In her April 9 report on the German invasion of Norway, Sigrid Schultz reported that Major Vidkun Quisling, the Norwegian Nazi leader, had taken power as premier and foreign minister only hours after Oslo surrendered. In a radio proclamation that evening, he “called upon the people to cease resistance to the German army and avoid ‘criminal destruction of property’ and demanded that the Norwegian army obey his ‘national government.’ Quisling said he had taken over to ‘protect Norway’.”

Her use of quotation marks in reporting Quisling’s power grab proved to be prescient. The King Haakon refused to accept a Quisling government. In fact, so few Norwegians supported Quisling that the Germans immediately realized that keeping him in power as their proxy was fanning the flames of Norwegian resistance. On April 15, he was forced to resign in favor of German Reichskomissar, Josef Terboven He continued to serve as a cabinet minister in the occupation government, and was appointed “Minister President” on February 1, 1942. It was a relatively meaningless title since the real power remained in the hands of Terboven.

He was arrested after the liberation of Norway in May 1945, tried for treason, and executed.

Quisling entered English as a synonym for traitor almost immediately.

The Oxford English dictionary reports first use of the term as a general noun rather than a proper name only days after the Nazis invaded Norway. On April 15, the Times of London reported comments in the Swedish press urging “there should be unremitting vigilance also against possible ‘Quislings’ inside the country.” A year later, in a speech at St. James Palace, Winston Churchill described the term as “a new word which will carry the scorn of mankind down the centuries.”

Quisling: A person cooperating with an occupying enemy force; a collaborator; a traitor. Also used as an adjective for someone who does the same., for example”quisling newspapers”