Image copyright AFP Image caption Many of the women were expelled from the country with their children 
 
 Norway's Prime Minister Erna Solberg has issued an official government apology to Norwegian women who were mistreated over World War Two-era relationships with German soldiers. 
 
 Norway, a neutral country, was invaded by Nazi forces in April 1940. 
 
 Up to 50,000 Norwegian women are thought to have had intimate relationships with German soldiers. 
 
 The Germans were also encouraged to have children with them by SS leader Heinrich Himmler. 
 
 Himmler, one of the most powerful men under Adolf Hitler, favoured Norwegian women, hoping they could help promote the Nazi concept of an Aryan master race. 
 
 Many of the Norwegian-German children were born in the German-administered Lebensborn (Fountain of Life) maternity facilities set up from 1941 by the Nazis in the country. 
 
 Image copyright Getty Images Image caption A swastika in the Norwegian capital Oslo following the Nazi takeover 
 
 The women who had relationships with the soldiers became known by the nickname the "German Girls", and were targeted for reprisals in Norway when the war ended - standing accused of betraying the country. 
 
 Punishments included being deprived of civil rights, detained or expelled from the country to Germany along with their children. 
 
 'Undignified treatment' 
 
 "Young Norwegian girls and women who had relations with German soldiers or were suspected of having them, were victims of undignified treatment," Ms Solberg said at an event to mark the 70th anniversary of the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights on Wednesday. 
 
 "Our conclusion is that Norwegian authorities violated the rule fundamental principle that no citizen can be punished without trial or sentenced without law." 
 
 "For many, this was just a teenage love, for some, the love of their lives with an enemy soldier or an innocent flirt that left its mark for the rest of their lives. 
 
 "Today, in the name of the government, I want to offer my apologies." 
 
 Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Lebensborn facilities were set up in Germany and Nazi-conquered countries 
 
 The apology was based on a report about Norway's post-war actions published by the country's Centre for Holocaust and Minorities Studies. 
 
 More than seven decades on from the war, not many of the women directly affected are likely to still be alive to hear it. 
 
 "A good apology can have a lot of power. An apology can mean that groups receive answers to their treatment," Guri Hjeltnes the head of the centre said. 
 
 Reidar Gabler attended the event and told Norwegian media that the apology meant a lot to his family. 
 
 His mother, Else Huth from Sarpsborg was just 22 in 1944 when she fell in love with a 25-year-old German soldier. 
 
 "The people directly affected are no longer with us... but this also touches their families and the children," said Mr Gabler. 
 
 "We just had to come. This is amazing," he said, after meeting Ms Solberg. 
 
 Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Erna Solberg admitted Norwegian authorities had violated fundamental rights with their actions 
 
 About 10-12,000 children are thought to have been born as a result of relationships between Norwegian women and German soldiers. 
 
 Some of the children were also targeted for acts of revenge, given up to foster families or placed in institutions. 
 
 In 2007 a group of children took Norway to the European Court of Human Rights, but their case was ruled inadmissible because of the amount of time that had passed since the offences occurred. ||||| Solberg said the estimated 50,000 women labelled "German girls," who had or were suspected of having intimate wartime relations with Nazi troops, ended up marked "for the rest of their lives." 
 
 Seven decades later, most have since died. After Norway's liberation in 1945, reprisals inflicted included job dismissals, detentions, expulsions and removal of nationality. 
 
 "For many, this was just teenage love, for some, the love of their lives," said Solberg Wednesday, adding that their treatment breached the principle that no citizen should be punished outside the court system. 
 
 Read more: No compensation for 'stolen children' 
 
 The prime minister delivered the government apology at an event to mark the 70th anniversary of the UN's universal declaration of human rights. 
 
 German girls were treated shamefully, says Solberg 
 
 Neutral Norway was occupied from April 1940 by more than 300,000 German soldiers. 
 
 SS chief Heinrich Himmler encouraged German troops to partner and breed with local women. It was part of Nazi Germany's white supremacist agenda that also led to the establishment of a "Lebensborn" reproduction center in Norway in 1941. 
 
 In 2000, Norway formally apologized to the estimated 10,000 to 12,000 children who also suffered reprisals because they were the offspring of Norwegian mothers and German soldiers. 
 
 Many were placed in host families or special institutions and later battled for compensation. 
 
 Late but important 
 
 Reidar Gabler, the son of a Norwegian woman who was expelled in 1945 along with her German husband, told the Aftenposten newspaper that apology delivered by Solberg had come late but said it was" important for history." 
 
 "The people directly affected are no longer with us… but this also touches their families and the children," Gabler said. 
 
 Historian Guri Hjeltnes presented a study on Norway's post-war treatment of various groups. 
 
 None of the 28 Norwegian men married to German women during the war were subsequently expelled or deprived of their nationality, she said. 
 
 "We cannot say women who had personal relations with German soldiers were helping the German war effort," said Hjeltnes. "Their only crime was breaking the unwritten rules." 
 
 ipj/msh (AFP, AP)
– When Germany invaded Norway in 1940, Nazi leader Heinrich Himmler endorsed the concept of German soldiers hooking up with Norwegian women, as that would help bring the Nazis closer to the Aryan master race they wished for. Per the BBC, about 50,000 Norwegian women ended up in relationships with the Germans, and they became known as the "German Girls"—a label that led to harsh punishments after WWII ended when their country turned on them for what was viewed as a betrayal. Now, Norway's prime minister is officially offering an apology to those women, calling them "victims of undignified treatment" and noting that Norwegian authorities back then acted outside of usual conventions in punishing these women and the children they bore. "For many, this was just a teenage love," Norwegian PM Erna Solberg said Wednesday at a UN human rights event. "For some, the love of their lives with an enemy soldier or an innocent flirt ... left its mark for the rest of their lives. Today, in the name of the government, I want to offer my apologies." Punishments included getting fired from their jobs, detentions, being stripped of their nationality, and even expulsions to Germany. Meanwhile, many of the more than 10,000 children who came out of these relationships were sent to foster homes or "special institutions," Deutsche Welle notes. A historian says that Norwegian men who married German women during the same period weren't similarly punished. "[The women's] only crime was breaking the unwritten rules," he says. (As one woman headed to the Auschwitz gas chamber, she wrote this.)