Blood road
The blood road (Norwegian: blodveien ) is a section of the road in Norway in the municipality of Saltdal , which was built by mostly Yugoslav slave laborers with high losses.
During the occupation of Norway by the German Wehrmacht in World War II , Eastern European prisoners of war (mainly from the Soviet Union , Poland and Yugoslavia ) were used to build roads and railways. A total of 34,000 prisoners of war were brought to Norway from the Eastern Front and distributed to 54 camps between Korgen and the Tysfjord .
The aim was to build the polar runway as an extension of the railway line that had ended in Mosjøen up to this point . Overall, a continuous road or rail connection to Kirkenes was to be built.
The road section from Saltnes to Saksenvik been prisoners of war as blood street called. There are memorial plaques in the area, for example at Dalmovika.
Memorial stone on the blood path
POW camp at Elvkroken in Sørfold, 1945
Web links
- Blood Path Museum on Nordlandsmuseet
- Thomas Lillevoll: "Polar Banen" Fauske - Korsnes. Retrieved July 6, 2018 (Norwegian).
- Polar railway in Norway (PDF; 74 kB)