In the morning of 27 April 1940, the camp was evacuated due to German forces advancing in the area, and the prisoners were marched westwards across the mountains to Sogn.
Fighting ensued across large areas of the country, and German military personnel started falling into Norwegian hands.
[1] The task of establishing a more permanent facility for German prisoners-of-war in Eastern Norway was given to the 66-year-old Lieutenant Colonel Lars Dannevig.
The lieutenant colonel had made his way to still neutral Sweden and then northwards by car and train until recrossing the border at Nybergsund on 13 April.
[1] After organizing the defences in the Trysil area, and initially being given the task of leading Danish and Swedish volunteer troops in action, Dannevig was ordered by Colonel Hans Sommerfeldt Hiorth to set up a prisoner-of-war camp for up to 200 German captives.
[3] Using local volunteers and conscripts, Lieutenant Colonel Dannevig had the school fitted out as a prison camp and trenches dug in the vicinity.
[3] Barbed wire fences surrounded the school and fighting positions and shrapnel shelters were built from timber at the site of the camp.
[5] Lom prisoner of war camp sorted under the Norwegian 2nd Division, led by General Jacob Hvinden Haug.
[7] As Luftwaffe air attack posed a constant risk drills were held in manning the trenches at the camp and in shooting at aircraft.
With the latest additions to the camp population it consisted of six officers, 100 soldiers, four female personnel, 35 German prisoners-of-war and five Norwegian prisoners.
[13][Note 1] The Fallschirmjäger prisoners held at Lom had been captured after having been shot down by Norwegian ground fire en route to attacking the rail road junction of Dombås on 14 April 1940.
[17] Normann's decision on 15 April to evacuate the aircraft under his command to neutral Sweden furthered the suspicions against him and led to his arrest.
[21] Dannevig decided to evacuate the camp and march his troops and prisoners over the mountains to join the Norwegian 4th Division in Sogn.
After a failed attempt at escaping across the North Sea to the United Kingdom, Dannevig was arrested by the Gestapo in 1942 and killed during interrogation in Trondheim.