The Russian War Cemetery

The small island Tjøtta lies in the municipality of Alstahaug in the region of Nordland, Norway. It is surrounded by beautiful nature; fjords and mountains are old friends. In this fairytale-like landscape, the interested observer can find something odd (s)he probably doesn’t expect when exploring Norway: a huge graveyard. A graveyard without any graves…

The Tjøtta Russian War Cemetery marks a catastrophe in the Norwegian coast that took place in year 1944. At that time, the Norwegian vessel “MS Rigel”, built in 1924, was occupied by German military to transport allied war prisoners. On its way to South-Norway and finally coming from Bodø’s harbour, this ship with its 2838 persons on board was accidentally bombed by the British Supermarine Seafire plane-fighters, because it appeared to be an enemy troopship. On this cold day of the 27^th November 1944 near the town Sandnesjøen, 2571 persons lost their lives.

The cemetery remembers and honours the causalities, of whom the majority could not be identified anymore. Metal plates connected with the stone-walls remind one of the death’s names. During the Second World War, soviet prisoners lived and died everywhere in Norway, so the government decided to gather the bodies in one place which was officially “chosen in cooperation with the Soviet Union”. The wreck had been carried away, but on the other side of the isle a monument remembers the whole tragedy. Further south, you can also find the Tjøtta International War Cemetery.

Far away from the Norwegian government and any city-life, a lonesome place without any road signs had been chosen. It feels strange to not be able to see their graves, but to directly walk above them. The boat mostly hosted soviet prisoners from Poland, Russia, Ukraine and Serbia, but on board were also Norwegians and Germans. Only 267 of them survived.