Trench railway builders in Kuusamo 1942-1944
The last 7,4 kilometres of the trench railway was built in Kuusamo in 1944 from Sänkikangas to Lahtela. In Kuusamo, the railway was built by the German pioneer regiment, a strengthened prisoner labour battalion and OT-Einsatz Finnland, formed from conscripts and prisoners.
A barrack village was quickly formed in Sänkikangas, with a prison camp in addition to maintenance barracks.
About 1 200 Soviet prisoners of war, 800 Polish conscripts and about 400 German convicts worked in Kuusamo in the summer of 1944, around the time the railway was opened.
The Last Kilometres exhibition tells about the construction of kilometres of the trench railway in Kuusamo, the conditions of prisoners and conscripts, the role of the people of Kuusamo during the construction of the railway, and the plans that were left unfulfilled when the trench railway was destroyed in the fall of 1944.
As part of the exhibition, a scale model of the River Vanttajanjoki bridge is on display, the remains of which are still visible in Sänkikangas.
