Norwegian POW Museum (''Krigsfangemuseet i Schildberg'') is a

Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe *Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway *Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including the ...

museum devoted to the history of Norwegian

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

Prisoners of War once interned in the German prisoner of war camp in Schildberg during the

Nazi occupation of Norway The occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany during the Second World War began on 9 April 1940 after Operation Weserübung. Conventional armed resistance to the German invasion ended on 10 June 1940, and Nazi Germany controlled Norway until the ...

. The museum is located in

Ostrzeszów Ostrzeszów (german: Schildberg, 1943-45: Schildberg im Wartheland) is a town in central Poland, in Greater Poland Voivodeship. It is the capital of Ostrzeszów County. The population in 2006 was 14,536 inhabitants. The town is situated aroun ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

Background

A prisoner-of-war camp,

Stalag XXI-A Norwegian POW Museum (''Krigsfangemuseet i Schildberg'') is a Norwegian museum devoted to the history of Norwegian World War II Prisoners of War once interned in the German prisoner of war camp in Schildberg during the Nazi occupation of Norway. ...

, was established in some of the town buildings in Schildberg, in Nazi occupied Poland during 1940. In 1943, the camp was renamed

Oflag XXI-C Oflag XXI-C was a German Army World War II prisoner-of-war camp for officers ('' Offizierlager'') located in Ostrzeszów in German-occupied Poland. It held mostly Norwegian officers arrested in 1942 and 1943, but also Dutch, Italian, Serbian a ...

for the imprisonment of 1,150 military officers transferred from

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

. On August 16, 1943 the German

Wehrmacht The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the ''Heer'' (army), the ''Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmacht''" replaced the previous ...

arrested all Norwegian officers who were still in Norway. Of the approximately 1,500 officers who were detained, probably one third were sent home the following week because of age, illness, etc. The remainder were to become prisoners of the Nazis in Poland.

Beginnings

In 1982, Eyvind Grundt from

Moss Mosses are small, non-vascular flowerless plants in the taxonomic division Bryophyta (, ) '' sensu stricto''. Bryophyta (''sensu lato'', Schimp. 1879) may also refer to the parent group bryophytes, which comprise liverworts, mosses, and hor ...

, was sent to Poland on a mission for the

Norwegian Red Cross The Norwegian Red Cross (''Norges Røde Kors'') was founded on 22 September 1865 by prime minister Frederik Stang. In 1895 the Norwegian Red Cross began educating nurses, and in 1907 the Norwegian Ministry of Defence authorized the organization fo ...

. After completing his work, he began a search for the town where his father had spent two years as a

Prisoner of War A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of wa ...

(POW) during

. It was a difficult task, since he only knew the German name of the town, Schildberg. After many inquiries, Grundt found that Schildberg was a small Polish city of

. In Ostrzeszów, by chance, he made contact with Lechoslaw Nowakowski, a language professor at the local college. Nowakowski had a good knowledge of the history of the town and shared Grundt's interest in the fate of the 1,150 Norwegian POWs once interned there at

. They discovered that Grundt’s father had been interned in the building that now houses the town’s largest technical school. In the cellar of the school, several Norwegian artifacts were discovered, including a dented tin plate engraved “Kaptein Vagn Enger”. Grundt contacted the manager of the local museum, Josef Janas and they agreed to create a small Norwegian collection in the museum. Initially, it was in the right drawer of the manager’s desk.

Exhibits

Since 1982, a number of objects connected to the Norwegian POWs have been collected, in both Norway and Poland. Several special exhibitions to present them were arranged at first, but from 1996 onwards, the Norwegian collection has had a permanent exhibition area in the newly renovated Ostrzeszów museum. The collection of objects continues, and the museum has developed into an information and competence centre concerning Norwegian POWs in general. The museum is engaged in collecting the abundant

literature Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to include ...

relating to the subject. What makes the Norwegian POW Museum especially unique is photographic collection of one of the former POWs of the Ostrzeszów camp. After managing to smuggle a small camera into the camp, the prisoner used chocolate and cigarettes from his

Red Cross The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is a Humanitarianism, humanitarian movement with approximately 97 million Volunteering, volunteers, members and staff worldwide. It was founded to protect human life and health, to ensure re ...

parcels to “buy” film from the German guards. Thus he could document many aspects of POW life in a unique way. Many of his photographs have been enlarged and cover the walls in the museum. It is rather unusual to find a Norwegian museum far outside the borders of the country. The inhabitants of Schildberg (Ostrzeszów) are proud of being able to display the unique history that they and Norway share. In 2003 more than 6000 persons visited the POW museum; including Polish and Norwegian families and individuals. The museum intends to publish several booklets covering the fate of the POWs. Information will also be published on the internet.

Scope

The museum covers the military POWs in the local

, as well as sub-camps of the ''Oflag XXI C'' (

in Schokken,

Oflag XXI-C/Z An Oflag (from german: Offizierslager) was a type of prisoner of war camp for officers which the German Army established in World War I in accordance with the requirements of the 1899 Hague Convention, and in World War II in accordance with the r ...

in Grune bei Lissa and

Stalag III-A Stalag III-A was a German World War II prisoner-of-war camp at Luckenwalde, Brandenburg, south of Berlin. Camp history Planning for the camp commenced before the invasion of Poland. It was designed to hold 10,000 men, was the largest in the 3rd ...

and

Oflag III-A An Oflag (from german: Offizierslager) was a type of prisoner of war camp for officers which the German Army established in World War I in accordance with the requirements of the 1899 Hague Convention, and in World War II in accordance with the r ...

of Luckenwalde). The museum has future plans to cover POWs in Stalag Luft III (Sagan) and Marlag und Milag Nord (Tarmstedt an der Timke). Later still, other groups of prisoners, such as

interned Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simply ...

civilians, police prisoners and students will be covered. Prisoners in KZ- and NN-camps, in hard labour camps and jails (political prisoners and “criminals”), as well as prisoners in Norway, will not be included.

References

External links

Schildberg Oflagu XXI C
{{Coord, 51.425918, 17.933154, format=dms, display=title, type:landmark Norwegian POW Museum Norwegian POW Museum Defunct prisons in Poland Ostrzeszów County Museums in Greater Poland Voivodeship Norway in World War II