tage transports to Germany. In late November 1941, Edvard Nyberg, Ernst Wollweber and others produced a mine to be attached to the ore cars. Nyberg was caught, was fired from LKAB and spent 3� years in prison. Upon his release, he founded Nybergs Mekaniska Verkstad which is still one of Kiruna's biggest companies.
Germany requested from Sweden use of the railway network to transport military equipment, but the Swedish government agreed only to transitering av human karakt�r, men ej under h�ll till stridande trupp (transit of humanitarian character, but no maintenance of fighting soldiers). Germany argued that, now that Norway was occupied, the German soldiers there were no longer fighting, and thus transported a large amount of military equipment, ammunition and, secretly, troops from south to north Norway, via Malmbanan and Kiruna. Troops were often transported in transports declared as material transports. Despite being strictly against the rules, there was considerable interaction between the German soldiers and the Swedish locals, including trading and football matches.
During the war, up to 2000 refugees from 20 different countries were kept in Kiruna. Also German prisoners of war, for example from crashed airplanes, were kept in Kiruna before being transported south. However, small-scale sabotage, such as sand in the engines, was also common and loose weapons often ended up at the bottom of the Luossaj�rvi lake, next to the railway stop.
North of Tornetr�sk, at Kaivare, a radio base Kari was built in secrecy and used by the Norwegian resistance. It was also used for the smuggling of arms to Norway and refugees from Norway.
Post-war
In 1948, Kiruna gained city rights and started to receive large amounts of money from the mine. The city centre was renovated starting it 1953; most buildings built before 1920 were demolished and replaced, and many of the current buildings were built in the following period. The town grew
