In northern Norway he also went through several camps, all the time under hard conditions. They knew nothing about what was going on outside the barbed wire fences, they had bad clothing and wooden clogs , no medical treatment, and the food was never even close to what a human needs to survive on. Around 140 gram of bread pr day and some thin cabbage soup. When walking to the camps after working on the tunnels for the railroad they had to walk arm in arm so not to fall over, they had become so thin and weak. Friends died almost every day and it seemed the death rate was climbing as the months drew on.
When it became clear that Germany would loose the war the treatment got better and the guards wanted to know about Siberia, as they were probably afraid to be sent there.
When the liberation came, and the celebration cooled of during the summer every prisoner was to be sent back to Soviet and this was something many feared.
Aleksey was transported by boat to Narvik, then by train through Sweden reaching Vyborg in Finland. Here they were sent of to different camps in Soviet. Aleksey was free to go home after just a few weeks, but he had to go through life as a second class citizen and lost several jobs as soon it became known he had been a prisoner during the war.