assistance was provided—Quisling led the Norwegian public to believe that the first deportation of Jews, to camps in Nazi-German occupied Poland, was his idea. A further 250 were deported in February 1943, and it remains unclear what the party's official position was on the eventual fate of the 759 Norwegian deportees. There is evidence to suggest that Quisling honestly believed the official line throughout 1943 and 1944 that they were awaiting repatriation to a new Jewish homeland in Madagascar. At the same time, Quisling believed that the only way he could win back Hitler's respect would be to raise volunteers for the now-faltering German war effort, and he committed Norway wholeheartedly to German plans to wage total war. For him at least, after the German defeat at Stalingrad in February 1943, Norway now had a part to play in keeping the German empire strong. In April 1943, Quisling delivered a scathing speech attacking Germany's refusal to outline its plans for post-war Europe. When he put this to Hitler in person, the Nazi leader remained unmoved despite Norway's contributions to the war effort. Quisling felt betrayed over this postponement of Norwegian freedom, an attitude that waned only when Hitler eventually committed to a free post-war Norway in September 1943. Quisling tired during the final years of the war. In 1942 he passed 231 laws, 166 in 1943, and 139 in 1944. Social policy was the one area that still received significant attention. By that autumn, Quisling and Mussert in the Netherlands could be satisfied they had at least survived. In 1944, the weight problems Quisling had been having during the preceding two years also eased. Despite the increasingly dire military outlook in 1943 and 1944, Nasjonal Samling's position at the head of the government, albeit with its ambiguous relationship to the Reichskommissariat, remained unassailable. Nevertheless, the Germans exerted increasing control over law and order in Norway. Following the deportation of the Jews, Germany deported Norwegian officers and finally attempted to deport students from the University of Oslo. Even Hitler was incensed by the scale of the arrests. Quisling became entangled in a similar debacle in early 1944 when he forced compulsory military service on elements of the Hirden, causing a number of members to resign to avoid being drafted. On 20 January 1945, Quisling made what would be his final trip to visit Hitler. He promised Norwegian support in the final