My question: How long did the Norwegian prince and his mother stay at the White House? I've found online sources that detail he spent the war in Washington DC, but no dates for staying at the White House. The White House residential quarters aren't that large, were they really there for the entire war?
In April 1940 the Norwegian royal family was forced to flee Oslo when the Germans invaded.
The Doris Kearns Goodwin book No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt and the Home Front in World War II; contains this picture of the current King (then Prince) Harald V. playing with Franklin Delano Roosevelt's(FDR's) dog, Fala, on the North Lawn of the White House in 1944.
In the book it says that the young(second grader) and his mother lived at the White House with Eleanor and FDR throughout the war. They originally went to Sweden but even though she was a Swedish Princess they were denied a VISA and left for fear of being sent back to occupied Norway. The young Prince Harald V - 7 years old in the picture- and mother then went to Finland and eventually came to the United States. The crowned prince and father stayed in London with the government in exile. The book goes so far to say FDR arranged for the King of Norway to fly across the Atlantic on Christmas to celebrate with his wife and son on several occasions.
Princess Märtha following an invitation by President Roosevelt, she went to the United States on United States Army transport American Legion, via the then Finnish port city of Petsamo. In the U.S., she and her children initially stayed in the White House. Crown Prince Olav, however, had gone with his father to the United Kingdom, where he worked with the Norwegian government-in-exile. Thus, the crown couple, as were many couples during the time, were separated for much of the war.
Vital mission to Petsamo
President Franklin D. Roosevelt directed that American Legion leave New York immediately and proceed to Petsamo in northern Finland. There, she was to embark the Crown Princess Märtha of Norway and her party and bring them to the United States, their homeland having fallen to the Germans the previous spring. Further, as Acting Secretary of State Sumner Welles reported to the United States Minister in Sweden, the President also desired that Mrs. J. Borden Harriman, the former American Minister to Norway, return in the same vessel. The transport would "likewise bring back to this country such Americans in Scandinavian countries as can be accommodated and as may not be able to return safely in any other way."
American Legion — her neutrality shown clearly by the U.S. flags painted prominently on her sides — sailed for Finland on 25 July, and reached Petsamo on 6 August, as scheduled. On the 15th, she embarked Crown Princess Märtha, and her three children, the Princesses Ragnhild and Astrid, and Crown Prince Harald. The Army troopship also embarked a host of American nationals and refugees from a variety of countries: Poland, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Germany, and the Netherlands, the total number of people being 897.
In August 1941, Crown Princess Märtha traveled with President Roosevelt aboard the presidential yacht, USS Potomac, and sailed to Newfoundland and Atlantic Charter with Winston Churchill.
Crown Princess Martha of Norway with her three children reportedly arriving in New York City in 1940.
Even though she was a former Swedish princess, some in Sweden believed her and her children compromised the country’s neutrality by being in Sweden. The four royals and three staff members then traveled to Finland.
At some point President Roosevelt invited Martha and her children to stay at the White House. The United States was also neutral at the time.
Crown Princess Märtha with her husband, Eleanor Roosevelt, Thomas J. Watson and Princess Juliana of the Netherlands in 1944