New unique exhibition at Lofoten War Memorial Museum from the Polar Front

28 October 2024

Welcome to a new and unique exhibition at Lofoten War Memorial Museum from the Polar Front. 

Many people have probably heard that the Germans tried to take Murmansk, which was an important port city in the north. But knowledge about what really happened is limited.

The photographic material used in the exhibition is also rare and consists of unknown images from this area that goes all the way up to the Arctic Ocean. Eisms. It was Hitler who ordered that the attack, which the generals had planned on the central front, the Salla front, should also be carried out simultaneously in the far north. The attack started on July 22 from Kirkenes and after a week through, among other things. Finland, the German soldiers stood by the Soviet border river in the north. But there was no bridge. It was only on the map?   Thus, a bridge had to be built, while the Russians bricked up bunkers on the other side?   When the German Alpine hunters finally made it over, was it a bloody affair? But they managed to fight their way all the way to the Litza valley and the river that runs there. Was also a trip across the river, but was pushed back. And now everything came to a standstill? In the Litza Valley, a front line formed where the Germans lived in stone blockhouses. 

– Further north towards the Fisker Peninsula, there was also a stop. A new front line also formed here towards the Little Fisherman’s Peninsula.  And here the German soldiers stayed for 3 years. Surely we should add that even though it was supposed to be summer during the attack, there was also a snowstorm? For three days? Something no one was prepared for. The huge German cemetery at Park Kina, which is located roughly in the innermost part of the Pechenga Fjord, eventually had over 8000 dead Germans. At that time, the area belonged to Finland. When the front collapsed in the autumn of 1944, enraged Russians with Soviet tanks drove across the cemetery and destroyed it. We must remember that the Russians should have had even more casualties?   In addition, 200,000 German soldiers had to withdraw from the Eismeer Front and Finland. This led to a traffic jam like no other on bad roads and small ferry connections.

A number of soldiers also came to Lofoten, but many were mentally unstable and were tried to keep separate from the population. The dead soldiers, on the other hand, were left behind in this polar area under the northern lights and starry sky, if there wasn’t a snowstorm? And that was the case until 1991. Then the Soviet Union collapsed and Germany was allowed to put up a cross marking the war cemetery as well as put down some memorial stones. The area, which today consists of large, beautiful grasslands, was once again declared a war cemetery. 

The exhibition, which is the first in the world from the drama on this front section, contains many unique photographs and extensive text in Norwegian and English.

Welcome!