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World War II: During the Beisfjord massacre in Norway, 15 Norwegian paramilitary guards help members of the SS to kill 288 political prisoners from Yugoslavia.

World War II: During the Beisfjord massacre in Norway, 15 Norwegian paramilitary guards help members of the SS to kill 288 political prisoners from Yugoslavia.



The Beisfjord massacre was a massacre on 18 July 1942 at Beisfjord Camp No.1 in Beisfjord, Norway of 288 political prisoners. The massacre had been ordered a few days earlier by Josef Terboven, the Reichskommissar for Nazi-occupied Norway.

In order to build defences in Norway against the Allies, the Germans brought in around 5,000 Yugoslavian political prisoners and prisoners-of-war—in addition to prisoners of other nationalities—to work as forced labour on infrastructure projects.  

In the summer of 1942 a number of prisoners started arriving in North Norway as a result of the transfer of prisoners from the new Croatian puppet regime to German authorities who needed manpower for projects in Norway.

On 24 June 1942, 900 Yugoslav prisoners arrived at the Fagernes Pier in Narvik. 

"They start to walk the ten kilometer long road to Beisfjord" (...) Five prisoners are hit, and die along the road, and one is shot and killed" before the prisoners arrive at the location where a prison camp was established.

On 12 July 1942 "some German officers, a German- and a Norwegian physician came for an inspection of the camp" (...) The SS officers' suspicion of typhoid fever was confirmed by this [Norwegian] doctor. 

Typhoid fever must be diagnosed thru blood- or stool samples. (...) The physical symptoms that the prisoners had, concurred, but neither the Norwegian- or German MD took blood tests. The Norwegian doctor picked out 85 prisoners who allegedly had typhoid fever. 

He supposedly did not examine them thoroughly, but [he] picked out the prisoners from a distance because they looked frail. They were immediately sent to the infirmary".

The Beisfjord camp was quarantined by the SS on 15 July 1942 allegedly to avoid an outbreak of typhus. Prisoners with various illnesses were moved into two barracks, which were surrounded by barbed wire. On the evening of 17 July, the 588 "prisoners regarded as healthy" were marched out of the camp by nearly all of the Norwegian guards and some German superiors.

The remaining "weak and exhausted" prisoners (in Beisfjord) were ordered to dig graves and then ordered into standing positions where they would drop into the grave after the guards had shot them.  These 288 prisoners were killed in groups of twenty.

Those prisoners who could not stand on their own feet, were left in the two barracks and these were then doused in gasoline and set on fire.  

Some sources say that a number of prisoners refused to leave the infirmary, and the building was set ablaze; those who jumped out of the windows were shot.  

Those who tried to escape the conflagration, were shot by a machine gun in the watch tower.

Seventeen Norwegian guards were present and played a role during the massacre.

On the evening of 17 July, the 588 "prisoners regarded as healthy" were marched out of the Beisfjord Camp by nearly all of the Norwegian guards and some German superiors. At Bjørnfjell they were quarantined, and the camp at Øvre Jernvann was established.   

"On 22 July, two days after arrival at Bjørnfjell, all the prisoners had to run around the camp six times. Those prisoners who were not able, were shot." 10 prisoners were picked out and shot "farther down by the lake"Runs of this kind were held at other times, resulting in deaths every time. 

After five weeks on the mountain, 242 prisoners were dead. "The last 43 were [those classified as] sick who were shot" during the hike back to Beisfjord.

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