Editing Kautokeino Municipality (section)

=== World War 2 ===

==== 1940&ndash;1943 ====
During the war at the [[Battles of Narvik|Narvik front]] in the spring of 1940, at least four soldiers from Kautokeino took part; they belonged to the [[Alta Battalion]].<ref name=":3">{{Cite web |last=Hætta Eriksen |first=Edel |title=Nasjonalbiblioteket |url=https://www.nb.no/items/1225dc74e14de4cf78e563dfb2c6b843?page=53&searchText=kautokeino%20historielag |access-date=29 August 2022 |website=www.nb.no |page=52}}</ref>

In August 1940, four German soldiers came to Kautokeino by riverboat; they were the first German soldiers on the scene. They traveled again, and there was no permanent German presence in Kautokeino until the winter of 1941. Then they requisitioned the boarding school for accommodation.<ref name=":3" />

A Serbian prisoner of war named Bora Ivankovic was arrested by the Germans in autumn 1942 and executed in Kautokeino. Together with Petar Filipovic, he had managed to escape from the prison camp in [[Karasjok (village)|Karasjok]]. After 28 days on the run, Petar Filipovic managed to get into Sweden.<ref name="rdm">{{Cite web |title=Fangeleirer i Karasjok |url=https://rdm.no/no/fangeleirer_i_karasjok/ |access-date=29 August 2022 |website=RiddoDuottarMuseat |language=nb-NO}}</ref>

In 1942, the Germans planned to build a railway line through Kautokeino municipality. The line was to go via Reisadalen to Kautokeino and on to Karasjok. The railway was part of the German [[Polar Line|Polar Railway]], which was planned to run all the way from [[Fauske (town)|Fauske]] to [[Kirkenes]]. The plan was stated in 1943.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Jaklin |first=Asbjørn |title=Nordfronten Hitlers skjebneområde |publisher=Gyldendal |year=2006 |isbn=978-82-05-34537-9 |location=Finland |pages=143 |language=no}}</ref>

In 1943, the Germans built a [[Kautokeino Airport|field airport]] with a runway of 1,200 meters in Kautokeino. At the end of the runway there is still the wreckage of a German [[Junkers Ju 52]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Junkers 52/3m Kautokeino |url=https://flyvrak.info/kautokeino.html |access-date=29 August 2022 |website=flyvrak.info}}</ref>

==== 1944 ====
{{see also|Liberation of Finnmark}}
The Sámi author Odd Mathis Hætta writes in the book ''Samebygder på Finnmarksvidda 2'' about 3 Serbian prisoners who had escaped from a prison camp and who were surprised and taken by the Germans and executed. This happened at Áidejávri, 30 kilometers south of Kautokeino in August 1944. The bodies were dug up and transported to Kautokeino by Norwegian soldiers in the spring of 1945.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hætta |first=Odd Mathis |title=Samebygder på Finnmarksvidda 2 |publisher=Odd Mathis Hætta |year=2016 |isbn=978-82-690262-1-4 |edition=2 |location=Alta |pages=314–315 |language=no}}</ref> It is likely that they were not Serbian prisoners but from another nationality, this since the Serbian prisoners were held captive in Karasjok from 23 July 1942 to 15 December 1942, and this incident happened two years later.<ref name="rdm" />

A German [[Focke-Wulf Fw 189 Uhu|Focke-Wulf Fw 189]] reconnaissance aircraft made an emergency landing on 15 October 1944 at [[Flyvarjávri]] 13 kilometers south of Kautokeino. The water was named Flyvarjávri as a result of the accident, which means "plane lake" in Sámi.

In the autumn of 1944, the German 139th Mountain Brigade was stationed in and around Kautokeino. The force consisted of approximately 5,000 soldiers and had arrived in the Kautokeino area no later than 29 October 1944.<ref name=":5">{{Cite book |last=Berge |first=Kjell-Ragnar |title=Lyngenlinjen Hitlers siste skanse i Norge 1945 |publisher=Ares Forlag |year=2019 |isbn=978-82-92938-90-4 |location=Skallestad |pages=46,47,69,180 |language=no}}</ref> The 139th Mountain Brigade was formed on 5 June 1944 from the remnants of the 139th Mountain Regiment from the [[3rd Mountain Division (Wehrmacht)|3rd Mountain Division]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Gebrirgsjäger |url=https://www.lexikon-der-wehrmacht.de/Gliederungen/GebJBrigaden/GebJBrig139-R.htm |access-date=29 August 2022 |website=www.lexikon-der-wehrmacht.de}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Gebirgsjäger-Regiment 139 |url=http://www.ordersofbattle.com/Units/UnitHistory?UniX=2241 |access-date=29 August 2022 |website=www.ordersofbattle.com}}</ref>  The commander of the brigade in the Kautokeino area was Colonel Schirmbacker. He was on loan from the [[6th SS Mountain Division Nord|6th SS Gebirgsjäger division]].<ref name=":4">{{Cite book |last=Westrheim |first=Harry |title=Landet de brente: tvangsevakuering av Finnmark og Nord-Troms høsten 1944. |publisher=Tiden |year=1978 |isbn=8210017101 |pages=139 |language=no}}</ref> The 139th Mountain Regiment was the German unit that was about to be defeated by Norwegian forces at [[Bjørnfjell, Nordland|Bjørnfjell]] in June 1940, during the [[battles of Narvik]] before Norway had to capitulate when the Allies withdrew. [[Alta Battalion]], where soldiers from Kautokeino also participated, were among the Norwegian units that took part in the battles at Bjørnfjell. The Austrian soldier Toni Russold took part in the battle against the Alta battalion in Narvik in 1940, and was part of the force that made up the flank protection in Kautokeino in the autumn of 1944.<ref name=":4" />

The brigade's mission in Kautokeino in the autumn of 1944 was to form the flank protection for the Sturmbock-Stellung line which ran across the Finnish wedge north of [[Karesuando]]. The Germans set up positions in Kautokeino due to concerns about a potential Allied landing at Hammerfest and a subsequent assault through Alta, moving directly south towards Finland across the Finnmarksvidda. Their objective woukld be to intercept the [[20th Mountain Army (Wehrmacht)|20th Mountain Army's]] 18th Army Corps during their retreat from Finland through the Finnish wedge. Additionally, they aimed to prevent Finnish or, in the worst-case scenario, Russian forces from circumventing the Strumbuck-Stellung line in Karesuando, which would allow them to breach the German positions and proceed towards the [[Lyngen (fjord)|Lyngen fjord]] in Norway.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Nasjonalbiblioteket |url=https://www.nb.no/items/52a20a50444facb505841547893487a7?page=135&searchText=kautokeino |access-date=29 August 2022 |website=www.nb.no}}</ref> South and southwest of Kautokeino, defensive positions were established at Máttavárri, Joppevárri, Áddjit, Gálggovárri and Junkkavárri.<ref>{{Cite web |last=historielag |first=Årsmøteuttalelse GHS/Kautokeino |date=11 December 2019 |title=Om krigsminner – Kautokeino historielaget |url=https://www.ifinnmark.no/5-81-1092935 |access-date=29 August 2022 |website=iFinnmark |language=no}}</ref> The last German soldiers withdrew from the position in Kautokeino on 3 January 1945. The route they followed was a makeshift cart road that went south-west from Kautokeino to Goathteluoppal, on to Hirvas in Finland and finally the road through the Finnish wedge to Skibotn in Norway.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Aarseth |first=Ola |title=Muitalusat ja dáhpáhusat Guovdageainnus 13 Kautokeino 1944-45. Da sameland brant |journal=Muitalusat ja dáhpáhusat Guovdageainnus |volume=13 |issue=Kautokeino Historielag |pages=10}}</ref><ref name=":5" /> In June 2022, shells were found in the area around the German positions from 1944 at Máttavárri, 5 kilometers south of Kautokeino.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Kristensen |first=Nils Martin |title=Bombekastergranater funnet i Kautokeino |url=https://glr.no/nyheter/lokalt/bombekastergranater-funnet-i-kautokeino-15503 |access-date=29 August 2022 |language=nb-NO}}</ref> In the autumn of 1941, only 100 of the 2,000 soldiers were left from the 139th Mountain Regiment of those who had taken part in the campaign in Narvik, in that sense Toni Russold's period in the regiment and the brigade, from the campaign in Narvik all the way to Kautokeino in the autumn of 1944, must have been one of the longest.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Westrheim |first=Harry |title=Landet de brente: tvangsevakueringen av Finnmark og Nord-Troms høsten 1944 |publisher=Tiden |year=1978 |isbn=8210017101 |pages=139 |language=no}}</ref>

On 23 October 1944, a meeting was held in Kautokeino with representatives of the Germans, the Nazi police, police chief Hoem and representatives of Kautokeino municipality. The municipality reached an agreement with the Nazis and the Germans that the population of Kautokeino together with the large herds of [[reindeer]] should evacuate to the Helligskogen in [[Troms]] and meet the Germans there. The Germans wanted to take control of the reindeer herds because it constituted a large food reserve for the Germans, they wanted to prevent the Allies from getting hold of this food reserve, and because they feared that Soviet [[Red Army|red army]] could use driving reindeer for transport, in a similar way to reindeer had been used for transport on the [[Petsamo–Kirkenes offensive|Murmansk front]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Nasjonalbiblioteket |url=https://www.nb.no/items/52a20a50444facb505841547893487a7?page=141&searchText=kautokeino |access-date=29 August 2022 |website=www.nb.no}}</ref> The agreement was announced to the population in Norwegian. However, the verbal order to the population was given in Sámi and there the population was asked to evacuate to Helligskogen at [[Anarjohka]] in the east. Police Chief Hoem was aware that the oral order in Sámi was different from the written order in Norwegian. The population had to leave Kautokeino by 30 November 1944. The result was that the population listened to the oral order in Sámi and failed to evacuate to the Helligskogen in Troms, instead they escaped to the [[Finnmarksvidda]] and spread out over a large area. The Germans missed out on the meat reserve that the reindeer herds would have represented, and the population avoided forced evacuation.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hætta Eriksen |first=Edel |title=Evakueringsvinteren 1944-45 |journal=Muitalusat Ja Dahpahusat Guovdageainnus |volume=13 |issue=Kautokeino historielag |pages=t}}</ref> Of Kautokeino's 1,330 inhabitants, 47 were forcibly evacuated south. The fate of two women who fell ill and were forcibly evacuated south is still unknown.<ref name=":6">{{Cite book |last=Petterson |first=Arvid |title=Fortiet fortid Tragedien Norge aldri forsto. |publisher=Gjenreisningsmuseet for Finnmark og Nord-Troms |year=2008 |isbn=978-82-997554-1-2 |location=Hammerfest |pages=147, 351 |language=no}}</ref>

Kautokeino was burned down by retreating German forces. The Germans began the burning of the Kautokeino church site on 20 November 1944, and the burning was completed in the first week of December.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Jaklin |first=Asbjørn |title=Brent jord, 1944-1945 : heltene, ofrene, de skyldige. |publisher=Gyldendal |year=2016 |isbn=978-82-05-48429-0 |location=Oslo |pages=193–195 |language=no}}</ref><ref name=":6" /> Of 220 buildings, 168 were burned, including the old Kautokeino church from 1701, which was burned on 3 December 1944.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hætta |first=Odd Mathis |title=Samebygder på Finnmarksvidda |publisher=Odd Mathis Hætta |year=2016 |isbn=978-82-690262-0-7 |location=Alta |pages=254 |language=no}}</ref>