69 Our Values Are in Danger NORW EG I AN -AMERICA N RES P ONS ES TO WORLD WAR I I I N T H E PA CIFIC NORTHWEST Hans-Petter Grav April 10, 1940, appeared to be like any other day in Portland. The downtown district west of the Willamette River bustled as it usually did on a weekday. People went about their business as always, browsing shops, muttering complaints about the spring weather, purposefully hurrying up and down the sidewalk on errands or on their way to reunite with waiting spouses. If anything had seemed unusual that day, it must have been the somber expressions on the faces of the sixty- two delegates for the Daughters of Norway of the Pacific Coast’s Twenty- Second Biennial Convention as they arrived at the art deco Congress Hotel on Sixth and Main. Later that evening, the delegates wore attractive gowns and shared solemn looks as if attending a funeral as they made their way to the opening reception across the river in Norse Hall. Neither the members of the Sons of Norway Grieg Lodge, the hosts for the occasion, nor the Daughters of Norway delegates could possibly have known that the receptions, dinners, and meetings they had planned for 70 articles weeks and months would so completely be dominated by the unimaginable news that Germany had made Norway a battleground the day prior.1 “We gave speeches, sang, and prayed for our motherland Norway,” Inga Frodesen, the departing president, wrote of the convention. Organizers and dele gates often interrupted the program, which included heartfelt and sympathetic speeches from both the governor of Oregon and the mayor of Portland, with “Song for Mother Norway,” which left few dry eyes and brought attendees’ thoughts to yesterday’s headlines, though undoubtedly they needed little reminding.2 As part of the order of business on the first convention day, they named Crown Princess Märtha of Norway an honorary member; wholeheartedly agreed with an appeal made by Washington Posten, a Norwegian- language weekly published in Seattle, to adopt the oath of the 1814 Constitutional Assembly; opened a relief fund; and committed all the member lodges “to do everything in their power to help their people in need.”3 Norwegian Americans faced crisis in April 1940 as individuals and as a community. Perceived demands of assimilation and American loyalty represented a challenge to ethnic cultural retention during World War II as it had amid the nativist pressures of World War I. Despite the demands for loyalty during a time of war and the ethnic acculturation of the second, third, and fourth generations of Norwegian Americans, the Norwegian- American community in the Pacific Northwest proved remarkably cohesive throughout World War II. In the context of a homeland occupied by Nazi Germany, Pacific Northwest Norwegians felt a heightened responsibility to maintain, even enshrine, the collective memory and ethnic heritage of pre- Nazified Norway. The shock of the German occupation of Norway therefore undoubtedly boosted Norwegian identities among Pacific Northwest Norwegians, particularly prior to Pearl Harbor. More importantly, the World War II era sheds light on how a vibrant and healthy immigrant community, whose ethnic institutions adapted and survived the transition from the first to the second generations , sought solace and purpose in both American and Norwegian identities when faced with a collective sense of tragedy. The news from Norway had left the Daughters of Norway delegates stunned, but it also filled the convention with resolve.4 In her report from the 71 our values are in danger meeting, which reads like a call to arms, Inga Frodesen recalled with horror the “beautiful valleys and open meadows” now turned into a battlefield. It “is painful to hear of it, and it is painful to read about this evil,” she wrote, and insisted that “we have to take evil for what it is, and in earnest get on with it, if we are ever [again] to witness peace on earth.”5 Frodesen expressed a wish for women to abolish war altogether, but in the present tragedy called on her sisters to do their part to alleviate the suffering of their kindred folk in “the land from which we or...
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Jul 1, 2024
Richard Ford + 1
Open Access