Following Nazi Germany’s invasion of Norway in 1940, Hitler entrusted Vidkun Quisling and his marginal fascist party Nasjonal Samling with the task of forming a collaborationist regime. Despite grand visions and initial optimism, Quisling and his party soon suffered a series of disappointments, and by the summer of 1941 disillusionment was already rife. Arguably, no other event during the occupation sparked as much enthusiasm within Nasjonal Samling as Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941. Within days of the attack, the party, in cooperation with German agencies, had launched a massive campaign to recruit Norwegian volunteers to a Norwegian legion, which was meant to take part in the ‘crusade against Bolshevism’.