Petterslager

German prison camp for Soviet prisoners of war who were supposed to build a railway through Nordland.

The prison camp was established by the German occupation forces in connection with the construction of a railway from Fauske and northwards. The Germans called the camp "Petterslager", after the camp commander, Major Petters. The first 200 prisoners of war arrived in the early summer of 1943. At the time of liberation, there were almost 600 prisoners of war in the camp.

The prisoners were forced to perform heavy physical labor and at the same time were fed below the minimum requirements. The construction work consisted of digging the marshes above Fauskeeidet, quarrying stone and filling in soil for the planned railway. Today, the railway embankment is still clearly visible on the other side of the E6, parallel to the road.

23-year-old Yefim Sanarov from Kazakhstan was shot on October 9, 1943. Together with Fyodor Trifonov and Nikifor Malashik, he escaped from the prison camp. After a few days, they were caught, taken back and executed in the quarry near the camp.

The memorial on the hill commemorates the 11 Soviet prisoners of war who died in the prison camp. Yefim's name is not on this monument, but the three bottom numbers were later linked to German prisoner cards in Russian archives. This clarified the fate of Yefim, Fyodor and Nikifor, more than 60 years after their deaths. After the war, the graves were moved to Fauske cemetery and from there, during Operation Asfalt in 1951, to the war cemetery at Tjøtta.