Norway

Breivik-attack: Norway’s silent pain

Five years ago, the law killed Breivik extremist in Norway, 77 people, including 69 teenagers. The shock is over, but the memories weigh still hard, writes the journalist Hannelore Hippe.

Deutsche Welle: Ms. Hippe, they were on the day of the attacks by Anders Behring Breivik, on 22. July 2011, in Norway. How have you and your Norwegian friends witnessed the events at that time?

Hannelore Hippe: I used to stand like all Norwegians are in shock. We were stunned and didn’t really understand what’s going on there. What is not understood by the Norwegians at all, was that such an act has been calculated in your country and of your countrymen committed. Because of their self-identity as the Norwegian society is open and tolerant.

You have found the answers, why come to it in a country in which tolerance and openness are to be lived as a fact?

Due to the occupation by the Nazis in the Second world war in Norway there are almost no neo-Nazis. It is a so-called Anti-Jihad scene, which is primarily hostile to Islam. Journalists from Norway, the more intense with the right scene in your country, are of the view that it is rather a coincidence, that such an act has taken place in Norway. Their view of the case, Breivik must be seen in the context of a much larger radical right-wing scene, which has contacts in Europe and in the United States. Which means that it could come at any time elsewhere, again to such a fact.

If Breivik’s act was motivated by nationalism and xenophobia, why has he chosen then, of all things, the youth camp of the social Democrats on the holiday island of Utøya as a target, and target children and young people killed?

In his opinion, the then-ruling social Democrats have operated a policy of all-out assault on Christian or European values, by the equality of other cultures and religions, especially of Islam. For him, the labour party was responsible for the fact that immigrants came into the country. By Breivik, members of the youth organization killed the social Democrats, he wanted to prevent that they can eventually ascend to the leading positions of the party, the same policy will continue.

House on Utøya – in the Meantime, the island is used as a summer camp

What were the impacts of the attacks on the Norwegian society? Has changed in the country since then?

The Norwegian society has changed, not massive or obvious. It is still very open. And in the past two, three years, in the public media, hardly any topics raised, which might darken this image. Critical voices on topics such as immigration, asylum seekers and multi-cultural society, have disappeared from the public media. These issues have been on the Internet, or better into the “Dark Net” is displaced.

Nevertheless, the right-wing populist progress party, the member of which Breivik was for a period of time is involved, since the last election in 2013 to the government. There has been a shift to the right in Norway?

The media in Norway, to deny the. In your opinion, Breivik, the Norwegian society more United in the fight against the Right, and in the fight for democracy, for transparency and openness.

How does Norway, with the memory of the terrible event?

On (today’s) 22. July there will be memorial celebrations in Oslo and on Utøya, probably also in other places of the country. But it’s not a huge thing. In the everyday life of the mass murder Breivik is only a little present. The court’s judgment as to his conditions of detention in April, has brought the memories back. Following the judgment, against which the Norwegian state has appealed, there was a big public debate.

What was the reaction to the judgment of the Oslo court, which stated that the isolation detention of Anders Behring Breivik Convention, article 3, constitutes a violation of human rights in Geneva?

There was a very great outrage. One wondered how this mass murderer who killed in cold blood 77 people, may presume, many of them children and teenagers, to talk of human dignity? And against the Background that he has a privileged accommodation in three cells.

Action against the conditions of detention: Anders Behring Breivik (right) in April in the court room

A public debate about the planned memorial on the island of Utøya. Why has postponed the realization of the memorial again?

There is massive criticism of the concept of the Swedish artist Jonas Dahlberg, who wants to separate a tongue of land, and as a symbolic wound. In particular, the inhabitants of the island are disturbed by the concept. You say: “We live with these memories, do not want to endure this sight, but every day.” You want a different Form of memorial. This controversy is not solved until today. It is apparently still difficult, with the events of that time to deal and to be the Victims and justice to all Parties.

The author and journalist Hannelore Hippe since 1996 she lives part of the year in Norway. For your ARD-Feature “Norway Zero hour” deals intensively with the attacks by Breivik and was trying to find, among other things, the question of whether the act is an expression of a new aggressive nationalism and xenophobia in Norwegian society.

The Interview was conducted by Wulf Wild.