When I woke up in the morning I knew something was wrong. The cats was still curled up around my feet and not terrorizing me to get up and out of bed. It has to be cold for them to act like that early in the morning. And sure enough , I felt the needles of frost shooting through my skin as I put my feet on the floor. -4.5 degree Celsius , way too early for these temperatures! But if winter is approaching earlier this year there is no time to loose. This far north the ground freezes deep and hard like concrete , making it impossible to dig. So I got in my digger clothes put on some coffee and opened the door to let the cats out. They just stared at me with this worried kind of look , turned back and ran up the stairs back to the warm bedroom. Too cold for them , man , some days I wish I was a cat and not a digger.
 I had a permission to search and dig a marshy forest where it had been a German soldiers camp. The landowner remembered he and his friends had played with discarded equipment and helmets after the war and he was sure there was still stuff in the camp area.
 I soon saw traces of the camp between the trees. Here and there was destroyed and half buried cast iron ovens that had heated the barracks. I also could see barrack foundations and dug out stables or cellars.
 The first couple of signals I dug was just the usual food tins but soon I found a small ditch with a lot of different signals. I started to dig here and out came bottles , scrap metal , a few buttons and a whole bunch of ice cleat bolts for the German horseshoes. I am sure I could have been digging that ditch the whole day but this was more like a recce trip to map any dumping ditches.
 Not many meters away the Fisher F5 indicated some more metal under the ground. This was a waterfilled hole and it was freezing cold sticking my hand down there. I carefully felt around and when my fingers found metal I knew what it was. Ammo. I pulled out both k98 Mauser ammo and Norwegian Krag Joergensen rounds. All in a very nice condition. As I am not collecting active ammo I put it back after taking a few photos.
Following a small ditch surrounding the camp area I had several other good signals and in one of the spots I think I might have found the main dumping area. Great signals from the detector and only ten centimeters under the soil there was lots of items. I dug a small test hole here as well to make sure and the first item out was a fragile regimental button for a german shoulderboard. Here was also bottles , a few k98 rounds , rests of crates and broken porcelain. Definately more stuff down there but with the freezing cold swamp water it was not a pleasure digging there so after a while I was wet and cold and had to move around again to get the heat back. 
 I crossed the road to where the landowner had pointed out a bunker for me. Here was lots of iron signals outside the bunker but it was mostly modern rubbish thrown there by a farmer. Inside the bunker was not much signals other than an old barbeque grill and a skull from a horse or some other animal laying on the floor.
 As a perfect timing my mother called when I was starting to get tired and well cold , telling me I was invited for dinner. When moms dinner is on the table relics and history can wait for another day. Diggers need to keep the priorities right , right? :)

As Hitler in 1942 ordered the completion of his Polarbahn within six months , an enormous amount of Soviet prisoners of war was sent to Northern Norway to help speed up the work. The main workforce was set to work around of the Polar Circle and further north. Primitive camps was erected for these poor souls who was meant to be worked to death and they would see countless horrors during their time here.
  By the Polar Circle and stretching north there was often only a few hundred meters between the different camps , and as work progressed the camps  or its population of slaves was moved further north along the planned railroad.
 Now , slave life would definately be a very hard situation for anyone , but for those in the mountain camps life was probably worse. The Norwegian mountains is high and has a very harsh climate. Even the summer can bring days or weeks with a hellish weather and the winter is a chapter for itself , and when it would be a beautiful warm day the imprisoned Red Army men would be too starved and tired to notice.
 I don`t know what weather it was that day in May 1945 when the camps was Liberated but any survivor would probably remember it as a warm sunny day.

Some clouds but a good temperature made a trip up there for me almost too comfortable when thinking about this history. Armed with my camera I had decided to visit some of the campsites and make some photos of any traces. The camps is in a protected area so no digging or picking here whatsoever. Doing that will lead to a heavy fine and prehaps a curse from the local Saami population or a ride hanging in a rope from behind one of their reindeers. 
 Finding the camps can be difficult. The area is rocky and can seem very uniform. I knew where to look but it took a while before I was able to find the location. This camp was one of the largest on the mountain and was in use until the liberation. When the Red Cross had an inspection here in May more than 80% of the prisoners was so sick and weak they could not even walk. 

The first items I found was a bunch of small ovens which was supposed to heat the drafty barracks , the times the slaves was lucky enough to have a few twigs to throw in there. I kept a sharp eye to the ground and soon I found several other dumping spots. Most of them was covered with heavy rocks but items peeked out between so I could have some pics. Here was tools , food tins , broken glass and large amounts of barbed wire. 
 The climate here preserves the different materials quite well but I was amazed to see cloth and leather in very good condition just laying on the surface. Even pieces of paper have survived here for some 70 years! 

Moving into the camp itself I stumbeled across the camp kitchen half buried between bushes and barbed wire. The camp roads and buildings would be clearly visible if it was not for the heavy vegetation but I found several entrances and small stairways between the green. The camp bathroom floor still has a nice and smooth concrete surface and there was several beds rusting away on the ground around it.

Shortly after the prisoners arrived to the camps each camp got their own burial area. Usually a few hundred meter away. After the Liberation the Soviets put up memorials of their fallen comerades and made the burial grounds into nice little cemeteries. All of these was exhumed and destroyed by the Norwegian goverment in 1951. A big shame you can read more about in one of my next articles here.