Prison director Anders Daae took the initiative in founding a private institution in Trøndelag, to be modeled after similar schools in Europe.

It was explicitly originated to serve the needs of the "misguided" (Norwegian: vanartede) rather than criminal youth through education, labor, and a "Christian spirit.

In 1921, there was another fire, and the new brick structures that followed were based on 19th century prison designs, with a courtyard in the middle of a rectangular building.

[3] Nazi German authorities first visited Falstad in August 1941 with the hope of making it a center for the Lebensborn program in Norway, but found it unsuitable for this task.

[4] The inhabitants of Ekne were put under severe restrictions, and the first prisoners arrived—about 170 Danes who had volunteered and then reneged on being a part of the Todt Organisation.

The Danish inmates spent three months in the camp, using the time to start construction of the barbed wire fence and watch towers.

[5] Within the command structure of the German occupying authorities in Norway, Falstad came under the civilian authority of Reichskommissar Josef Terboven through Wilhelm Rediess, who was in charge of all German police, including the SS and Gestapo, and Heinrich Fehlis, who was "Befehlshaber der Sicherheitspolizei und des Sicherheitsdienst," conveniently abbreviated to BdS.

For all practical purposes, however, Falstad became the personal prison of Gerhard Flesch, who was the leader of the regional Einsatzkommando V, with the title KdS Drontheim.

The camp commanders used the nearby forest (Falstadskogen) as a site for extrajudicial executions of POWs, and following show trials of political and Jewish prisoners.