When German troops invaded Norway in 1940, Quisling proclaimed himself "Minister President" and moved into the villa with his wife in 1941. He was executed in 1945. The house and grounds were used for housing Allied troops after the war. In 2000 the Norwegian government promised to donate Villa Grande to the Holocaust Centre as part of a compensation package for Norwegian Jews. More than 750 out of a Jewish population of about 1800 before the war died in the Holcaust.