Qualla: Falstad Concentration Camp

Falstad Concentration Camp: Introduction

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit The Falstad Centre from Ekne, Nord-Trøndelag, Norway, CC BY 2.0. Before the war, it was a place meant to reform troubled boys through education and Christian virtue. The brick buildings at Falstad, arranged around a central courtyard in the village of Ekne, had been a boarding school since 1895, rebuilt twice after fires. In September 1941, those same walls became a Nazi prison camp, and the forest to the south became a place from which no one returned.

Image: The Falstad Centre from Ekne, Nord-Trøndelag, Norway | CC BY 2.0

Falstad Concentration Camp: From Schoolhouse to Prison

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit The Falstad Centre from Ekne, Nord-Trøndelag, Norway, CC BY 2.0. The Nazis first visited Falstad in August 1941, considering it for the Lebensborn program, which sought to increase the 'Aryan' population. They found it unsuitable for that purpose but quickly recognized another use. Within weeks, 170 Danish men who had refused forced labor with...

Image: The Falstad Centre from Ekne, Nord-Trøndelag, Norway | CC BY 2.0

Falstad Concentration Camp: The Forest of Falstadskogen

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit No machine-readable author provided. Orcaborealis assumed (based on copyright claims)., Public domain. South of the camp stood a forest that the commanders turned into an execution ground. On 7 March 1942, the first shots were fired there: four Jewish men, Abel Lazar Bernstein, David Isaksen, Wulf Isaksen, and David Wolfsohn, along with Olav Sverre Benjaminsen, were killed. A Yugo...

Image: No machine-readable author provided. Orcaborealis assumed (based on copyright claims). | Public domain

Falstad Concentration Camp: Lives Held and Lost

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit The Falstad Centre from Ekne, Nord-Trøndelag, Norway, CC BY 2.0. Daily existence at Falstad was defined by forced labor that was often deliberately pointless, designed to degrade rather than produce. Guards like Edward F. Lambrecht, whom prisoners called Gråbein (Grayleg) after the Norwegian word for wolves, were notorious for casual brutality...

Image: The Falstad Centre from Ekne, Nord-Trøndelag, Norway | CC BY 2.0

Falstad Concentration Camp: A Place That Remembers

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit The Falstad Centre from Ekne, Nord-Trøndelag, Norway, CC BY 2.0. After liberation, Falstad briefly served to hold those who had collaborated with the Nazis, under the name Innherrad Forced Labour Camp. Then, between 1951 and 1992, the buildings returned to education, operating as a school for people with intellectual disabilities. In August 20...

Image: The Falstad Centre from Ekne, Nord-Trøndelag, Norway | CC BY 2.0