by Hanna Sjöberg
In the art project “I Förvar” (Kept in Custody) [http://hemligstämplat.nu], we have investigated how refugees were handled in Sweden during the Second World War. We have read police reports on refugees and border violations. The reports are linguistically restrained, but they often describe extremely dramatic events. Especially in the isolated municipalities on the border with Norway. Many refugees made their way from Nazi German-occupied Norway to neutral Sweden.
In Norway, the German occupants had built up a huge system of camps for forced labour, especially in northern Norway. Here 100,000 Soviet prisoners of war, more than 4,000 prisoners from Yugoslavia, 1,600 from Poland, 2,600 German political and criminal prisoners and about 10,000 so-called civilian labourers were forced to work. Of these, a few managed to escape to Sweden: more than 2,000 Soviet prisoners of war, less than 100 Yugoslavs, but also Poles and others.
To these figures I can add that in 1940, when Norway was invaded by Nazi Germany, its population was just under three million. During the occupation, 300,000 German soldiers were stationed in the country. The land border between Norway and Sweden is 1619 kilometres long.
In the research project ”Sprachverwirrung im hohen Norden”, [Neustart Kultur#TakeHeart 2023], I have geographically focused on the area of the Artic Circle, the municipalities of Jokkmokk and Arjeplog. Together the municipalities have less than 8,000 inhabitants, and their combined area is nearly as large as the Netherlands. The western part consists of thousands of square kilometres of uninhabited areas. On the other side of the border, in occupied northern Norway, there were several German forced labour camps: Mosjøen, Saltfjell, Rognan, Fauske. Here, camp inmates were forced to work on road, railway and fortification construction.
I was fascinated by the restrained language of the Swedish border police protocols, a somewhat old-fashioned and very correct Swedish language, somehow trapped in its formal neutrality. A great contrast to the drama one finds in other historical reports, sometimes to grotesque effect; under the pre-printed “Entry into Sweden and the reason for this” on the form, the local border police inspector wrote: “crossed the border because he was not comfortable with forced labour on behalf of Germany”
The rather fragmentary border police protocols found in the archives often mention language difficulties.
“It was noted that due to language difficulties Dimovwitsch could not be interviewed in more detail.”
“Mr B. (the Pole Stodolny Bronislaw) speaks Russian and German, but the latter only to a very limited extent. It has therefore not been possible to question him more thoroughly:”
“As he did not speak any language other than Yugoslavian, he could not be questioned further”
But at the same time, the protocols are condensed narratives. In just a few lines, the lives of the interrogated refugees are described, from their birth in another country far in the south to their escape from the German camp in northern Norway and their illegal crossing of the Swedish border. The texts can be read as a prologue to a story not yet told.
“Memorandum
of the following Yugoslav subject, who entered Sweden illegally from Norway and arrived at Strimasund in the parish of Tärna on 18 July 1942, on the basis of information provided during questioning on that day.
Jelec Śefkya, a photographer, was born on the 21st of May, 1923 in Sarajevo and resides there. He, a Mohammedan, had fought as a partisan against the Germans and was captured in Sarajevo on the 13th of March 1942. After a few days he was sent via Semond to Vienna, where he was detained for 40 days. He was then sent via Stettin to Trondheim and from there to Mosjöen, where he arrived on 22 June 1942.
In Mosjöen, Śefkya had been engaged in road and fortification work.
Probably on the 8th of July, Śefkya and two Yugoslav comrades had escaped from Mosjöen. They ran in different directions and therefore were not joined”
Experiences of violence are rarely mentioned. From a later notification from the Tärnaby County Police Office, we learn that “Jelec Sefkya, who is currently being cared for in our infirmary, will be sent on the 3rd or 4th of August by ambulance to Stockholm, to be forwarded to Karolinska Hospital”, a distance of almost 900 kilometers.
“According to a note from Karolinska Hospital, the latter Yugoslavian citizen arrived there and was received for treatment on August 4th, 1942. However, he is so weak due to malnutrition and the hardships he has endured that he was admitted to an isolation ward until further notice.”
Escaping from a German prison camp was a weighty decision—a failed escape meant certain death. Captured escapees were executed, often in front of the other camp inmates.
The climate at the Arctic Circle is harsh. The camp clothing was too thin and, most importantly, the prisoners wore very bad shoes, often with only wooden soles. They were malnourished and forced to flee without provisions or supplies. The surroundings were unknown and the terrain unfamiliar. The Yugoslav refugees related how alien the solstice at the Arctic Circle was to them—they could not orientate themselves.
The escapees were forced to ask for help from Norwegians or Sami. There was no common language and they had no way of knowing if the helper was a potential traitor. At the same time, they knew they were putting a helper in danger. Someone who appeared to be a refugee could have been sent by the Germans to spy on the local population. And they knew that their own escape would lead to the guards taking brutal revenge on the prisoners left in the camp.
The escape from the camp was a flight into the unknown, into limbo. If they had crossed the border into Sweden, it could take a very long time before they reached inhabited areas.
*
“Jokkmokk police
Re:
Dead male person /Serbian refugee/
Report
Thursday the 8th of July, 1943.
On Saturday, July 3rd, 1943 it was reported to the county sheriff of Jokkmokk district that three Serbian male subjects had arrived as refugees in Tarrajaur in Jokkmokk parish after traveling over the mountains from Norway. When questioned, they stated that six of them had set off together. One of them had returned before crossing the border into Sweden. The other two had been left dead in the mountains.
As there was reason to believe that these two had been killed by their own or other people’s actions, the undersigned, a district police officer in Jokkmokk police district, was ordered to travel on the same day, first to Tarrajaur, where an interrogation was conducted with the refugees who had remained there. Subsequently, during the 4th and 5th of July investigations were undertaken in the areas through which the refugees were said to have passed and where their dead comrades would be found.
This area would be in the vicinity of lakes Salojaur and Rovejaur. In the company of the mountain guides Nils and Magnus Holmbom in Njunjes, a hike was undertaken to the location. After a long search, a dead man was found on the night of July 5th, lying between and partly under a couple of large stones. He had apparently succumbed to exhaustion and cold. No trace whatsoever could be found of the other man, despite a thorough and extensive search.
In the presence of the aforementioned mountain guides named Holmbom and Holmbom, the undersigned carried out an external inspection of the corpse and the clothes it was wearing. It was noted that there were no signs of external violence.
All the limbs appeared to be uninjured, and all the joints seemed normal. The feet, which were unshod, were wrapped in cloth rags. On top of a pair of thin linen underwear was a thin military uniform without any insignia. On the head was a military side cap. There were signs of blood on the face, hands and clothes, but this could definitely be traced to the nose, which was, however, undamaged, so that it could be assumed that the nosebleed was caused by overexertion. On the body there were red spots, which appeared particularly on the outer sides of the thighs and lower back and on the penis. The eyes were open. The pupils were very constricted. There appeared to have been no death struggle.
The pockets of the clothes contained nothing remarkable. In a couple of them there were breadcrumbs as well as juniper and heather, from which it could be concluded that such things had been used for food. No valuables or money were found. In a string around the neck was an identification tag with the following inscription: “Stalag XVII B 763819”. This was the only thing that could serve to identify the deceased.
Initially, it had been planned to collect the dead by air ambulance. However, as the lakes closest to the location were not free of ice, this option was abandoned.. The body was therefore placed in a well-protected place and covered with stones to be removed at the appropriate time.
Several photographs were taken of the site and the body, which are enclosed with the report.
When asked about the red spots visible on the corpse and the constriction of the pupils of the eyes, provincial doctor Rosén in Jokkmokk stated that this was nothing remarkable but quite common.
After returning to Jokkmokk, another interrogation was conducted with the Serb Ciric, who had made the earlier statements and was the only one of the three with whom it was possible to communicate. Ciric stated that on Sunday the 27th of June he and five other Serbs had fled from a prison camp near Rognan in Norway. They had brought no food and had no map or compass. After a few days, while they were still in Norwegian territory, one of them was left behind, exhausted. The others had continued in the direction of Sweden. On Friday morning, the 2nd o July, two of the five had stayed behind because they could take no more. They had said they would rest and then continue in the same direction as the others had set off in. They had no food, but did have matches and a small bottle of petrol. The men who stayed behind were 20 and 46 years old. The other three who had continued arrived at a Lapp camp about ten kilometers from the place where they had left their comrades. Here they were well cared for.
During the journey cold windsprevailed for several days, while rain mixed with snow had also fallen. There was nothing combustible to make a fire with in large parts of the regions they had traveled through.
Finally, it should be noted that the Lapps in the camp to which the refugees had traveled understood from their statements that those left behind were dead.
Jokkmokk as above”