By Nimrod Nir
PARADISE FOUND An aerial view of Pyramiden. The Soviets purchased this land from Sweden in 1927, then turned it into a settlement, sending men, women and children to tame the Arctic frontier.
PHOTOGRAPHS BY MARKUS ROHRBACHER
THINGS GET STRANGER THE FARTHER AWAY YOU are from home, and wherever you come from, there’s nowhere farther than the North Pole. That’s where Longyearbyen is located. It somehow resides on an Arctic Ocean archipelago called Svalbard. More than 2,000 residents live here, including hundreds of children who were rescued from abusive homes. Everyone here is subject to Norwegian law—and some bizarre restrictions, including one that prohibits death.