The Blood Road was built during World War II, when Hitler aimed to build a road all the way across Norway. As many as 640 Yugoslav prisoners of war, young men and boys, died on Korgfjellet while working for the German occupation forces between June 1942 and May 1944.
At Korgfjellet Mountain Lodge there is a memorial stone to the prisoners of war, and also on each side of Korgfjellet, at Fagerlimoen and in Osen, memorials have been erected. Here the prisoners lived in camps, as cruel and inhumane as the camps in Poland and Germany. The local population helped the prisoners as best they could, and after the war a friendship treaty was established between Norway and Yugoslavia. Hemnes received Prokuplje as its friendship municipality and Vefsn received Gornji Milanovac.
The film "Blodveien", based on a script by Sigurd Evensmo in 1955, is based on events in Korgfjellet.
In 2017, 75 years after the first Yugoslav prisoners arrived at the newly built prison camps in Korgen and Osen, six information boards were set up by the road over Korgfjellet, where you can read more about this cruel part of our history.
If you want to know more about other war events here with us, we recommend getting to know the story of the Hurtigruten ship D/S Nordnorge which was sunk at Hemnesberget, see link.
