![]() The strategic position of the country was considered important by the belligerent powers, however, and its position therefore soon became precarious. When the Second World War broke out in September 1939, Norway was among the neutral states of Europe. «Our institution has happily avoided foreign interference during the five years of war», the director of the Nobel Institute wrote in June 1945. Yet, during the occupation none of the committee members were troubled as such by the Germans, and the Nobel Institute was not forced to close. Indeed, the award of the prize to the anti-militarist Carl von Ossietzky in 1936 had so infuriated Hitler as to make him forbid all Germans to receive any Nobel prize. ![]() To say that the Committee was not popular with the Nazi regime would be an understatement. Under the German occupation of Norway from 1940 to 1945 normal political activity was banned, and there was little the Nobel Committee of the Norwegian Storting could do except postpone the prize awards and defend its integrity. During the Second World War no Nobel Peace Prize was awarded.
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