The village is located on the island of Sotra, about 39 kilometres (24 miles) southwest of the city of Bergen.

On 26 April 1942, after having discovered that some of the inhabitants of Telavåg were hiding two men from the Linge company, Arne Meldal Værum and Emil Gustav Hvaal, the Gestapo arrived to arrest the Norwegian officers.

Reichskommissar Josef Terboven personally oversaw the Nazi reprisal, which was quick and brutal.

18 Norwegian prisoners (unrelated to Telavåg) held at the Trandum internment camp were also executed as a reprisal.

Though smaller in scale, this atrocity is often compared to similar events at Lidice in the Czech Republic and Oradour-sur-Glane in France.