Photo of red knitted hats with a tassel on top: Paul S. Neary via Ravelry
The Norwegian red hat was a powerful symbol of defiance against the Nazi occupation during World War II.
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Tangestuen, [Mats Tangestuen, the director of Norway’s Resistance Museum in Oslo] said the hat emerged sometime around the last large demonstration protesting Nazi occupation in September 1941. For Norwegians, the hat was meant to be “distinctively non-violent” and “not a threatening symbol.”
“It was used in the period of the war where everything looked very dark,” Tangestuen said. “The main purpose of it was just to keep up morale, keep up hope and not descend into hopelessness and apathy.”
It was eventually outlawed by the Germans.