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The case was revived by local resident Joel Nordkvist, who describes himself as “very interested in history.”
– This is a restoration of a historical insult, he tells TT.
Between 1915 and 1988, the Frösön State Psychiatric Hospital received patients from all over Norrland.
When the corona pandemic broke out last spring, a colleague told Joel Nordkvist, in a conversation about the Spanish flu analogy, that in the early 1980s he learned of the common grave from the hospital. The colleague then worked as a cemetery worker at the Western Frösön Cemetery.
Until now unconfirmed
Joel Nordkvist started with the chores, but was immediately stuck. There was nothing in the Frösö parish archives about the patients from the mental hospital. And none of the best local historians knew about the mass grave.
A breakthrough came when he discovered that the patients belonged to his own congregation within the hospital. When it was closed, the parish archive ended up in the National Archive. There, Joel Nordkvist managed to confirm the story.
The Spanish disease spread through the women’s ward and spread throughout the hospital in the fall of 1918. In a few months, 58 patients died, according to the hospital’s death and funeral book, which contains information on the names of the patients, place of residence and date of burial.
Anonymous destination
– There were many funerals on the same day. On a Sunday in November, 14 patients were buried and just over a week later another 10, says Joel Nordkvist, a local politician.
The file also shows that ten bodies were sent to the parishes of origin. Others awaited the anonymous mass grave.
– It is likely that the relatives received death certificates but no information about where they had been buried, says Joel Nordkvist.
– I think the reason why they did what they did was unfortunately a sanitation issue. The bodies lie down and you have to do something.
Closed environment
Another explanation, believes Joel Nordkvist, is the vision of patients in psychiatry at the time.
– At that time, the hospital was a community unto itself. Not much was happening inside the falling walls.
Now he is happy to be able to bring to life the memory of the people buried en masse.
– A list of the dead has been published and relatives have heard of it. And I was a little hopeful that relatives could get an answer, Joel Nordkvist tells TT.
Lars Pedersen / TT
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