potatoes to peel the rest of the time. On 22 July 1942, 26 Yugoslavian prisoners were executed shortly after arriving at the camp. On 23 October 1943, eight prisoners sentenced to death (as a reprisal for a partisan action which killed 22 Germans) were executed and buried in a bog just north of the camp. Some of them were severely beaten before they were shot. Transfer of Julius Denzer in August 1944 There was a brief period of milder treatment from late 1943 when responsibility for the guard was switched from the Waffen-SS to the Ordnungspolizei. However, this was reversed in August 1944, when a new camp commander, Julius Denzer, was transferred from Grini detention camp. He terrorised the prisoners and was prone to eccentric behaviour. Denzer would lecture prisoners in a rage about how they needed to learn to understand Nazism, on one occasion for hours until he brought himself to tears. Former prisoner Gunnar Didriksen (who described Denzer as "pompous" and "strange") said he had extreme mood swings, furious one moment and friendly the next. Denzer used Didriksen as a personal servant and dubbed him "Heinrich" – which he claimed was because all proper German families call their servants by that name. Turid Erikstad Bårnes (who was held at the camp when she was 17) wrote about a "tragicomic" incident on 24 December 1944 in which Denzer and a guard abruptly appeared in her cell and made her, her sister, and step-sister sing Silent Night with them, before disappearing as quickly as they had appeared. End of war On 6 May 1945, the prisoners were evacuated from the Tromsdalen camp and sent to work on a railway line near Narvik, but this plan was interrupted by the surrender of Nazi Germany on 8 May. When Denzer was informed that Germany was about to surrender, he lined the prisoners up and formally announced that the war was over and they were all free to go. He shook each prisoner by the hand, gave thanks for their cooperation, and wished them a happy reunion with their families. He then escaped back to Germany under mysterious circumstances before he could be arrested by Norwegian or British forces. He avoided capture for nearly two years until he was recognised by a Norwegian soldier in the street. After being sent back to Norway, Denzer was tried for war crimes in 1947 and sentenced