Sjåbakkenhuset, or better known as «Sjit helvedes kåken», made history with Anton Sjåbakken's famous letter to the Kåfjord construction office in Olderdalen in 1949. Today, the house is a tourist attraction in Manndalen.
Published 9 August 2016
«I'll be damned if I'm going to pay 2,700 for that shack,» was Anton Sjåbakken's clear answer to the authorities when they wanted to collect this amount for the materials he had used to build the shack.
Background information
Kåfjord municipality was the southernmost municipality to be burned by the Germans in 1944, and the people were forcibly evacuated. After the war, they returned to a burnt-down village. Some lived in caves and huts, some dug out dirt cellars and some built makeshift houses from planks, crates and whatever materials they could find from the Germans. Anton Sjåbakken, a fisherman's farmer, also built his makeshift hut with materials he was given. He lived here with his mother.
Three years later, the authorities demanded that the war victims pay for the materials. Those who did not pay would be deprived of war damage compensation, they threatened. Sjåbakkenhuset was valued at NOK 2,700, which at the time was equivalent to a year's salary. Naturally, the demands set people's anger boiling, but Sjåbakken was the only one to protest against the demand with the following letter to the authorities:
Sjåbakken's letter to the Kåfjord construction office.
Sjåbakken's letter to the Kåfjord construction office.
«To
Kåfjord Construction Office, Olderdalen
For the first
You don't need to tell me to get in touch with the house bank, because I know what I'm doing. Secondly. I don't want to be a slave to the state. The Finnmark Office will pay me the rest of my war injury. As soon as the fan can hope. And I'll give the rest of it to you, build or don't build, because I'm not a sugar daddy who can be fucked, because we've been fucked enough before.
And they can come any day, and take the hell out of it, because I don't want any leftovers from Finnmarkskontor.
Just as long as my war injury isn't used for cigarette money.
Pay out what belongs to me, and the rest will keep your nose clean.
Anton Sjåbakken Samuelsberg
There's no way in hell I'd agree to pay 2,700 for that bloke.
Photo: Ørjan Marakatt Bertelsen
Tourist attraction
Sjåbakken never took out a loan to build a new house, and thus never became a slave to the state. Nor did he ever pay the claim, and it is not known whether he was deprived of his war injury compensation. There are many oral histories surrounding the rebel and communist Sjåbakken. The house has come to symbolise the little man's struggle against the big state, as well as the Sami rebellion against the Norwegian state.
NRK with presenter Linda Eide praised the hut as a Norwegian tourist attraction in the programme «Norwegian attraction» 2008.
Today, the house has been restored with support from the Sami Parliament and Troms County Council, among others, and opened as a tourist attraction in 2009.
You can book guiding and guided tours in Sjit helvedes kåken by sending email to: post@nordligefolk.no or call phone: 473 70 934.
