On 2nd September 1941, while the people of Svalbard were being evacuated by Allied and Russian Forces, coal miner and pacifist, Anders Halvorsen took some food and water, then crawled beneath the floorboards of a barracks and hid.
Following Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union, Allied forces launched and operation put the coal mines out of operation and destroy anything of strategic value to Germany.
Soviet citizens were sent to Arkhangelsk and Norwegian citizens were brought to Scotland and then dispersed to other areas of Great Britain.
After leaving the barracks, he headed towards an abandoned mine. When he returned, the settlements were empty. The mining infrastructure had been disabled, the cableways which carried coal from the mines, destroyed. coal stocks were burning and the radio stations had stopped transmitting.
He walked around the deserted settlement and began the tasks of caretaking. He closed the doors, started to clean up and carried out the tasks to prepare for the possibility that people would return.
Halvorsen's solitude lasted only a few weeks. German reconnaissance aircraft discovered that Svalbard had been evacuated and spotted the lone miner below. He was flown back to occupied mainland Norway.
For those few weeks in September 1941, he was the only person left in Svalbard.
Many of those evacuated in 1941 never returned.
Image: The Svalbard Museum