Skorpa, Troms

Skorpa ( Northern Sami: Skárfu ) is a now uninhabited island in the southern part of the fjord Kvænangen; it belongs to the commune Kvænangen the province (county ) Troms in Norway. It has an area of 8.26 km2 and reaches to the top of mountain Varden a height of 307 m above sea level. The island is accessible only by boat. The last permanent residents left Skorpa around 1980.

History

Community Kvænangen

The island was once the administrative center of the municipality Kvænangen until it was moved in the 20th century after Burfjord, and was also home to the church, which is used with its 300 seats since its construction in 1956 of a new church on the mainland in Sekkemo only rarely.

POW camp Skorpa

After the German invasion of Norway in April 1940, stationed in Northern Norway Norwegian 6th Division taught in mid-May on the island an a POW camp. There, most members of the Wehrmacht were caught in Northern Norway, housed in particular in space Narvik; just as, in the absence of an alternative accommodation, the interned German crews, seized in Norway and there sunk merchant and fishing vessels. The prisoners were initially housed in tents for every 16 man, but then began to build a number of wooden barracks, to order through the next winter can under the guidance of Norwegian craftsmen. Until the beginning of June, a total of 500 prisoners brought to the camp. Rank Highest among them was Commander Alfred Schulze- Hinrichs, commander of the destroyer Z 13 Erich Koellner, which had been sunk at Narvik on 13 April. On June 12, 1940 the prisoners were informed about the Norwegian capitulation, dismissed and even brought in the same night on two Norwegian ships to Tromsø, where they came back with the German occupation of the city on June 14 in German hands. Excluded from the exemption were 40 members of the Air Force, including a number of pilots who had been a few days previously associated with the retreating Allied troops from Harstad to Britain.