THE FALSTAD CENTRE

Memorial and Human Rights Centre

The Falstad Building was erected in 1921 as a special school for delinquent boys. In 1941 the building was confiscated and transformed into a prison camp by the Germans. SS-Strafgefangenenlager Falstad was the second largest prison camp in Norway. About 5000 people from 13 nations were imprisoned here in the period 1941-45. Most were Norwegian political prisoners. The majority of foreign prisoners came from the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia, Poland and Denmark. To many Falstad served as a station en route to Grini or concentration camps in Germany. 50 Jewish prisoners from Trondheim were deported to Auschwitz in February 1943.

After the liberation of Norway, Falstad prison camp was transformed into a forced labor camp, Innherad tvangsarbeidsleir. Over 3000 members of the Norwegian Nazi Party, Nasjonal Samling, served their sentence here. This camp was closed down in 1949. Later the building functioned as a special school. The Falstad building is among the best preserved remnants of the German camp system established in Norway during World War II. Here Falstad Museum opened in 1995, celebrating the 50th anniversary of liberation. The exhibiton communicates the history of the war years at Falstad.

The execution site, Falstad Forest, lies one kilometre south of the Falstad Building. Approximately 220 prisoners were executed here in the period 1942-43. Before liberation on the 8th of May 1945, an unknown number of remains of the executed were sunk in the Trondheim Fjord. Presumably Falstad Forest still conceals unknown graves. During the summer of 1945 known graves were opened and the remains identified. In the years 1945-52, a total number of 49 graves were found in Falstad Forest. The burial places are today marked with stone pyramids. Names of the executed are carved on a cenotaph in the forest. For prisoners of Yugoslav or Soviet Russian origin, Falstad served as a death camp.

A monument in Falstad Forest was unveiled by HRH Crown Prince Olav in 1947. Falstad Forest is today a national cultural monument and a war grave site.

19 to 23 April 2010 at Falstad. The symposium is entitled Skills, Practice and Understanding in European Conflict Resolution and Peace Implementation. Read more [publ141109]

In this conference, located at the Falstad Memorial in the surroundings of the former SS-camp Falstad, experts form the Task Force and other institutions gather to discuss contemporary, didactical challenges and experiences in Holocaust-related memorial sites and museums. (Preliminary programme)

Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research consists of representatives of government, as well as governmental and non-governmental organisations.  
 

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