatical collaborators in Northern Europe.
From prosecutor to Quisling’s Minister of Justice
Sverre Riisnæs, a brilliant lawyer, immediately sided with Vidkun Quisling and the Nasjonal Samling party.
In 1941 he was appointed Minister of Justice in the puppet government.
From that position he:
Drafted laws that criminalised all resistance and legitimised Nazi terror
Confiscated Jewish property
Played a central role in the arrest and deportation of 772 Norwegian Jews (over half of whom were murdered in Auschwitz)
He held the SS rank of Standartenführer and was one of the most enthusiastic recruiters of Norwegians for the Eastern Front.
Descent into madness – or brilliant performance?
By 1944–1945 Riisnæs’s mental state visibly deteriorated: heavy drinking, public outbursts, paranoid delusions.
After the February 1945 assassination of his friend, police chief Karl Marthinsen, a drunken Riisnæs personally took part in brutal reprisal executions.
The perfect act of insanity
Arrested immediately after liberation in May 1945, Riisnæs appeared in court in 1946 and began behaving like a completely deranged man: howling like a wolf, barking, crawling on the floor, biting the furniture.
Psychiatrists declared him “severely schizophrenic” and unfit to stand trial.
All charges were suspended.
Instead of the death sentence received by most high-ranking Nasjonal Samling leaders, Riisnæs spent decades in psychiatric institutions, gradually “recovering” and eventually living freely until his death in 1988 at age 91 – never once expressing remorse.
To his last breath he believed Quisling would one day be recognised as a national saviour.
A bitter stain on post-war justice
Of the more than 90,000 Norwegians tried for collaboration, Riisnæs was one of the very few senior figures to escape execution – thanks to a performance of madness many still believe was calculated.
His story remains one of the darkest and most controversial episodes in Norwegian legal history after World War II.
Primary sources
Norwegian Court Records 1945–1948
National Archives of Norway – Sverre Riisnæs files
Hans Fredrik Dahl, “Quisling: A Study in Treason”