In 1940, around 60,000 people lived in Finnmark. No other county had more soldiers relative to the population. In Porsanger, home to one of the large military bases, there were up to 27,000 soldiers and only 3000 permanent residents.
The local population had varying experiences with “regular” German soldiers. In many places, people were ordered by the Wehrmacht to house German soldiers in their homes. Some thus got to know German fathers, who were missing their children. Others had to put up with insecurity or threats. Both Norwegian and German Nazis were feared. Frontline soldiers were often scarred by the brutality and trauma they had experienced.
The Norwegian Government in London authorised an extensive co-operation between the fishing industry and the occupying forces. Barter trade between residents and stationary forces was not uncommon. A lot happened in the war years – shortages, forced call-ups to German labour camps (so-called “Arbeitskommando”) and requisitioning of everything from schools to horses. People living in different parts of northern Troms and Finnmark lived through acts of war like torpedoing, mine laying, plane crashes, sabotage and bombing – from both sides.
The partisans sacrificed a lot. They contributed significantly to the war effort in irregular resistance groups. These were women and men – many of them from fishing villages in Varanger – who received intelligence and sabotage training from Soviet agents.
There were around 14,000 foreign prisoners of war and forced labourers in Finnmark alone. Their suffering had a big impact on the local population. Two thirds of the around 13,500 Russian prisoners of war who lost their lives in Norway, died in Northern Norway. That is a far greater number than the total loss of civilian and military Norwegians both at home and abroad during the war.