Falstad Centre

Falstad Centre - darkometer rating : 7 - This is the main memorial (as well as research/educational) centre in Norway about the camps for political prisoners, POWs and Jews that were established by the Nazis during Germany 's occupation of Norway. The centre's scope goes somewhat beyond that narrower framework and also touches on other human rights issues and genocides of the post- WWII period. > More background info > What there is to see > Location > Access and costs > Time required > Combinations with other dark destinations > Combinations with non-dark destinations > Photos More background info: Falstad was one of the biggest of the many prison camps established by the Nazis during Germany 's occupation of Norway in WWII . It is even referred to as a concentration camp in some sources. Today it is the best preserved site of its type from that period. That's partly thanks to the nature of the edifice. Unlike most other such camps, which were rather temporary complexes of barracks, sheds or even tents, the one at Falstad used an existing solid brick structure as its main building. This had been built as a special school in 1921 and was appropriated by the Nazis in 1941 to be converted into a prison camp. The Falstad camp was run as a "Strafgefangenenlager" (StraLag), i.e. something like a 'penal colony', housing a wide range of prisoners, from political prisoners such as Norwegian and Danish resistance fighters to POWs from the occupied territories in Poland , the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia . In so far as several dozen Jews from Trondheim, who were later sent to Auschwitz , also passed through this camp, Falstad forms part of the Holocaust too, as a 'transit camp'. In total Falstad had some 5000 inmates over the years of WWII.