The war in the North - everyday life, Soviet prisoners of war and Norwegians´ memories

Abstract

The paper dwells upon everyday life, Soviet prisoners of war and Norwegians' memories during the Second World War in northern Norway. Characteristics of the ideological war against the Soviet Union, mistreatment of Soviet prisoners of war, civilian forced labour in northern Norway, Norwegians memories and contact with the Soviet prisoners, the politics of memory and repatriation are demonstrated. Different orders in this war of extermination and the brutal treatment of both Soviet prisoners and civilians after the German invasion of the Soviet Union are described. The paper also describes the individual and collective memory connected to the Soviet prisoners of war and civilian soviet labourers and shows the will to remember ‘the others’ in a national context.