In The Betrayal, Harry Rødner provides the most thorough documentation yet of the widespread anti-Jewish and anti-Semitic attitudes in Norway before the war, which were also evident in the government-in-exile. By the summer of 1945, the government in London had received unequivocal information about the preparations for the extermination of Jews, including Norwegian Jews.

The Donau deportation itself was briefly referred to within the government as a 'foreign policy matter'. Using religious rhetoric, the government's official newspaper Norges Tidend accused the Jews of treachery and of bringing about their own fate. In particular, Prime Minister Nygaardsvold and Foreign Minister Lie were opposed to any special treatment of the Jews.

'The White Buses' did not rescue Norwegian Jews. They were omitted from the lists used to determine which prisoners were to be evacuated from Germany. However, in early May 1945, 64 interned Norwegian Jews were taken from Berg and Grini to Sweden. Jews were discriminated against in the post-war restitution of confiscated property.