ϟϟ-Freiw.Schikompanie „Norwegen“ subordinated to ϟϟ-Division „Nord“

SS-Freiwilligen-Schikompanie Norwegen

SS-Skijäger of the Norwegen

The Norwegian SS-Freiwilligen-Schikompanie Norwegen or SS-Skijegerkompani Norge was formed in February 1942 and attached to the SS-Division Nord. The elite Norwegen mainly consisted of volunteers from Norway and a share of expert skiers from Denmark and Sweden, although the company was formally a Norwegian police unit. Most officers and non-commissioned officers were Norwegian. The company was inspected by Nord's commander SS-Obergruppenführer Matthias Kleinheisterkamp, who even accompanied the first ski-patrol out in the wilderness. It fought alongside the Finnish Army and the Wehrmacht in Finnish Lapland and North Karelia during the Continuation War. By the winter of 1943 the company was designated as a combat battalion, the SS-Schijäger-Bataillon Norwegen, with three full infantry companies and a staff company. Another 3,400 Estonian volunteers took part. Volunteers from Soviet occupied Eastern Karelia formed the Kinship Battalion. At the end of the war the USSR requested members of the Kinship Battalion to be handed over. Some managed to escape before or during transport, but most of them were either sent to labor camps or executed. Left image: Norwegian Waffen-SS volunteers Sødermann and Brøbe of the Norwegen on ski-patrol in Karelia. They were both killed in action before wars end. Right image: a Norwegian SS-Untersturmführer of the Norwegen in Karelia. Photos in the Public domain.