Narvik War Museum

A modern, well-curated museum on the Battles of Narvik and the wider impact of the Second World War on northern Norway

The Narvik War Museum, on the main square, is one of the best-presented Second World War museums in Norway. Opened in 2016, it replaced the old Red Cross War Museum and tells the story of the Battles of Narvik — two naval engagements in April 1940 and the land campaign that followed — together with the wider experience of occupation, forced labour, and the deportation of Norwegian Jews from the North.

Multimedia displays mix archive footage with original artefacts: a German naval flag from one of the sunken destroyers, prisoner-of-war uniforms from the Yugoslav slave-labour camps that the Germans set up in the surrounding fjords, contemporary photographs of the bombed-out town. A separate section covers the Allied resistance and the role of the Norwegian Merchant Marine.

Allow two hours. The English-language captioning is comprehensive.

things to do museum
A story
Hitler was so anxious about the fate of his forces in Narvik that he twice considered ordering them to internment in Sweden. The German garrison eventually held the town only because the Allies, despite winning the naval battles, were forced to withdraw to defend France from the Wehrmacht's spring 1940 offensive — leaving Narvik free to be retaken by the Germans a few days later.

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