The Beisfjord massacre (Norwegian : Beisfjord-massakren) was a massacre on 18 July 1942 at Beisfjord Camp No. 1 (German : Lager I Beisfjord; Norwegian: Beisfjord fangeleir) in the village of Beisfjord in Narvik Municipality, Norway of 288 political prisoners. The massacre had been ordered a few days earlier by Josef Terboven, the Reichskommissar for Nazi-occupied Norway. [1]
 | This article contains too many or overly lengthy quotations .(July 2018) |
In order to build defences in Norway against the Allies, the Germans brought in around 5,000 Yugoslavian political prisoners and prisoners-of-war—in addition to prisoners of other nationalities—to work as forced labour on infrastructure projects. [2] In the summer of 1942 a number of prisoners started arriving in North Norway as a result of the transfer of prisoners from the new Croatian puppet regime to German authorities who needed manpower for projects in Norway. [2] This acquisition of manpower for projects in Norway was under Organisation Todt Einsatzgruppe Wiking.
In 2013 Dagbladet quoted Knut Flovik Thoresen saying—in regards to the camps that were to cost the lives of 2,368 Yugoslavs—that "Norwegian [camp] guards' [in North Norway] gruesome violations against Yugoslav prisoners in Norway during the war, were so cruel that I have hardly ever read about more brutal acts". [3] Furthermore, many of the victims were Serbs from the independent state of Croatia (NDH)—not partisans, but chosen based on ethnicity. [4] In the first deployment of camp guards that were sent to North Norway, some used their bayonets so often "that even the Germans had enough of it". [5] The second group were not issued bayonets, for fear that they would become as bloodthirsty. [5] (The guards from these groups came from Hirdvaktbataljonen—a battalion within Hirden, [5] that had the responsibility for guarding the prison camps in North Norway, between June 1942 and April 1943. [6] 500 [5] of these guards served at four main camps— Lager 1 Beisfjord , Lager 2 Elsfjord , Lager 3 Rognan and Lager 4 Karasjok —and their satellite prison camps at Korgen, Osen, and at Lake Jernvann on Bjørnfjell. [7] )
The number of individuals victimized by SS-kommandant Hermann Dolp and his German and Norwegian subordinates, might total 3,000 or even 4,000. [8]
In 2013, Flovik Thoresen said, "You can be sure that if Norwegian prisoners had been exposed to similar [atrocities], then many of the perpetrators would have been sentenced to death. Instead most were let off with sentences more lenient than those received by women who served as nurses at the front lines". [9]
There were 31 camps between Bergen and Hammerfest during World War II. [8] "[F]rom June 1942 until March 1943, regularly there were such executions of Yugoslavs [as at Beisfjord and Bjørnfjell ] in Norwegian camps. 27 prisoners were shot at Ulven near Bergen, and 26 were shot in Tromsø during a ship's arrival. In both cases, the prisoners were told that the sick were going to hospital. In the Karaskjok camp, [and] in Botn, in Korgen and in the Osen camps, groups of 10 to 50 sick prisoners were removed from the camps and shot. The SS cleaned out the infirmaries in this manner", according to the Norwegian Center for Studies of Holocaust and Religious Minorities. [10]
The involvement of the Norwegian Public Roads Administration was revealed in a 2014 Dagsavisen article: "The camps were built by the Public Roads Administration." Furthermore, that the road work was led by the Public Roads Administration, "was more the rule, rather than the exception," and the agency's "employees were facilitators and witnesses—not executioners". [11] In November 1941 blueprints and descriptions for the construction of the prison camps were sent from the Directorate of Public Roads. [11] Furthermore, in the "early stage, we only know of one small protest: the [agency] refused to feed the prisoners. This was done by a lie": The agency claimed that it was not common for the agency to feed their road workers. [11] Furthermore, Anders Fagerbakk's dissertation says that Helgeland veikontor—a local office of the agency—sent a letter of complaint to Directorate of Public Roads, a few days after Yugoslavs were put to work on road construction: The engineer in charge reported that "Norwegian road workers became restless and nervous, as a result of working with the Yugoslavs. The Yugoslavs were being fed starvation rations, and they lacked [enough] clothing". [11] In later reporting from the village of Karasjok, the description "skin and bones" was used about Yugoslavian prisoners constructing roads. [11] Furthermore, "after the war, everyone in the Public Roads Administration denied involvement with the Yugoslavian prisoners." [11] Reactions to the involvement of the agency, include (in 2014) "Still, no one has asked: Could they have stopped the mass murders?" [11]
"That the Public Roads Administration were early out to accept the use POWs on the agency's construction projects, opened for others—such as the State Railways—to flag their interest for this controversial manpower", according to a 2015 Klassekampen article. [12]
"As many as 150 000 foreign POWs, political prisoners and forced laborers were in Norway between 1941 and 1945. Over 13 700 died. The majority performed heavy labour construction work on Nordland Line, Highway 50 ([present-day] E6 [12] ) thru North Norway, fortifications and airports." The largest group of prisoners were Soviets, followed by Poles and Yugoslavs. The Yugoslavs worked on the following roads: the "Blood Road— Blodveien —from Rognan to Langsølet, Elsfjord—Korgen, on the Bjørnefjell Road towards Kiruna and on the road between Karasjok and the Finnish Border". [12] "The Germans prioritized access to iron ore mines in Kiruna and the nickel mines in Petsamo", rather than following plans of the NPRA. [12]
On 24 June 1942, [10] 900 Yugoslav prisoners arrived at the Fagernes Pier in Narvik. "They start to walk the ten kilometer long road to Beisfjord" (...) Five prisoners are hit, and die along the road, and one is shot and killed" [10] before the prisoners arrive at the location where a prison camp was established. [13]
On 12 July 1942 "some German officers, a German- and a Norwegian physician came for an inspection of the camp" (...) The SS officers' suspicion of typhoid fever was confirmed by this [Norwegian] doctor. Typhoid fever must be diagnosed thru blood- or stool samples. (...) The physical symptoms that the prisoners had, concurred, but neither the Norwegian- or German MD took blood tests. The Norwegian doctor picked out 85 prisoners who allegedly had typhoid fever. He supposedly did not examine them thoroughly, but [he] picked out the prisoners from a distance because they looked frail. They were immediately sent to the infirmary". [10]
The Beisfjord camp was quarantined by the SS on 15 July 1942 allegedly to avoid an outbreak of typhus. [2] According to Ljubo Mladjenovic (a former prisoner) in his 1989 book, conditions at the camp were unhealthy and there was an outbreak of typhus. [14] Prisoners with various illnesses were moved into two barracks, which were surrounded by barbed wire. [2]
On the evening of 17 July, the 588 "prisoners regarded as healthy" were marched out of the camp by nearly all of the Norwegian [15] guards and some German superiors. [1]
The remaining "weak and exhausted" prisoners (in Beisfjord) were ordered to dig graves and then ordered into standing positions where they would drop into the grave after the guards had shot them. [2] These 288 prisoners were killed in groups of twenty. [1]
Those prisoners who could not stand on their own feet, were left in the two barracks and these were then doused in gasoline and set on fire. [2] Some sources say that a number of prisoners refused to leave the infirmary, [1] and the building was set ablaze; those who jumped out of the windows were shot. [1] Those who tried to escape the conflagration, were shot by a machine gun in the watch tower. [2]
Seventeen Norwegian guards were present and played a role [16] during the massacre. (The guard staff of the camp consisted of around 150 men from Ordnungspolizei—controlled by the SS—and around 50 Norwegian guards who were volunteers. [10] )
On the evening of July 17, the 588 "prisoners regarded as healthy" were marched out of the Beisfjord Camp by nearly all of the Norwegian [15] guards and some German superiors. [1] Their destination was 30 km (19 mi) north-east — Bjørnefjell. [17] At Bjørnfjell they were quarantined, and the camp at Øvre Jernvann was established. [13] "On 22 July, two days after arrival at Bjørnfjell, all the prisoners had to run around the camp six times. Those prisoners who were not able, were shot." 10 prisoners were picked out and shot "farther down by the lake" [Jernvann]. Runs of this kind were held at other times, resulting in deaths every time. After five weeks on the mountain, 242 prisoners were dead. "The last 43 were [those classified as] sick who were shot" during the hike back to Beisfjord. [10]
In the spring of 1946 "seven of the circa twenty SS officers that worked at the camps at Beisfjord and Øvre Jernvann, were arrested and transported to Beograd" (...) Everyone received the death sentence. Also Norwegian guards that had killed or violated prisoners, were arrested after the war and convicted", according to HL-senteret. [10]
In 1949 a monument in memory of the Yugoslavs [at Beisfjord] was erected. [10]
Pål Nygaard (author and researcher) said that "Not long after the war" Nils Christie "took an interest in the Yugoslavian prisoners. Christie thought that research (en studie) of their prison guards, was the best way we in Norway could gain knowledge and understanding (...) He wanted to dig deeper where others waved off the actions [merely] as evil. In Norway there was little interest in reading – or listening to him. Killings and brutality belonged to the others, the bad: occupants. – Still it is like that". [11]
A 2015 Dagbladet article was written by Guri Hjeltnes.[ citation needed ]
In 2009, Aftenposten wrote "That Norwegian pupils are sent on organized bus trips to Germany and Poland to get a sense of the atrocities there, without knowing that equivalent atrocities were committed in Norway, puzzles the leader of Nordnorsk Fredssenter in Narvik". Adding "That the events [of the massacre] were covered up, is feared by the head of a war museum in Narvik (Nordland Røde Kors Krigsminnemuseum), [18] because members of a paramilitary force of Norwegians – Hirden –participated in the atrocities". [1] In 2010 Fritt Ord sponsored research that has led to an exhibition (from 12 August 2012) at the Falstad Center. [2]
In 2013 Efraim Zuroff reportedly "has eyed the groups of war criminals that he thinks there is reason to still hunt: It concerns soldiers from SS-Division Wiking that amongst other things, participated in massacring Jews on the Eastern Front 70 years ago; soldiers that served in Hirdvaktbataljonen in North Norway and who exposed Serbian POWs for horrific violations; and Norwegians that participated in arrests of Jews during the war. Many of them were convicted, but not for what they really did". [19] The same article said that Norway's Department of Justice had scheduled a meeting with Zuroff on 20 November 2013, but a misunderstanding within the department led to Zuroff not being notified. State Secretary Vidar Brein-Karlsen has said that he will gladly meet with representatives from the Wiesenthal Centre to hear what they have to say. [19]
Josef Antonius Heinrich Terboven was a German Nazi Party official and politician who was the long-serving Gauleiter of Gau Essen and the Reichskommissar for Norway during the German occupation.
is the third-largest municipality in Nordland county, Norway, by population. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Narvik. Some of the notable villages in the municipality include Ankenesstrand, Ballangen, Beisfjord, Bjerkvik, Bjørnfjell, Elvegården, Kjøpsvik, Skjomen, Håkvik, Hergot, Straumsnes, and Vidrek. The Elvegårdsmoen army camp is located near Bjerkvik.
Berg interneringsleir was a concentration camp near Tønsberg in Norway that served as an internment and transit center for political prisoners and Jews during the Nazi occupation of Norway.
Sydspissen detention camp was a Nazi concentration camp in Tromsø, Norway, which operated briefly during World War II. Serving as the primary prison camp in northern Norway, it quickly became overcrowded and is now considered to have had some of the worst conditions of any camp under the German occupation. The prisoners were eventually relocated a short distance away to Tromsdalen detention camp. The camp was used to hold Nazi collaborators after the war, some of whom were badly mistreated. There are no known photographs of the concentration camp; however, a painting in Tromsø Forsvarsmuseeum details the camp during the summer of 1941, prior to the construction of an additional barracks for prisoners and a residence for the camp commander.
Hans Loritz was an officer in the Schutzstaffel (SS) who was the commandant of several concentration camps in Germany and Nazi-occupied Europe. He committed suicide in captivity after the war.
Beisfjord (Norwegian) or Ušmá (Northern Sami) is a village in Narvik Municipality in Nordland county, Norway. The village is located about 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) southeast of the town of Narvik, at the southeastern end of the 11-kilometre (6.8 mi) long Beisfjorden. The village sits in a valley surrounded by steep mountains, with the Lakselva river flowing through it and emptying into the fjord. The 0.69-square-kilometre (170-acre) village has a population (2023) of 672 and a population density of 974 inhabitants per square kilometre (2,520/sq mi).
Nazi concentration camps in Norway were concentration camps or prisons in Norway established or taken over by the Quisling regime and Nazi German authorities during the German occupation of Norway that began on 9 April 1940 and used for internment of persons by the Nazi authorities. 709 prison camps or concentration camps, [including some death camps,] were counted by a project that had Randi Bratteli, as an advisor. Another source has claimed that there were around 620 prison camps.
Tromsdalen detention camp, colloquially known as Krøkebærsletta, was a Nazi concentration camp just east of Tromsø, Norway, built during World War II. From November 1942 until the end of the occupation of Norway in May 1945, it was primarily a transit camp for prisoners on their way to Falstad, Grini, or camps in Nazi Germany. It held over 2000 recorded prisoners.
The German occupation of Norway began on 9 April 1940. In 1942, there were at least 2,173 Jews in Norway. At least 775 of them were arrested, detained and/or deported. More than half of the Norwegians who died in camps in Germany were Jews. 742 Jews were murdered in the camps and 23 Jews died as a result of extrajudicial execution, murder and suicide during the war, bringing the total of Jewish Norwegian dead to at least 765, comprising 230 complete households.
Prior to the deportation of individuals of Jewish background to the concentration camps there were at least 2,173 Jews in Norway. During the Nazi occupation of Norway 772 of these were arrested, detained, and/or deported, most of them sent to Auschwitz or other extermination camps where 742 were murdered. 23 died as a result of extrajudicial execution, murder, and suicide during the war. Between 28 and 34 of those deported survived their continued imprisonment. The Norwegian police and German authorities kept records of these victims, and so, researchers were able to compile information about the deportees.
Asbjørn Nesheim was a Norwegian linguist and curator known for his research on the Sámi languages and cultural history, particularly for his collaboration with Konrad Nielsen on volumes four and five of Nielsen's Lapp Dictionary. Nesheim was also responsible for creating and building up a Sámi Department at the Norsk Folkemuseum in Oslo from the 1950s on.
Skorpa prisoner of war camp was a facility built by the Norwegian 6th Division to hold German prisoners of war during the 1940 Norwegian Campaign of the Second World War. It was located on the island of Skorpa in Kvænangen Municipality in Troms county, Norway. Skorpa was the main PoW camp in Northern Norway and held around 500 civilian and military prisoners when it was shut down at the end of the Norwegian Campaign.
Hirden was a uniformed paramilitary organisation during the occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany, modelled the same way as the German Sturmabteilungen.
Bjørnfjell is a mountain village made up of holiday cottages in Narvik Municipality in Nordland county, Norway. It's located along the Ofotbanen railway line and the European route E10 highway, just west of the border with Sweden. There is a railway station and the Bjørnfjell Chapel as well as many cabins and homes in the area. The name Bjørnfjell for short may often refer to the Bjørnfjell Railway Station. The area is a popular vacation spot for residents of Narvik.
(Norwegian) or Áhkánjárga (Northern Sami) is a town and the administrative centre of Narvik Municipality in Nordland county, Norway. The town is located along the Ofotfjorden in the Ofoten region. The town lies on a peninsula located between the Rombaken fjord and the Beisfjorden. The European route E06 highway runs through the Beisfjord Bridge and Hålogaland Bridge crossing the two small fjords surrounding the town.
(Norwegian), Kárášjohka (Northern Sami), or Kaarasjoki (Kven) is the administrative centre of Karasjok Municipality in Finnmark county, Norway. The village is located along both sides of the Karasjohka river, just 12 kilometres (7.5 mi) west of the Norway-Finland border. The European route E06 highway runs through the village on its way from Lakselv to Tana bru and Kirkenes. The 2.24-square-kilometre (550-acre) village has a population (2023) of 1,746 and a population density of 779 inhabitants per square kilometre (2,020/sq mi).
Alfred Zeidler was a German Schutzstaffel (SS) officer who served Nazi Germany in World War II. From 1942 to 1945, he was Lagerkommandant of the Grini detention camp in Norway during the German occupation. Although sentenced to lifelong forced labour after the war, Zeidler was released in 1953. Details of his later life are unknown.
The SS Ski Jäger Battalion "Norway" was a combat battalion unit within the German Waffen-SS, the armed wing of the Schutzstaffel. It consisted of a majority of volunteers from Norway, and some enlisted German soldiers. Most officers and non-commissioned officers were Norwegian.
Sophus Magdalon Buck Kahrs was a Norwegian commander in the German SS during the Nazi era. Following the war, he was convicted for treason.
The Blood Road is a route northeast of Rognan in Saltdal Municipality in Nordland county, Norway that was built by prisoners during the Second World War. The route was a new section of Norwegian National Road 50 between Rognan and Langset on the east side of Saltdal Fjord (Saltdalsfjorden), where there was a ferry service before the war. The specific incident that gave the road its name was a cross of blood that was painted on a rock cutting in June 1943. The blood came from a prisoner that was shot along the route, and the cross was painted by his brother.
Alle hadde status som politiske fanger, og var arrestert for å ha motarbeidet Hitler-Tyskland.
To nye norske bøker avslører nå barbariske handlinger begått av nordmenn mot krigsfanger i Nord-Norge – Norske vokteres grusomme overgrep mot jugoslaviske fanger i Norge under krigen var så groteske at jeg knapt har lest om mer brutale handlinger, sier forfatteren Knut Flovik Thoresen.
ble alle de friske fangene sendt av gårde i en hard marsj mot Jernvatn på Bjørnfjell eskortert av nesten alle de norske vaktene i leiren, samt noen få tyske befalingsmenn.
ble alle de friske fangene sendt av gårde i en hard marsj mot Jernvatn på Bjørnefjell[ dead link ]