RESEARCH

The Falstad Centre's research activities are related to three main topics:

• The history of prisoners of war in Norway during WW2, with emphasis on both Norwegian and foreign prisoners, forced laborers and slave laborers from Eastern Europe.

• Post-war uses of (pedagogical, religious, political) of former concentration camps as sites of remembrance.

• Historical culture and cultural heritage related to the Holocaust and the camp system.

PROJECTS:

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The Falstad Centre initiates interview project

The Falstad Centre wishes to get in touch with people who were imprisoned in German camps in Norway during WWII.

As a national memorial site and centre of Human Rights the Falstad Centre documents and communicates WWII prisoner history. So far about 200 interviews have been made with former Falstad prisoners. This spring the centre has initiated a national and international interview project, in order to collect memories of both Norwegian and foreign prisoners. It’s important to preserve these memories for future generations, and thus to increase the knowledge of life behind barbed wire and of the camp system established by the German Nazis in Norway.

Former prisoners who wish to share their memories are asked to contact the Falstad Centre.

Contact person: Arne Langås, tlf: (+47) 74028050, e-mail: arne.langas@falstadsenteret.no
Address: Falstadsenteret, N-7624 Ekne, Norway.

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Painful Heritage. The cultural landscape of the Second World War in Norway. Phenomenology, lessons and management systems

Project leader Prof. Dr. art. Marek E. Jasinski, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)

The Second World War is a central part of the collective memory of Norway. However, the cultural landscape of the war has been given little attention from both scholars and heritage management authorities in Norway. Especially traits not connected to the national narrative of resistance are often neglected. This project seeks to invigorate the cultural landscape of the Second World War as a field of research, and strengthen the attention on heritage management, documentation and preservation. The main aims of the project are: To analyze the relationship between national identity and cultural landscapes of war, to document neglected cultural landscapes, to reassess the criteria for protection under the Cultural Heritage Act, and to develop models of future management of the cultural heritage and landscapes of the Second World War. The research is carried out by an interdisciplinary group of scholars from the Museum of Natural History and Archaeology (NTNU) and the Falstad Memorial and Human Rights Centre. Painful Heritage is funded by the Norwegian Research Council.

The project consists of three research elements:

1. The management and use of Eastern European war graves in Northern Europe
Dr. art. Marianne Neerland Soleim, historian, (post doc.-project), Falstad Centre
The Eastern European prisoners of war represent by far the largest casualties and highest death rates in Norway during the occupation. Although a strong memory of the Eastern European prisoners may be found on a local level, they receive little attention in the collective memory on a national level. The project analyses the management and use of Soviet, Yugoslavian, and Polish war graves and war memorials, focusing on local and national involvement in their preservation in Northern Norway, and their symbolic and historical value in a Norwegian national context. The project will carry through a registration of all war graves and memorials for Eastern European war victims in Northern Norway. The analysis is put in a comparative perspective by a study of the management and use of Eastern European war memorials in Finland, Russia, and Germany. A main objective of the study is to improve the capacity of the regional museums to maintain a consultative function in the management and use of this part of the Norwegian cultural heritage.

2. Landscape of Evil: Nazi camps as cultural heritage in Norwegian landscape
Prof. dr. art. Marek E. Jasinski, archaeologist NTNU
There were almost 500 Nazi camps for prisoners of war and slave labourers in Norway during the period 1940-1945. Very few traces of this highly important part of the war history are visible in Norwegian cultural landscapes, and both knowledge and awareness of these traces as physical structures are scarce. The first goal of the project is to assess the general state of research regarding the subject based on written sources and to analyze the present status of the Nazi camps structures in Norwegian Cultural Heritage Management System. The second is to elaborate the present state of Nazi camp network as material structures in Norwegian landscapes, their state of preservation, their potential as research data source and their perception within Norwegian and international public. The analysis is put in a comparative perspective with respect to the situation in Poland, Russia, and Germany.

A third goal is to develop a typology of the camps in Norway based on historical sources and archaeological survey. A representative selection of the camps will be thoroughly documented, applying archaeological survey methods with the Falstad camp as a main test site for method development. The fourth task is to elaborate efficient models for future management systems of these sites within the Norwegian Heritage Management System and future research perspectives.

3. Battlefields: Conflicts of Memory and Landscape
Ph.D. Leiv Sem, folklorist (post doc.-project), Falstad Centre
This project analyses various current negotiations on how to understand and act on different cultural landscapes of war, all in conflict with the national collective memory of the occupation. The most prominent case studies are the Kaprolat battlefield in the Karelian forests, where the remains of fallen Norwegian SS-men still lie unburied, and Laksevåg in the city of Bergen which was bombed to ruins by Allied planes. In analyzing the discourse, use and management of these landscapes, three types of negotiations are discussed: between local and national identities, between the physical and cognitive aspects of cultural landscape, and between the national narrative and conflicting memories.