23 June 2014: Day 1 of the excavation

Falstad Prison Camp or SS Strafgefangenenlager Falstad held around 4,200 prisoners between 1941 and 1945. They were mainly political prisoners from Norway, as well as POWs, forced labourers from other countries, Norwegian Jews and hostages. 215 of the prisoners were female.

This is a blog of the rescue excavation of the rubbish pits of Falstad prison camp. The dig is taking place from 23-27 June 2014. The project director is Professor Marek Jasinski from the Department of Historical Studies at NTNU, Norway. Professor Jasinski is working in collaboration with Dr Gilly Carr of Cambridge University and Dr Andrzej Ossowski from the Pomeranian Medical University of Szczecin (PMUS). Other team members are from NTNU and PMUS.

The sponsors of the excavation are NTNU, the Falstad Centre, the Directorate of Cultural Heritage in Osloand the County Administration of North Trøndelag.

The focus of the excavation is the rubbish pits, which are located on a slope outside the camp. While several undulations in the slope indicate the area of pits, it seems that the camp rubbish was strewn all over this area. Today we went over the area with a metal detector and dug some holes just to see what was there and to get an idea of the size of the area we are interested in. In these holes, and indeed strewn about the site, are wine and beer bottles and broken glass, aluminium tins, food tins, white china and red-brown pottery. We also found a perfume bottle, a tin which once held vitamins, fish bones, butchered animal (cow) bones, and part of a mortar. This site certainly holds the promise of some exciting finds.
We also went into the basement of the camp commandant's house, where we found graffiti from which read 'Kugnerman SS', and some crossed out swastikas. There is a small exhibition inside the commandant's house today which focuses on the graves of prisoners who were shot in the nearby forest.

Tomorrow we will start the official excavation.