Han vart fanga i juni 1941 og sat fyrst i ein utryddingsleir i Polen der det berre var eit piggtrådgjerde med vakttårn rundt fangane, og dødstala var svært høge. Året etter vart han frakta

til Årdal i Sogn for å tvangsarbeide med bygginga av Ardal Aluminiumsverk.

Me møtte Grigoriy i Novorissiysk i 2004, under arbeidet med dokumentarfilmen "Russerfangane" (Dokufilm 2005). Han fortalde at han ikkje fekk reise heim då han vart send frå Noreg i 1945. I staden kom han til ein "filtreringsleir" i Estland, der alle vart alle forhøyrde og dømde for brot på eiden til Raudearmeen om ikkje å la seg bli teken til fange. Sjølv vart han dømt til to års straffarbeid og send til Novorissiysk ved Svartehavet, heilt sør på Austfronten. Byen var fullstendig øydelagd etter harde kampar i 1942 og -43, og ein kontingent på 1500 straffedømte fekk jobben med å starte opprydding og førebu attreising hausten 1945.

Grigoriy levde der med stempel som forrædar heilt til eit stykke ut på 1990-talet. Då vart han fyrst rehabilitert. Sia vart han dekorert for sin krigsinnsats. Då han tok imot oss, hadde han også fått erstatning frå Tyskland. Han tok godt mot oss, baud oss på "amerikansk vodka" og fortalde ei historie som var viktig både for vår forståing av vår eiga norske historie - industrihistorie, ikkje minst - og for vår forståing av kor store offer Russland, Ukraina og resten av Sovjetunionen gav i kampen mot nazismen. 20.000 av Grigoriy sine kameratar vart liggande att i norsk jord. No tynnest rekkjene, også mellom dei som overlevde. Fred over deira minne.

Bjørn Enes, Frode Vestad  

In memoary of Grigoriy Yeremanlov

Today, we recieved in grief the message that another one of the 200.000 former Soviet prisoners who survived slave labour in Norway during the years 1942-45, has left us.

Grigoriy Yeremanlov was taken prisoner by the Nazis in June 1941. At first, he was interned in an extermination camp in Poland, in which there was neither housing, regular food and watersupplies nor any sanitary system. There was only barbed wire fences and watchtowers. The death tolls were huge.

The following year, he was transported to the occupied Norway by boat. Grigoriy was sent to Aardal in the Sognefjorden area, where he was forced to labour with the construction av an Aluminium refinery that is still running there.

We met Grigoriy in 2004. We were working with a documentary film about slave labourers in Norway during the Nazi occupation. Grigoriy then told us, that he was not allowed to go home, when he was sent from Norway i the summer of 1945. He was again interned, this time in a filtration camp (in Estonia, as far as I can remember). There, all the former prisoners were interrogated and sentenced for breaking the oath of the Red Army, about not letting themselves be taken prisoners.

Grigoriy was sentenced to two years imprisonment at labour. He was transported to Novorissiysk. The city was completely destroyed during the hard fighting i 1942 and 1943, and a contingent of 1500 prisoners were the first ones to start clearing up and rebuilding it.

After he had served his sentence, Grigoriy stayed in Novorissisk. He had a lot of problems because of his sentence, and he was not rehabilitated till the early nineties. Since then, he was decorated several times for his sacrifices during the Great Motherland War. He also had got a compensation from Germany.

When he recieved us in 2004, he treated us very kindly and well. I remenber he served "American Vodka" to us. From him, we got improtant informations that helped us understand better our own, Norwegian history - in particular the history of our industry. And as well, he brought new light upon the history about the immence sacrifices that Russia, Ukraine and the other parts of the Soviet Union gave in the war against Nazism.

We will express our gratitude to Grigoriy Yeremanlov and all of his comrades who the Nazis deported to Norway. 20.000 of them are buried in our soil. Their blood links us together for ever.

Bjorn Enes, journalist, Norway

Frode Vestad, photographer and film producer, Norway.