Grini prison camp (, ) was a Nazi concentration camp in Bærum, Norway, which operated between 1941 and May 1945. Ila Detention and Security Prison is now located here.
History
Grini was originally built as a women's prison, near an old croft named Ilen (also written Ihlen), on land bought from the Løvenskiold family by the Norwegian state. The construction of a women's prison started in 1938, but despite being more or less finished in 1940, it did not come into use for its original purpose: Nazi Germany's invasion of Norway on 9 April 1940, during World War II, instead precipitated the use of the site for detention by the Nazi regime. At first, the Nazis used the prison to detain Norwegian officers captured during the Norwegian Campaign to resist the invasion by Nazi Germany. This use was discontinued in June 1940, when Norway capitulated. The prison was then used to house Wehrmacht soldiers until a concentration camp was established on 14 June 1941. Shortly afterwards, the ranks of prisoners were increased by Soviet troops captured during Operation Barbarossa. The camp was run by Schutzstaffel (SS) and Gestapo personnel, who renamed the camp Polizeihäftlingslager Grini. The name corresponds to a nearby farm and surrounding residential district located a short distance southeast of the camp, but historically the area at Ilen had no connection to Grini farm. Grini was used primarily for Norwegian political prisoners, but the detention of more regular criminals followed. Many were held at Grini before being shipped to camps in Germany; Similarly, many teachers who took part in the civil disobedience of 1942 were held at Grini for one day before being taken to Kirkenes via Jørstadmoen. A small number of foreign citizens were also held there. Altogether, 19,247 prisoners passed through Grini,
Prison life
Other than guards, the German occupiers devoted few personnel to the camp. Since many politicians, academics and cultural personalities were detained at Grini, a certain level of internal organization was established. Prisoners worked in manufacturing, agriculture and other manual labor.
The diet at Grini was poor. After the war, it caused a certain stir in the populace when it was perceived that Nazi prisoners of the liberated Norway were treated better than prisoners of the Nazi regime; among other things the diet in Norwegian prisons was much better.
After the war
After the liberation of Norway in May 1945, the prison was used for Norwegians tried or convicted of treason or collaboration, as a part of the legal purge in Norway after World War II. Since the name "Grini" was now associated with the Norwegian resistance movement, hence seen as heroic, A guard reported that punitive exercise was used in a harsh way. On 13 October 1945 the National Mobile Police Service conducted a razzia (police raid). During the razzia, prosecutor Lauritz Jenssen Dorenfeldt and the wife of camp commandant Helge Gleditsch were wrongly rounded up in the yard.
It was closed in 1951 but reopened in the same year under the name Ila as a "landsfengsel og sikringsanstalt" (national prison and security institution), a prison for criminals serving long-term sentences. Volume one covers the period from January 1942 to August 1942, volume two covers August 1942 to August 1943, and volume three covers Nansen's stay in Sachsenhausen. In 1946 and 1947 the two-volume book Griniboken (The Grini Book) was issued, edited by August Lange and Johan Schreiner, with contributions from several of the detainees. The first volume describes daily life at Grini as it developed over the years, including separate articles on the women's department, on the "Haft" departments (for men and women), and on "Fallskjermen", the department for those who were sentenced to death and awaiting execution. The second volume covers the internal organisation, such as the labor, farm work, and healthcare regimes, in more detail, and also discusses cultural and religious life. The external locations (Kvænangen, Kongsvinger, Bardufoss, and others) are described. There are also chapters on the undercover resistance at Grini, such as the news service, espionage, and the secret finger-signing language which was developed. Børre R. Giertsen's 1946 book Norsk fangeleksikon. Grinifangene (Norwegian Prisoner Encyclopedia: the Grini Prisoners) contains an overview of the German staff at Grini, as well as a chronologically ordered list of the prisoners, starting with the Solvær hostages incarcerated at Åneby 15 March 1941.
See also
- List of Nazi concentration camps
References
From Day to Day by Odd Nansen was reprinted in 2016, in English translation; this edition covers the three books published in 1949.