[1] Van Norden went to study economics at the Netherlands School of Commerce, precursor to the current Erasmus University in Rotterdam.

[1] Van Norden became member of a group of friends which included Max Nord, Simon Carmiggelt and his wife Tiny.

[1][2] When the Netherlands was occupied in World War II by Germany in May 1940 Van Norden and his group of friends decided on resisting the occupation forces.

[3] In autumn 1940 he became involved in spreading the illegal Nieuwsbrief (English: Newsletter) of Pieter 't Hart, the war pseudonym of Frans Goedhart.

Even though Van Norden had several war pseudonyms and identity papers he was arrested with most of the editorial staff of the newspaper in late 1942.

[2] In the summer of 1944 Van Norden was looking for a jurist to help with the Foundation 1940–1944, which after the war would was to set up pensions for the relatives of dead resistance members.

[1] The war made a deep impression on Van Norden, with fifty people contributing to Het Parool not surviving the hostilities.

[2] In later years this would lead Van Norden to state: "We started Het Parool with 1,000 guilder, as long that isn't gone there are no problems".

[2] Van Norden traveled around the world and became convinced that small, independent, and the political and religiously based newspapers would disappear.

[2] In 1968 Van Norden became one of the ground layers of the Perscombinatie, a publishing company consisting of Het Parool and De Volkskrant, later joined by Trouw.

Van Norden solved the issue by having foundations of the three newspapers each appoint members to a management company that governed the Perscombinatie.

[2] Van Norden stayed involved in journalism with editorial staff of Het Parool asking him for advice.