[Deserved punishment? Legal settlement 1945-50. Sociomedical aspects]

Following the German occupation during the Second World War, about 92,000 Norwegian citizens were charged with treason and 18,000 sentenced to imprisonment. The prosecution of offenders turned out to be far more extensive and lead to higher social cost than anticipated at the outset. Norway's pre-war prisons were designed to accommodate about 2,000 inmates. With a wave of arrest amounting to 14,000 within a few weeks, it was necessary to establish temporary jails and prison camps staffed by inexperienced guards seconded from the resistance movement and Norwegian military personnel trained in Sweden during the war. A number of infringements of prisoners' civil rights occurred and are recorded in a report from the Director General of Public Prosecution. Medical supervision was very incomplete and accidental. The main prison camp was one of the few regular medical services. Despite the general partial amnesty of 1948, most of the prisoners released during the first post-war years had great problems assimilating into society. As additional punishment, most lost their jobs and certain citizen's rights for a number of years, others had homes and property confiscated, and many became welfare cases.