There were more than 1,000 Bosnians in Nazi prison camps in Norway and this should be pointed out in history books and in Norwegian media, Bosnian Ambassador in Norway, Nedim Makarevic, said as visited the Narvik War Museum and met with its director, Eysteinn Markusson, on Friday.

Together they visited the monument to the victims in Beisfjord, where more 700 prisoners from the former Yugoslavia were killed during World War II and many of them were set on fire alive.

Director Markusson emphasized that Norway pays great attention to this unfortunate part of history and that their museum is very open to cooperation.

There were 1,055 prisoners from Bosnia in Norway during WWII and “it is especially important that it is stated in history books and that the Norwegian media pay attention to it,” Makarevic pointed out.

The first prisoners of Nazi prison camps and prisons in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Serbia were deported to camps in Norway on April 24, 1942, because the Germans needed labour for building roads and coastal fortifications.

Adolf Hitler wanted to build a road and a railway to Kirkenes, the so-called ‘PolarBanen’, and the Norwegian-Soviet border. The project was of strategic importance to Nazi Germany.

A total of 4,364 prisoners were transported from the former Yugoslavia, of which 1,055 from Bosnia and Herzegovina.