Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - Among Prisoners of War, North of the Arctic Circle
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of a number of Russians from Megård, a little harbor
town on the Sörfolda Fjord. The episode was not
without interest. Various Russians spoke, but the
audience did not appear very interested. Their
thoughts seemed to be far away. Perhaps they were
thinking about their dear ones at home. The
command of the ships was in German hands though the
transport was under Russian management. When the
gangplank was raised and the hawsers cast off, a
few German words of command were heard, and the
Hamburg registered ship slowly backed out into the
fjord. The last things we saw were a couple of
enormous portraits of Stalin and Lenin placed high
on the bridge.
Perhaps the most interesting part of our visit in
the north of Norway was an automobile trip to a
number of camps for Russian prisoners of war. The
first camp we visited contained about four hundred
Russians, and we were allowed to see it guided by
the Russian commander who talked with us in an
animated way through our interpreter. The Russians
greatly cherished the memory of their dead
comrades, and many ex-prisoners were caring for and
beautifying their cemetery. We also saw a mass grave
in which, we were told, three hundred and sixty
Yugoslavs were buried. These Yugoslavs had come
as slaves from the opposite corner of Europe and,
when they arrived in northern Norway there had
been five hundred of them. Scarcely one hundred
were fit to work, however, since in the last phase of
the transport, they were forced to march more than
one hundred miles through snow and storm. Those
who were unable to work were compelled to dig their
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