Norway commemorates 2011 terror victims with new memorial in Oslo

Terror attack with 77 fatalities

Survivor Hanne Aukrup-Waagen was 17 years old at the time of the massacre and is among those who were on Utøya that day. She is now 32 and studies law. After her Abitur she moved to Berlin, lived in Germany for five years, and says she speaks good German. She described the new memorial with the words: „Es ist groß, es ist monumental."

The memorial consists of 300,000 small stones. The design reflects a bird from Utøya in the water. Hanne and other survivors placed some of these stones themselves. Hanne wrote her name on one stone, on another „Wir geben nie auf" and on a third „Das Mädchen in Gummistiefeln", the title of her first play, which premiered this spring. The play is about growing up and finding yourself with a trauma of this kind. Hanne explained her choice of format: „Weil das Trauma im Körper sitzt - deswegen haben wir eigentlich das Theater als Format gewählt."

Memory in stone: The new memorial

In interviews, Hanne spoke about the physical traces of what she experienced. She struggled for a long time with so-called survivor's shame — the feeling of having let down the others, the dead. The rubber boots she had bought in Oslo before departing for the summer camp remained on the island because, in the pouring rain, she could no longer put them on when she hid. It was not until 13 years after the attack, on her 30th birthday, that she bought herself new rubber boots. Hanne said of this: „Der Körper erinnert sich an sein Leben, sozusagen, und trägt alles mit sich, was ich je erlebt habe. Und auch so starke Gefühle wie Lebensgefahr sitzen im Körper. Es geht nicht weg."

With regard to the consequences of right-wing extremist violence, Prime Minister Støre called for continuing to speak openly about what happened. He said: „Wir müssen weiterhin offen und ehrlich darüber sprechen, was geschehen ist, über die Motive des Terroristen, seine Herkunft, die Folgen von Rechtsextremismus, Hass und Verachtung der Demokratie." He added: „Wir müssen weiter sprechen."

Appeals against right-wing extremism and hatred

Skjervø criticized the fact that survivors are confronted with hatred on social networks. In his speech at the commemoration he said: „Norwegen trauert seit 15 Jahren." Hanne, too, who for a long time after the attack gave up her involvement in the Labor Party's youth organization, is today part of the work of remembrance. With her play and the writing of individual memorial stones, she makes a visible contribution to the collective process of coming to terms with what happened.

National trauma and collective remembrance

The attacks in Oslo and Utøya are described in Norway as a national trauma. According to the wishes of its initiators, the new memorial is intended to provide a place of mourning while also keeping alive the memory of the 77 victims — among them eight people who died in the government quarter and 69 young people on Utøya, many of whom had only just begun their lives.

With the inauguration of the memorial, the reading of the names, the church service at Oslo Cathedral, and the remembrance ceremony on Utøya, Norway is sending a broad signal of commemoration on the 15th anniversary. The words of the speakers make clear that the confrontation with right-wing extremism and solidarity with the survivors are not concluded, even fifteen years after the acts.