The doctor Leiv Kreyberg visited Bjørnelva shortly after it was liberated. (Photo: Leiv Kreyberg, National Archives of )

Project Railway

For several years, Norway and have worked built-up structures and providing information via together to shed light on the history of the captivity signposting and publications. and forced labour of Soviet prisoners of war (POW) in Nordland during World War II. Many of the POWs BJØRNELVA worked on the construction of the railway, which was An important part of ‘Project Nordland Railway’ is the being extended to Kirkenes at the time. More than establishment of a memorial at Bjørnelva POW camp 50 POW camps were established along this section in the mountain range. The camp is located alone, which is exposed to very harsh weather and near the E6 and its remnants are still visible in the sparsely populated. These POWs suffered extreme landscape. This is where the story about the constru- hardships and many died, but they did important ction of the Nordland Railway will be told. Both road work on part of Norway’s infrastructure that is still in and railway pass by the site, which has a car park and use today. a scenic overlook. The memorial site at Bjørnelva is In ‘Project Nordland Railway’, Norway and Russia expected to be completed in 2021. work together to document, tell and commemo- Bjørnelva POW camp was established during the rate this story. Some of the ways they do this are by construction of the railway section over the Saltfjellet conducting archival studies in Norway and Russia, mountain range to and northwards. The camp archaeologically documenting the POW camps, was one of the worst, due to miserable conditions reconstructing memorials, charting and surveying

Riksantikvaren – The Directorate for Cultural Heritage / Postbox 1483 Vika, 0116 , Norway / Visiting address Dronningens gate 13 Reception desk + 47 22 94 04 00 / Faks 22 94 04 04 / Email [email protected] www.riksantikvaren.no and an extremely harsh climate. The camp is remote Project Nordland Railway decided to tell this impor- from human settlement, so there was no hope of tant story about the Bjørnelva POW camp, in memory getting help from kind-hearted locals. More than of the events that took place here and to commemo- 200 POWs died in just one year here in the Saltfjellet rate the many POWs who died. mountains. The Bjørnelva POW camp was built in May 1944, and POW CAMP the POWs’ work over the summer and into autumn Dunderland POW Camp is situated in Rana Muni- was mainly to do the hard manual labour for the cipality, south of the Saltfjellet mountain range. This railway: digging and hauling refill. The prisoners were was also a POW camp along the Nordland Railway. All used to keep the mountain pass open during the barracks and built-up structures are gone, but their winter. remains are clearly visible in the landscape. The Hel- The prisoners who survived until May 1945 erected geland Museum has made it possible to visit the camp two memorials for their dead comrades. The graves by building paths and a scenic overlook and erecting in which they buried their dead were initially moved information signs. A memorial was also erected on from Bjørnelva to Hestbrinken at Storjord farm in this camp’s burial site in May 1945 to commemorate autumn 1945, and then moved again to Tjøtta during the fallen soldiers. After the graves were moved to the so-called Operation Asphalt in 1951. It is believed a mass grave after the end of the war, the area was that a few mortal remains can still be found in the converted into arable farmland by a local farmer, who Saltfjellet mountains. moved the memorial to the edge of the field inside As early as 1950, one year before Operation Asphalt, a forest grove at the same time, where it has been the memorials at Bjørnelva were blown up by Norwe- ever since. Project Nordland Railway has re-erected gian authorities. The ruins of the memorials are still the memorial and erected a sign with the names of visible today outside the camp area. everyone who died here.

Project Nordland Railway: the captivity and forced labour of Soviet POWs during World War II.

The project is part of the Norwegian–Rus- sian environmental protection cooperation between Norway’s Ministry of Climate and Environment and Russia’s Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment. Funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Project manager: the Directorate for Cultural Heritage. Russian partner: the Likhachev Russian Rese- arch Institute for Cultural and Natural Heri- tage. Other partners: Arkhangelsk University, Regi- onal Museum in Arkhangelsk, the State Insti- tute for Art Studies in Moscow, the War and Peace Centre, Nordland County Muni-

The exploded memorial at Bjørnelva prisoner-of war-camp on cipality, Nordland Museum and the Saltfjellet. The site has been left untouched since 1950. Museum. (Photo: The Directorate for Cultural Heritage)

February 2021