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tion promised in addition that food should be
furnished for a considerable number of Russian prisoners
of war.
After a few days in Oslo, I returned to Sweden
and the supervisory board of the Swedish Red Cross
approved of my proposal to organized relief work
in the north of Norway under the auspices of the
Red Cross.
By the middle of June a Swedish Red Cross
detachement was ready to leave. After conferring
with the Norwegian authorities in Fauske a hospital
had been set up to take care of Russian prisoners
of war badly in need of treatment. Ten days later,
on the 27th of June, I left for the north of Norway
to view conditions there and at the same time to
inspect the hospital of the Swedish Red Cross in
Fauske.
A dazzling and beautiful view confronted us when
we landed on Bodö airfield in the north of Norway
after crossing the immense Swedish-Norwegian
mountain ranges. From the air we could also,
however, see clear indications of war’s devastation.
When the Germans occupied Norway they bombed a
great number of Norwegian ports in order to make
it impossible for King Haakon to flee to England.
This little Norwegian harbor town was badly
damaged. About sixty percent of the houses were bombed.
Accompanied by my Red Cross colleagues and
about ten journalists, Swedish and foreign, who had
come along to study conditions in the north of
Norway, especially in the Russian prison camps, I
travelled from Bodö to Fauske, a distance of about
forty miles. Immediately we realized the international
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