During the Second World War, approximately 7100 Poles brought in by the Organisation Todt and about 1800 prisoners of war of Polish nationality brought in by the Germans from the German Reich in the spring of 1942 were employed in the Norwegian territory. They worked on the construction of fortifications, bunkers, bases for submarines and other military infrastructure. Some of them died or were shot dead by the occupying forces. During the commemoration of Polish graves, carried out by the Norwegians in the autumn of 1954, the found burials of deceased prisoners of war and forced labourers of Polish nationality were exhumed from various places in Norway and transferred to cemeteries in Oslo, Trondheim and Hakvik. The remains of ten Poles were deposited in Moholt cemetery on the outskirts of Trondheim, the personalities of four of whom could not be established. On the outskirts of Trondheim, the burial places of Jan Rogalski, Henryk Pietras, Antoni Dąbrowski, Antoni Komorniczak and Tadeusz Franczyk were found. Stanislaw Balicki was originally buried in Overhalla in the Trøndelag region next to a Russian and a German, all three were exhumed and moved to sites designated for the burial of the dead according to their nationality. The arrangement of the mass grave in Moholt cemetery was designed by sculptor Gunnar Janson in 1957. He gave it the shape of a rectangular block, on which he placed the flaming torch motif, which is often found on Norwegian graves. An inscription in Polish and Norwegian was engraved on the monument: "TO THE MEMORY OF 10 POLISH CITIZENS WHO LOST THEIR LIVES / IN NORWAY DURING THE WAR YEARS 1940-45 AND WERE BURIED HERE". Individual plaques were placed at the foot of the monument, six of which bear the names of those buried. The cost of erecting the monuments on the Polish war graves in Norway arranged at the same time was borne by the Norwegian state. The unveiling ceremony took place centrally at the cemetery in Hakvik on 28 July 1957. Later, a metal crucifix and crowned eagle were placed on the memorial in Trondheim.