"Festung Norwegen" and slave labourers from the East

Abstract

Between 1941 and 1945, 100,000 Soviet prisoners of war were sent to Norway. More than 90,000 of these Soviet prisoners were soldiers from the Red Army.1 Nearly 7000 of the prisoners were civilian Soviet forced labourers, or so-called ‘Ostarbeiter’. The prisoners were mainly used in the building of railroads, Highway 50, runways, and fortresses along the coastline.2 “Festung Norwegen” were built with a large number of bunkers and gun emplacements. The purpose was to prevent an Allied invasion. Severe labour shortages were probably the reason why Soviet prisoners of war were sent to Norway soon after the German attack on the Soviet Union in June 1941. The shortage of labour in Norway created problems for the implementation of the Germans’ projects in the country they were occupying.