I had plans to find a POW site today but reading the news this morning I had reason to change the plans. Late last night a trailer had crashed with a bear which ran off into the forest. Ofcourse this happened where I was about to go , but I thought it best to follow the advice to stay away from the forest there as wounded bears is not what you want to encounter and the forest will be full of hunters trying to track it down. Instead I thought I could start another project , to photograph the Soviet memorials which is scattered around the valley. These monuments was put up on the POW/KZ camps burial grounds just after the war , but not many of them has survived and few know they exists.
In the early 1950`s the Norwegian government decided to exhume and rebury all Soviets from all the different camp sites all over Norway. They was going to be reburied on a few centralized memorial sites. This project was tried done in secrecy and the reasoning of it all was fear of spies since many of the sites was close to sensitive military areas. But I am working on a whole article about this operation so lets get back to today.
First place I went to I have been several times before but never with a camera. Here was a rather large camp for Soviet POWs and for a short periode also Yugoslav prisoners. On a small hill near the camp was the burial ground where the original monument still stand. In the forest one can see traces of the graves that was exhumed in 1951.
In the early 1950`s the Norwegian government decided to exhume and rebury all Soviets from all the different camp sites all over Norway. They was going to be reburied on a few centralized memorial sites. This project was tried done in secrecy and the reasoning of it all was fear of spies since many of the sites was close to sensitive military areas. But I am working on a whole article about this operation so lets get back to today.
First place I went to I have been several times before but never with a camera. Here was a rather large camp for Soviet POWs and for a short periode also Yugoslav prisoners. On a small hill near the camp was the burial ground where the original monument still stand. In the forest one can see traces of the graves that was exhumed in 1951.
"You fell in the fight against nazism. For freedom,fatherland and all Europe. Rest in Peace , dear comerades , the fatherland will never forget you"
"Here rest russian prisoners of war who died in german imprisonment. 46 men died of hunger 4 men shot and 3 Serbians died between 1.1.44 - 7.5.45"
The little bridge was built by some of the first Soviet POWs that came to this camp.
Next stop was only a few kilometers away. Here there was a smaller camp for Soviet POWs , around 300 if my memory is correct. There is no trace of the camp today as it was erected on a farmers land which have been used for farming after the camp was dismanteled shortly after the Liberation. I know there is supposed to be a memorial in the forest there and went on the search for it.
It is a pretty steep climb up there , but a brilliant view from the top makes it worth the sweat. When I reached the top I started looking around for the memorial but the only thing I noticed was a fairly strong smell and it wasn`t from some sheep. I was clearly on the wrong place. I counted four spots in the grass where something big had been laying and it couldn`t have been very long ago and I started to realize there might be not just one,but maybe as many as four bears around me somewhere! To get my suspicion confirmed I almost stepped on a fresh big bear turd and decided it was time to leave before I became someones lunch.
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