[1][2] Built to house prisoners after the closure of the nearby Ulven detention camp, Espeland was soon being used to mitigate overcrowding in Bergen.

These would be used to house POWs, political prisoners, groups considered undesirable by Nazi ideology, and ordinary criminals.

[7] In the summer of 1942, the Ulven detention camp near Bergen – at that time used by the Sicherheitsdienst (SD) and Sicherheitspolizei (SiPo) to hold political prisoners – was deemed to be at risk from British sea raids due to its proximity to the coast.

The prisoners would be relocated further inland to a new facility in Espeland, a few kilometres south of Indre Arna, a small village outside Bergen.

[3][7] Construction began around June–July 1942, with hundreds of Yugoslavian POWs (ferried to and from Bergen on a daily basis by train) made to build the road which would lead to the complex.

[8] The first single-cell barracks was nicknamed Lenken (The Link) and reserved for the more serious political prisoners – usually those awaiting a death sentence or transit to Grini.

[3][8] The internal administration of the camp was also largely entrusted to prisoners, a technique commonly used by Nazi Germany to cut down on expenditure and encourage discipline.

Jobs carried out by inmates included cooking, washing, enrolment of new arrivals, and organisation of work teams.

[3][8] In December 1944, the head of the SD and SiPo in Bergen, Ernst Weimann, declared that the guards were too friendly and initiated a shakeup of the facility.

[3][8] In March 1945, SS-Oberscharführer Ludwig Runzheimer began in the position of task-force leader at Espeland, and introduced a draconian regime.

He made exhaustive punitive exercises a daily affair, not taking age or health into account, and several inmates suffered injuries and trauma as a result.

Conditions improved gradually: single-cell barracks were converted into communal ones, leisure activities were provided, and a mess-hall was built.

[3][10] On 25 October 1948, the remaining inmates held for treason were transferred elsewhere and the prison was tasked with holding the 60 Germans serving sentences for war crimes in Norway.

An attempt was initiated by a group of private investors and mayor of Arna, Erling Mjelde, to have the camp reserved for educational and archival purposes.