The Red Army liberated northern Norway in the autumn of 1944 and approx. 50% of these were Ukrainians. More than 100,000 women and men, Russians, Belarusians and Ukrainians were prisoners of war and slave laborers in Norway in the period 1942–1945. They built roads and railways. They set up the Nazi defenses along the 100,000-kilometer-long Norwegian coast. They worked in agriculture all over the country and in the fish processing industry in Hammerfest and Bodø. They provided "Fresch Fisch aus Norwegen", as it said on the railway wagons with fish sent to Germany.

Ukrainian prisoners of war lived in miserable conditions in 500 prison camps scattered throughout Norway. They were starved and abused. They were slaves, an inferior race, who had no right to life.

About 9,000 Ukrainian prisoners of war in Norway did not celebrate the victory in 1945. They died of ill-treatment and starvation and lie in unmarked graves in Norway, many gathered at Tjøtta in Nordland.