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The 2011 Norway attacks, referred to in Norway as 22 July ( no, 22. juli) or as 22/7,
were two domestic terrorist attacks by neo-Nazi
Anders Behring Breivik
Fjotolf Hansen (born 13 February 1979), better known by his birth name Anders Behring Breivik () and by his pseudonym Andrew Berwick, is a Norwegian far-right domestic terrorist, known for committing the 2011 Norway attacks on 22 July 2011. On ...
against the government, the civilian population, and a
Workers' Youth League (AUF) summer camp, in which 77 people were killed.
The first attack was a
car bomb explosion in
Oslo
Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population ...
within
Regjeringskvartalet
Regjeringskvartalet (the Government Quarter) is a collection of buildings located in the centre of Norway's capital city Oslo, housing several offices for the Norwegian Government. The complex is situated approximately 300m northeast of the Pa ...
, the executive government quarter of
Norway
Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the ...
, at 15:25:22 (
CEST CEST or cest may refer to:
* Central European Summer Time (UTC+2), daylight saving time observed in the central European time zone
* Cognitive-Experiential Self-Theory
* Chemical Exchange Saturation Transfer, a subset of Magnetization transfer in ...
).
The bomb was placed inside a van
next to the
tower block
A tower block, high-rise, apartment tower, residential tower, apartment block, block of flats, or office tower is a tall building, as opposed to a low-rise building and is defined differently in terms of height depending on the jurisdicti ...
housing the office of the then
Prime Minister
A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...
Jens Stoltenberg
Jens Stoltenberg (born 16 March 1959) is a Norwegian politician who has been serving as the 13th secretary general of NATO since 2014. A member of the Norwegian Labour Party, he previously served as the 34th prime minister of Norway from 2000 to ...
.
The explosion killed eight people and injured at least 209 people, twelve severely.
The second attack occurred less than two hours later at a summer camp on the island of
Utøya
Utøya () is an island in the Tyrifjorden lake in Hole municipality, in the county of Viken, Norway. The island is , situated off the shore, by the E16 road, about driving distance south of Hønefoss, and northwest of Oslo city centre.
Ove ...
in
Tyrifjorden
Tyrifjorden (Lake Tyri) is a lake in Norway. It lies northwest of Oslo and is the nation's fifth largest lake with an area of 139 km2. It has a volume of 13 km3, is 295 meters deep at its deepest, and lies 63 meters above sea level. T ...
,
Viken
Viken may refer to:
*Viken, Scandinavia, a historical region
*Viken (county), a Norwegian county established in 2020
*Viken, Sweden, a bimunicipal locality in Skåne County, Sweden
*Viken (lake), a lake in Sweden, part of the part of the Göta cana ...
(former
Buskerud
Buskerud () is a former county and a current electoral district in Norway, bordering Akershus, Oslo, Oppland, Sogn og Fjordane, Hordaland, Telemark and Vestfold. The region extends from the Oslofjord and Drammensfjorden in the southeast to Ha ...
). The camp was organised by the AUF, the youth wing of the ruling Norwegian
Labour Party (AP). Breivik, dressed in a homemade police uniform and showing false identification,
took a ferry to the island and opened fire at the participants, killing 67
and injuring 32.
Among the dead were friends of Stoltenberg, and the stepbrother of Norway's crown princess
Mette-Marit.
The Utøya attack is the deadliest mass shooting by a lone individual in modern history.
The attack was the deadliest in Norway since
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
.
A survey found that one in four Norwegians knew someone affected.
The
European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been de ...
,
NATO
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...
and several countries expressed their support for Norway and condemned the attacks. The 2012
Gjørv Report
The Gjørv Report (''Gjørv-rapporten'' or ''NOU 2012: 14, Rapport fra 22. juli-kommisjonen'') is a report that was ordered by Norway's parliament, as a consequence of the 2011 Oslo bombing and the following Utøya massacre. The report was delive ...
concluded that Norway's police could have prevented the bombing and caught Breivik faster at Utøya, and that measures to prevent further attacks and "mitigate adverse effects" should have been implemented.
The
Norwegian Police
The Norwegian Police Service ( no, Politi- og lensmannsetaten) is the Norwegian national civilian police agency. The service dates to the 13th century when the first sheriffs were appointed, and the current structure established in 2003. It co ...
arrested Breivik, a 32-year-old Norwegian right-wing extremist,
on Utøya island
and charged him with both attacks.
His trial took place between 16 April and 22 June 2012 in
Oslo District Court
Oslo District Court ( no, Oslo tingrett) is a district court located in Oslo, Norway. This court is based at the Oslo Courthouse in the city of Oslo. The court serves the entire city of Oslo and the court is subordinate to the Borgarting Court of ...
, where Breivik admitted carrying out the attacks, but denied
criminal guilt and claimed the defence of
necessity
Necessary or necessity may refer to:
* Need
** An action somebody may feel they must do
** An important task or essential thing to do at a particular time or by a particular moment
* Necessary and sufficient condition, in logic, something that i ...
(). On 24 August, Breivik was convicted as charged and sentenced to 21 years of
preventive detention
Preventive detention is an imprisonment that is putatively justified for non- punitive purposes, most often to prevent (further) criminal acts.
Types of preventive detention
There is no universally agreed definition of preventive detention, and m ...
in prison, the maximum sentence allowed in Norway.
Preparation for the attacks
Breivik claims to have begun the planning of the terrorist acts in 2002, at the age of 23. He had participated for years in debates on Internet forums and spoken against Islam and immigration. He was preparing for the attacks from at least as early as 2009, though he concealed his violent intentions.
Failed attempt to buy weapons in Prague
Breivik spent six days in
Prague
Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and List of cities in the Czech Republic, largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 milli ...
in late August and early September 2010. Following his Internet inquiry, Breivik noted that "Prague is known for maybe being the most important transit site point for illicit drugs and weapons in Europe". Despite the fact that Prague has one of the lowest crime rates among European capitals, Breivik expressed reservations about his personal safety, writing that (before his trip there) he believed Prague to be a dangerous place with "many brutal and cynical criminals".
He hollowed out the rear seats of his
Hyundai Atos
The Hyundai Atos is a city car that was produced by the South Korean manufacturer Hyundai from 1997 until 2014. It was also marketed under the Atoz, Amica and Santro model names. From 1999, the Atos with a different rear fascia and restyled rea ...
in order to have enough space for the firearms he hoped to buy. After two days, he got a prospectus for a mineral extraction business printed, which was supposed to give him an alibi in case someone suspected him of preparing a terrorist attack.
He wanted to buy an
AK-47
The AK-47, officially known as the ''Avtomat Kalashnikova'' (; also known as the Kalashnikov or just AK), is a gas-operated assault rifle that is chambered for the 7.62×39mm cartridge. Developed in the Soviet Union by Russian small-arms d ...
-type assault rifle, a
Glock pistol
Glock is a brand of polymer- framed, short recoil-operated, locked-breech semi-automatic pistols designed and produced by Austrian manufacturer Glock Ges.m.b.H. The firearm entered Austrian military and police service by 1982 after it was ...
, hand-grenades and a
rocket-propelled grenade, stating that getting the latter two would be a "bonus".
Breivik had several fake police badges printed to wear with a police uniform, which he had acquired illegally on the Internet, and which he later wore during the attack.
Contrary to his expectations, he was unable to get any firearms in the Czech Republic, commenting that it was the "first major setback in
isoperation". In the end, he concluded that Prague was "far from an ideal city to buy guns", nothing like "what the BBC reported", and that he had felt "safer in Prague than in Oslo".
Arming in Norway and through the Internet
Originally, Breivik intended to try to obtain weapons in Germany or Serbia if his mission in Prague failed. The Czech disappointment led him to procure his weapons through legal channels.
He decided to obtain a
semi-automatic rifle
A semi-automatic rifle is an autoloading rifle that fires a single cartridge with each pull of the trigger, and uses part of the fired cartridge's energy to eject the case and load another cartridge into the chamber. For comparison, a bolt-a ...
and a Glock pistol legally in Norway, noting that he had a "clean criminal record, hunting license, and two guns (a
Benelli Nova
The Benelli Nova is a pump action shotgun, used for hunting and self-defense. It has a one-piece receiver and buttstock, made of steel-reinforced polymer.
Technical specifications
Two main models are available as well as one variant.
Hunting
Th ...
12 gauge pump-action shotgun
Pump action or slide action is a repeating firearm action that is operated manually by moving a sliding handguard on the gun's forestock. When shooting, the sliding forend is pulled rearward to eject any expended cartridge and typically to ...
and a
.308
The .308 Winchester is a smokeless powder rimless bottlenecked rifle cartridge widely used for hunting, target shooting, police, military, and personal protection applications globally. It is similar but not identical to the 7.62×51mm NATO ...
bolt-action rifle
Bolt-action is a type of manual firearm action that is operated by ''directly'' manipulating the bolt via a bolt handle, which is most commonly placed on the right-hand side of the weapon (as most users are right-handed).
Most bolt-action ...
) already for seven years", and that obtaining the guns legally should therefore not be a problem.
![Mini14GB](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/18/Mini14GB.jpg)
Upon returning to Norway, Breivik obtained a legal permit for a
.223-caliber Ruger Mini-14 semi-automatic carbine, ostensibly for the purpose of hunting deer. He bought it in late 2010 for €1,400. He wanted to purchase a
7.62×39mm
The 7.62×39mm (aka 7.62 Soviet, formerly .30 Russian Short) round is a rimless bottlenecked intermediate cartridge of Soviet origin. The cartridge is widely used due to the worldwide proliferation of Russian SKS and AK-47 pattern rifles, as ...
Ruger Mini-30 semi-automatic carbine, but decided for unknown reasons to buy the Mini-14.
Getting a permit for the pistol proved more difficult, as he had to demonstrate regular attendance at a sport shooting club.
He also bought ten 30-round magazines for the rifle from a United States supplier, and six magazines for the pistol (including four 30-round magazines) in Norway. From November 2010 to January 2011 he went through 15 training sessions at the Oslo Pistol Club, and by mid-January his application to purchase a
Glock
Glock is a brand of polymer-Receiver (firearms), framed, Recoil operation#Short recoil operation, short recoil-operated, locked-breech semi-automatic pistols designed and produced by Austrian manufacturer Glock Ges.m.b.H., Glock Ges.m.b.H. The ...
pistol was approved.
Breivik claimed in his manifesto that he bought 300 g of
sodium nitrate from a Polish shop for €10.
The Polish
ABW interviewed the company owner on 24 July 2011.
Breivik's Polish purchases initially led to his being placed on the watch list of the Norwegian intelligence, which did not act because they did not believe his actions were relevant to their terror concerns.
He had also planned a last religious service (in
Frogner Church
Frogner Church ( no, Frogner kirke) is a parish church in the Frogner borough of the city of Oslo, Norway. The congregation is part of the Oslo arch-deanery within the Diocese of Oslo in the Church of Norway.
History
Frogner Church was designed ...
, Oslo) before the attack.
Breivik Geofarm
On 18 May 2009, Breivik created a sole proprietorship called ''Breivik Geofarm'', a company established under the fictitious purpose of cultivating vegetables, melons, roots and tubers. The real purpose was to gain access to
chemical
A chemical substance is a form of matter having constant chemical composition and characteristic properties. Some references add that chemical substance cannot be separated into its constituent elements by physical separation methods, i.e., w ...
s and materials, especially
fertiliser
A fertilizer (American English) or fertiliser (British English; see spelling differences) is any material of natural or synthetic origin that is applied to soil or to plant tissues to supply plant nutrients. Fertilizers may be distinct from ...
that could be used for the production of
explosives without arousing suspicion.
The place of business was given as
Åmot
Åmot is a municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Østerdalen. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Rena. Other villages in the municipality include Åsta, Osneset, an ...
in
Hedmark
Hedmark () was a county in Norway before 1 January 2020, bordering Trøndelag to the north, Oppland to the west, Akershus to the south, and Sweden to the east. The county administration is in Hamar.
Hedmark and Oppland counties were merged int ...
. On 4 May 2011, Breivik purchased of fertiliser through Geofarm at
Felleskjøpet, of
ammonium nitrate
Ammonium nitrate is a chemical compound with the chemical formula . It is a white crystalline salt consisting of ions of ammonium and nitrate. It is highly soluble in water and hygroscopic as a solid, although it does not form hydrates. It is ...
and of
calcium ammonium nitrate. According to neighbours, all the fertiliser was stored in his barn. After conducting a reconstruction of the bomb with equivalent amount of fertiliser on the farm in Åmot, police and bomb experts concluded that the bomb had been , about the same size as the one used in the
2002 Bali bombings
The 2002 Bali bombings occurred on 12 October 2002 in the tourist district of Kuta on the Indonesian island of Bali. The attack killed 202 people (including 88 Australians, 38 Indonesians, 23 Britons, and people of more than 20 other national ...
. Afterwards there was significant debate in Norway about how an amateur could acquire such substantial amounts of fertiliser and manufacture and place such a lethal weapon in the middle of
Regjeringskvartalet
Regjeringskvartalet (the Government Quarter) is a collection of buildings located in the centre of Norway's capital city Oslo, housing several offices for the Norwegian Government. The complex is situated approximately 300m northeast of the Pa ...
all by himself. The conclusion by
Felleskjøpet was that there is no legislation to keep agricultural businesses from buying as much fertiliser as they like, and that there was nothing suspicious about Breivik's purchase. This was confirmed by the director of the
Norwegian Police Security Service
The Norwegian Police Security Service (, ) is the police security agency of Norway. The agency was previously known as ''POT'' (' or Police Surveillance Agency), the name change was decided by the Parliament of Norway on 2 June 2001.
History a ...
,
Janne Kristiansen, who stated "not even the
Stasi could have prevented this attack".
The company listed at least two Swedish employees on the social networking site Facebook, but it is uncertain whether these people existed.
In April 2011, he reported moving from Oslo to Vålstua farm in the municipality of Åmot, about south of the community centre Rena, on the east side of Glomma. His agricultural company was run from the farm, and gave him access to ingredients for explosives.
His car bomb exploded in central Oslo on 22 July 2011, where it killed eight people.
He had between of additional material that was left on the farm and could be used for construction of a second bomb.
Weapons training
Beside visiting firing ranges and countries with relaxed gun laws to sharpen his skill, Breivik's manifesto says that he made use of the video game ''
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2'' as a training aid while using ''
World of Warcraft
''World of Warcraft'' (''WoW'') is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) released in 2004 by Blizzard Entertainment. Set in the ''Warcraft'' fantasy universe, ''World of Warcraft'' takes place within the world of Azeroth ...
'' as a
cover
Cover or covers may refer to:
Packaging
* Another name for a lid
* Cover (philately), generic term for envelope or package
* Album cover, the front of the packaging
* Book cover or magazine cover
** Book design
** Back cover copy, part of co ...
for his extended period of isolation. He also said that he honed his shooting skills using an in-game
holographic sight
A holographic weapon sight or holographic diffraction sight is a non- magnifying gunsight that allows the user to look through a glass optical window and see a holographic reticle image superimposed at a distance on the field of view. The hologram ...
similar to the one he used during the attacks.
Oslo car bombing
On 22 July 2011, at 15:25:22 (
CEST CEST or cest may refer to:
* Central European Summer Time (UTC+2), daylight saving time observed in the central European time zone
* Cognitive-Experiential Self-Theory
* Chemical Exchange Saturation Transfer, a subset of Magnetization transfer in ...
) a bomb detonated in
Regjeringskvartalet
Regjeringskvartalet (the Government Quarter) is a collection of buildings located in the centre of Norway's capital city Oslo, housing several offices for the Norwegian Government. The complex is situated approximately 300m northeast of the Pa ...
, central Oslo.
The bomb was placed in a white
Volkswagen Crafter
The Volkswagen Crafter, introduced in 2006, is the largest three- to five-ton van produced and sold by the German automaker Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles. The Crafter officially replaced the Volkswagen Transporter LT that was launched in 1975, ...
and parked in front of the ''H block'', housing the
Office of the Prime Minister,
Ministry of Justice and the Police, and several other governmental buildings, such as the
Ministry of Petroleum and Energy
The Royal Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum and Energy ( no, Olje- og energidepartementet) is a Norwegian ministry responsible for energy, including petroleum and natural gas production in the North Sea. It is led by Minister of Petroleum and Energy ...
(''R4''),
Ministry of Finance A ministry of finance is a part of the government in most countries that is responsible for matters related to the finance.
Lists of current ministries of finance
Named "Ministry"
* Ministry of Finance (Afghanistan)
* Ministry of Finance and Ec ...
(''G block''),
Ministry of Education and Research (''
Y block'') and the
Supreme Court of Norway
The Supreme Court of Norway ( Norwegian Bokmål: ''(Norges) Høyesterett''; Norwegian Nynorsk: ''(Noregs) Høgsterett''; lit. ‘Highest Court’) was established in 1815 on the basis of section 88 in the Constitution of the Kingdom of Norway, w ...
(behind the ''G block'').
The Crafter was registered by surveillance cameras as entering Grubbegata from Grensen at 15:13:23. The van stopped at 15:13:43, before the H block. It stood still with the hazard warning lamps on for 1 minute and 54 seconds. The driver then drove the last 200 metres and parked the van in front of the main entrance of the main government building. The van was parked at 15:16:30. The front door of the van opened 16 seconds later and after another 16 seconds the driver stepped out of the van. He stood outside the van for 7 seconds before quickly walking away towards Hammersborg torg, where he had another car parked.
The driver was dressed like a police officer and had a gun in his hand. A police helmet with a face shield was covering his face. Breivik was not positively identified.
The explosion started fires in the ''H block ()'' and ''R4'', and the shock wave blew out the windows on all floors as well as in the
''VG'' house and other buildings on the other side of the square.
The blast was caught on many security cameras. The streets in the area were filled with glass and debris. A cloud of white smoke was reported as a fire continued to burn at the Department of Oil and Energy. The blast was heard at least away.
[
At 15:26 the police received the first message about the explosion,] and at 15:28 the first police patrol reported arriving at the scene. At the same time, news agency NTB was told that the Prime Minister was safe and not hurt.
A witness called police at 15:34 to report a person in a police uniform holding a pistol in his hand, entering an unmarked vehicle, a Fiat Doblò
The Fiat Doblò is a panel van and leisure activity vehicle produced by Italian automaker Fiat since 2000. It was unveiled at the Paris Motor Show in October 2000. A second-generation Doblò succeeded the original vehicle in 2010 for most market ...
. Information—including the vehicle's licence plate number and description of the suspect—was written on a yellow note, and hand-delivered to the police operations central where it lay for twenty minutes before the witness was phoned back. The licence plate number was not transmitted on the police radio until two hours later.
Following the explosion, police cleared the area and searched for any additional explosive devices. Through media outlets, police urged citizens to evacuate central Oslo.
Police later announced that the bomb was composed of a mixture of fertiliser and fuel oil (ANFO
ANFO ( ) (or AN/FO, for ammonium nitrate/fuel oil) is a widely used bulk industrial explosive. It consists of 94% porous prilled ammonium nitrate (NH4NO3) (AN), which acts as the oxidizing agent and absorbent for the fuel, and 6% number 2 fue ...
), similar to that used in the Oklahoma City bombing
The Oklahoma City bombing was a domestic terrorism in the United States, domestic terrorist truck bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States, on April 19, 1995. Perpetrated by two anti-federal go ...
.
Impact on transportation
Immediately after the explosion, the area surrounding the damaged buildings was cordoned off and evacuated. People were asked to remain calm and leave the city centre if possible, but there was no general evacuation. The Oslo Metro
The Oslo Metro ( no, Oslo T-bane or or simply ) is the rapid transit system of Oslo, Norway, operated by Sporveien T-banen on contract from the transit authority Ruter. The network consists of five lines that all run through the city centre, w ...
remained operational, and most of the Oslo tram network was also running, although sporadically, except for the line through Grensen (the street between Prof. Aschehoug's plass and Stortorvet). Buses also continued to run, although at least one articulated bus on the No.37 line, which stops outside the Ministry of Finance, was commandeered to evacuate the walking wounded
In first aid and triage, the walking wounded are injured persons who are of a relatively low priority. These patients are conscious and breathing and will often have only relatively minor injuries; thus they are capable of walking. Depending on t ...
.
An e-mail communication with the BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
from a traveller indicated that police were conducting searches in suspicious cars on the road to
Oslo Airport, Gardermoen
Oslo Airport ( no, Oslo lufthavn; ), alternatively referred to as Oslo Gardermoen Airport or simply Gardermoen, is the international airport serving Oslo, Norway, the capital and most populous city in the country. A hub for Flyr, Norse Atl ...
,
which remained open.
The
Gardermoen Line
The Gardermoen Line ( no, Gardermobanen) is a high-speed railway line between Oslo and Eidsvoll, Norway, running past Lillestrøm and Oslo Airport, Gardermoen. The line is long and replaced the older Hoved Line as the main line north-east of O ...
between
Lillestrøm
Lillestrøm is a municipality in Viken county. It is located in the traditional district of Romerike. With a population of 85,757 inhabitants, it is the fourth most populated municipality in Viken. It was founded on 1 January 2020 as a merger be ...
and Oslo Airport was shut down after a suspicious package was found close to the tracks. The same happened at the offices of
TV 2 which were evacuated after a suspicious package was found outside the building.
Utøya mass shooting
Attack
Approximately one and a half hours after the Oslo explosion,
Breivik, dressed in a police uniform and presenting himself as "Martin Nilsen" from the Oslo Police Department,
boarded the ferry at
Utøykaia in
Tyrifjorden
Tyrifjorden (Lake Tyri) is a lake in Norway. It lies northwest of Oslo and is the nation's fifth largest lake with an area of 139 km2. It has a volume of 13 km3, is 295 meters deep at its deepest, and lies 63 meters above sea level. T ...
, a lake some northwest of Oslo, to the island of
Utøya
Utøya () is an island in the Tyrifjorden lake in Hole municipality, in the county of Viken, Norway. The island is , situated off the shore, by the E16 road, about driving distance south of Hønefoss, and northwest of Oslo city centre.
Ove ...
, the location of the
Norwegian Labour Party's AUF youth camp. The camp is held there every summer and was attended by approximately 600 teenagers.
When Breivik arrived on the island, he presented himself as a police officer who had come over for a routine check following the bombing in Oslo. He was met by Monica Bøsei, the camp leader and island hostess. Bøsei probably became suspicious and contacted Trond Berntsen, the security officer on the island, before Breivik killed them both. He then signalled and asked people to gather around him before pulling weapons and ammunition from a bag and firing indiscriminately,
killing and wounding numerous people. He first shot people on the island and later started shooting at people who were trying to escape by swimming across the lake. Survivors on the island described a scene of terror.
Survivor Dana Barzingi, then 21, described how several victims wounded by Breivik pretended to be dead, but he came back and shot them again.
[Survivors In Norway Describe Scenes Of Terror](_blank)
by ''NPR
National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...
'', 23 July 2011 He spared an 11-year-old boy who had lost his father (Trond Berntsen) during the shooting and stood up against him and said he was too young to die, as well as a 22-year-old man who begged for his life.
Some witnesses hid in undergrowth and lavatories, communicating by text message to avoid revealing their positions. The
mass shooting
There is a lack of consensus on how to define a mass shooting. Most terms define a minimum of three or four victims of gun violence (not including the shooter or in an inner city) in a short period of time, although an Australian study from 20 ...
lasted for around an hour and a half, ending when a police special task force arrived and Breivik surrendered, despite having ammunition left, at 18:35. The shooter used
hollow-point
upright=0.2, Cross-section of a hollow-point bullet; proportions are those of a .22 Long Rifle cartridge
Jacketed soft point (JSP) round. Right: Jacketed hollow-point (JHP) round. JSP is a semi-jacketed round as the jacket does not extend to ...
or
frangible bullets which increase tissue damage.
Breivik repeatedly shouted "You are going to die today,
Marxists!"
Bøsei's husband and one of her daughters, who were also present, survived. The youngest victim, New Zealand-born Sharidyn Svebakk-Bøhn of
Drammen
Drammen () is a city and municipality in Viken, Norway. The port and river city of Drammen is centrally located in the south-eastern and most populated part of Norway. Drammen municipality also includes smaller towns and villages such as Konne ...
, was 14 years old. 16-year-old Andrine Bakkene Espeland of
Sarpsborg
Sarpsborg ( or ), historically Borg, is a city and municipality in Viken county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the city of Sarpsborg.
Sarpsborg is part of the fifth largest urban area in Norway when paired with neigh ...
was the last victim, nearly one hour after the shooting began.
Residents in a flotilla of motorboats and fishing dinghies sailed out to rescue the survivors, who were pulled out shivering and bleeding from the water and picked up from hiding places in the bushes and behind rocks around the island's shoreline. Some survived by pretending to be dead. Several campers, especially those who knew the island well, swam to the island's rocky west side and hid in the caves which are only accessible from the water. Others were able to hide away on the secluded ''Kjærlighetsstien'' ("love path"). Forty-seven of the campers sought refuge in ''Skolestua'' ("the School House") together with personnel from the
Norwegian People's Aid
Norwegian People's Aid ( no, Norsk Folkehjelp) was founded in 1939 to provide post-conflict reconstruction assistance and humanitarian relief during conflicts. NPA is now engaged in more than 33 countries in de-mining, humanitarian relief, promot ...
. Although Breivik fired two bullets through the door, he did not get through the locked door, and the people inside this building survived.
The teenagers said that they had decided that it was too difficult to stop the gunman. They discovered a cave-like opening in a rock where they hid 23 children from Breivik. Dzhamayev, who kept guard outside, also dragged three youngsters from the lake who were close to drowning.
Former prime minister
Gro Harlem Brundtland
Gro Brundtland (; born Gro Harlem, 20 April 1939) is a Norwegian politician ( Arbeiderpartiet), who served three terms as the 29th prime minister of Norway (1981, 1986–89, and 1990–96) and as the director-general of the World Health Organizat ...
, whom Breivik said he hated and, in a pun on the (more or less ironic) epithet ''Landsmoderen'' ("mother of the nation"), referred to in his writings as ''landsmorderen'' ("murderer of the nation"), had been on the island earlier in the day to give a speech to the camp. After the attack, Breivik stated that he originally wanted to target her specifically; but because of delays related to the renovation of Oslo Central railway station, he arrived after she had already left.
Rescue and emergency response
The first shot was fired at 17:22.
The
emergency medical services
Emergency medical services (EMS), also known as ambulance services or paramedic services, are emergency services that provide urgent pre-hospital treatment and stabilisation for serious illness and injuries and transport to definitive care. ...
were informed about the shooting two minutes later.
One minute after that, the police in Oslo were informed.
They immediately tried to reach Utøya as quickly as possible,
but did not have a helicopter that could take them straight to the island. By 17:30,
Delta
Delta commonly refers to:
* Delta (letter) (Δ or δ), a letter of the Greek alphabet
* River delta, at a river mouth
* D ( NATO phonetic alphabet: "Delta")
* Delta Air Lines, US
* Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 that causes COVID-19
Delta may also ...
, the
police tactical unit in Oslo, were on the way to Utøya by automobile.
One of the first to arrive on the scene was
Marcel Gleffe
Marcel Gleffe (born 1979 in Teterow, Germany) is a German living in Norway who saved the lives of several people during the massacre on the island of Utøya. He became known in Germany as the "Saviour of Utøya" (''Retter von Utøya''). He was awa ...
, a German resident of
Ski
A ski is a narrow strip of semi-rigid material worn underfoot to glide over snow. Substantially longer than wide and characteristically employed in pairs, skis are attached to ski boots with ski bindings, with either a free, lockable, or partia ...
staying at
Utvika Camping on the mainland. Recognizing gunshots, he piloted his boat to the island and began throwing life-jackets to young people in the water, rescuing as many as he could in four or five trips, after which the police asked him to stop. ''
The Daily Telegraph
''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally.
It was f ...
'' credited him with saving up to 30 lives. Another forty were saved by Hege Dalen and Toril Hansen, a married couple on vacation in the area. Dalen was helping from land
while Hansen and a neighbour camper made several trips to rescue people in the water.
Several dozen more were rescued by Kasper Ilaug, who made three trips to the island. Ilaug, a local resident, received a telephone call that "something terrible" was happening on Utøya and requesting help. He initially thought the call was a prank, but acted anyway. Altogether, some 150 who swam away from the island were pulled out of the lake by campers on the opposite shore.
Delta reached the meeting point at 18:09, but had to wait a few minutes for a boat to take them across. They reached Utøya at 18:25. When confronted by the heavily armed police on the island, the gunman initially hesitated for a few seconds. When an officer yelled "surrender or be shot" he laid down his weapons.
Breivik called the
112 112 may refer to:
*112 (number), the natural number following 111 and preceding 113
*112 (band), an American R&B quartet from Atlanta, Georgia
**112 (album), ''112'' (album), album from the band of the same name
*112 (emergency telephone number), t ...
emergency phone number at least twice to surrender, at 18:01 and 18:26, and continued killing people in between. The police say Breivik hung up both times; they tried to call him back but did not succeed.
When the police arrived at the scene, they were met by survivors begging the officers to throw away their weapons, as they were afraid that the men in uniforms would again open fire on them.
During the attack, 69 people were killed, and of the 517 survivors, 66 were wounded.
Shortage of transport capacity
The Norwegian police did not have helicopters suitable for transporting groups of police for an airdrop. The one they had was useful only for surveillance and the helicopter crew were on leave.
[The TV crews saw what was happening before the police](_blank)
novinky.cz 26 July 2011. Retrieved 25 November 2011.
When the local police arrived at
Utøykaia, less than 30 minutes after the first shot was fired, they could not find a suitable boat to reach the island. They were then ordered to observe and report.
[I ordered the boat to Storøya](_blank)
ABC Nyheter. 29 October 2011. Retrieved 25 November 2011.
AUF's own ferry, the 50 passenger
MS ''Thorbjørn'', was used by Breivik to go to Utøya. Shortly after the first shot was fired, nine people were leaving the island on the ferry, among them the AUF leader
Eskil Pedersen. They feared there might be more terrorists in the area and navigated the ferry to the north. Hence the ferry was not available to the police when they arrived at Utøykaia, the normal ferry landing on the mainland.
The police therefore had to use their own
rigid-hulled inflatable boat
A rigid inflatable boat (RIB), also rigid-hull inflatable boat or rigid-hulled inflatable boat (RHIB), is a lightweight but high-performance and high-capacity boat constructed with a rigid hull bottom joined to side-forming air tubes that are i ...
(RHIB). The day of the event, this boat was located in Hønefoss, and had to be transported to the lake and launched before it could be used. When Delta boarded the RHIB it took on some water and after a few hundred metres, the engine stopped, probably due to water in the fuel. Two minutes later they took over a civilian boat that was sent to assist them. The episode was captured on video. A minute or two after the video ends, a faster civilian boat arrived to help. Four Delta officers boarded the boat. Not wanting to waste any more time, the civilian couple took the police to Utøya.
Some have criticised the police for not using a helicopter, for not immediately getting into small boats, and for endangering the couple who drove the civilian boat.
Arrest of innocent survivor
On arriving in Utøya, the police arrested, in addition to Breivik, Anzor Djoukaev, an innocent 17-year-old survivor who represented the
Akershus branch of
AUF. The youth was reportedly stripped naked and locked up in a jail cell, located only meters away from the cell housing the self-confessed killer.
[News report from AFP]
Survivor held for 17 hours after attack
, 13 August 2011. Retrieved 13 August 2011. The victim, who as a child had witnessed mass murders in
Chechnya, was suspected of being an accomplice because his haircut was different from that shown on his
identity document, and because he did not react to the carnage with the same tears and hysteria as most of the other survivors.
[Marianne Vikås et al.]
Utøya-offer kastet på glattcelle
(Norwegian), ''Verdens Gang'', 12 August 2011. Retrieved 13 August 2011. He was kept in custody for seventeen hours.
[ Lawyer ]Harald Stabell
Harald Stabell (16 January 1947 – 15 December 2018) was a Norwegian barrister.
He worked as a defender in Eidsivating Court of Appeal from 1990 to 1995 and in Borgarting Court of Appeal and Oslo City Court from 1995. Since 2005 he was a barri ...
criticised the police for failing to contact the youth's family, who feared he was killed, and for interrogating the victim without a lawyer present.[
]
Casualties
The attacks were the deadliest in Norway since World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
,[ and a survey found that one in four Norwegians knew someone affected by the attacks.] It is also the fifth deadliest terrestrial terrorist attack in Western Europe
Western Europe is the western region of Europe. The region's countries and territories vary depending on context.
The concept of "the West" appeared in Europe in juxtaposition to "the East" and originally applied to the ancient Mediterranean ...
behind the Bologna bombing in 1980, the Nice attack in 2016, the Paris attacks in November 2015, and the Madrid train bombings in 2004.
Oslo
Eight people were killed in the explosion; the blast, shock wave and debris immediately killed six people, while two others died quickly afterwards from their wounds. Of the 325 people estimated to have been in the government buildings, around them and in the surrounding area, at least 209 people received physical injuries from the blast and debris. While most were relatively minor and could be treated at the local casualty clinic, 12 people received more serious injuries. Ten were sent to Ullevål University Hospital (OUS, Ullevål), four with moderate to serious and six with critical injuries, and two to Aker University Hospital (OUS, Aker). A doctor at one of the Oslo University Hospitals (OUS) said the hospital staff were treating head, chest and abdominal wounds.
Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg was at his official residence near the Royal Palace, preparing the speech he was scheduled to give at Utøya the next day. Norway's finance minister, Sigbjørn Johnsen
Sigbjørn Johnsen (born 1 October 1950) is a Norwegian politician for the Labour Party and was Norwegian Minister of Finance in the periods 1990–1996 and 2009–2013.
He is a former member of parliament and served as County Governor of He ...
, was on vacation in Denmark at the time.
Fewer people than usual were in the area because the bombing took place during July, the usual holiday month for Norwegians, and since it was Friday afternoon, most government employees had gone home for the weekend.
Utøya
The scope of what happened at the island was initially very confusing, and the first official figures given was that at least 10 people had been killed. As the evening progressed several eyewitness reports put this number in doubt, and at approximately 03:50 (CEST CEST or cest may refer to:
* Central European Summer Time (UTC+2), daylight saving time observed in the central European time zone
* Cognitive-Experiential Self-Theory
* Chemical Exchange Saturation Transfer, a subset of Magnetization transfer in ...
) on 23 July, NRK1
NRK1 (pronounced as ''"NRK en"'' or ''"- ein"'') is the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation's (NRK) main television channel.
History
Test broadcasts started on 12 January 1954, regular test broadcasts started on 13 April 1958 and regular broadca ...
and TV2, the two primary Norwegian television networks, broadcast a live press conference from the "Sentrum politistasjon" in Oslo where Norway's National Police Commissioner Øystein Mæland stated the number of fatalities at Utøya to have reached "at least 80" with the count expected to increase.
On 25 July, a police spokesperson revealed that the death toll of the victims on Utøya had been revised downwards to 68 after the casualties had been counted on their return to the mainland. They added that the number of people missing was still high and that the number of casualties could be as high as 86. On 29 July police announced that one of the severely wounded victims from Utøya had died in hospital, bringing the death toll from the island massacre to 69.
On 26 July, the Norwegian police began releasing the names and dates of birth of the victims on their website. By 29 July, the names of all 77 victims (8 from the bomb attack, 69 from Utøya) had been published, the last, a shooting victim, having been found on the 28th.
Of the 69 people who died at the attack on the island, 57 were killed by one or more shots through the head. In total, 67 people were killed by gunshots, 1 died falling from a cliff trying to escape, and 1 drowned trying to swim away from the island. In total, Breivik fired at least 186 shots, and still had a "considerable amount of ammunition" left.
In the aftermath, of the 564 people on the island at the time, 69 people died and at least 110 people had received various physical injuries. An estimated 50 people were treated at the locally set up casualty clinic, and were treated for relatively minor injuries such as cuts, bruises and hypothermia
Hypothermia is defined as a body core temperature below in humans. Symptoms depend on the temperature. In mild hypothermia, there is shivering and mental confusion. In moderate hypothermia, shivering stops and confusion increases. In severe ...
after fleeing and swimming from the island. It was cloudy and rainy on Utøya that day, air temperature was varying between , water temperature around the island was and the shortest distance to the mainland was around 600 meters. Sixty people were transported to surrounding hospitals, 55 with serious to critical injuries. The chief surgeon who treated the wounds at one of the hospitals said he had never seen similar wounds during his 23 years of practice, and explained that the bullets were extremely fragmented in their path through the body. Thirty-three people had been directly hit by one or more bullets and survived, but one person who was shot died two days later in hospital from the bullet wounds to the head and back
The human back, also called the dorsum, is the large posterior area of the human body, rising from the top of the buttocks to the back of the neck. It is the surface of the body opposite from the chest and the abdomen. The vertebral column runs ...
.
The 564 people on the island at the time were from all over Norway as well as some visitors from foreign countries. The people who died were from 18 of Norway's 19 counties
A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesChambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...
, and also a woman from Georgia
Georgia most commonly refers to:
* Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia
* Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States
Georgia may also refer to:
Places
Historical states and entities
* Related to the ...
. Wounded people were from the entire country, including Svalbard, and together with the casualties from Oslo, an average of a quarter of Norway's population knew a victim affected by the attacks, according to a survey done. Several of the dead and wounded, or their parents, were personal friends of high-ranking government ministers. Trond Berntsen, an off-duty, unarmed police officer and step-brother of Norway's crown princess Mette-Marit, was the first to be shot dead.
Perpetrator
Public broadcaster NRK
NRK, an abbreviation of the Norwegian ''Norsk Rikskringkasting AS'', generally expressed in English as the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation, is the Norwegian government-owned radio and television public broadcasting company, and the largest ...
and several other Norwegian media outlets identified the suspected attacker as Anders Behring Breivik. He was arrested on Utøya for the shootings and also linked to the Oslo bombing. He was charged with terrorism for both attacks. According to his attorney, Breivik acknowledged that he was responsible for both the bomb and the shooting during interrogation but denied culpability, as he asserted that his actions were "atrocious but necessary". At his initial arraignment on 25 July, Breivik was remanded into custody for eight weeks, the first half to be in solitary confinement. Breivik wanted to have an open hearing, and attend it wearing a uniform of his own design, but both requests were denied by the presiding judge.
Mental health
Following his arrest, Breivik underwent examination by court-appointed forensic psychiatrist
Forensic psychiatry is a subspeciality of psychiatry and is related to criminology. It encompasses the interface between law and psychiatry. According to the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, it is defined as "a subspecialty of psychiat ...
s, who diagnosed him with paranoid schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by continuous or relapsing episodes of psychosis. Major symptoms include hallucinations (typically hearing voices), delusions, and disorganized thinking. Other symptoms include social w ...
and concluded he had been psychotic
Psychosis is a condition of the mind that results in difficulties determining what is real and what is not real. Symptoms may include delusions and hallucinations, among other features. Additional symptoms are incoherent speech and behavior t ...
at the time of the attacks and was criminally insane
The insanity defense, also known as the mental disorder defense, is an affirmative defense by excuse in a criminal case, arguing that the defendant is not responsible for their actions due to an episodic psychiatric disease at the time of the cr ...
. Although criticised in newspaper debates, the submitted report was approved with no remarks by the Norwegian Board of Forensic Medicine after an extended panel of experts had reviewed it.
According to his defence attorney, Breivik initially expressed surprise and felt insulted by the conclusions in the report. He later stated that "this provides new opportunities". Following the criticism of the psychiatric report, the court in January 2012 approved the conduct of a second psychiatric examination. The report from this examination declared Breivik to be sane in April 2012. Ultimately, the verdict and ruling of the district court's five-judge panel agreed that Breivik was sane.
Political and religious views
Breivik is linked to a 1,518-page compendium
A compendium (plural: compendia or compendiums) is a comprehensive collection of information and analysis pertaining to a body of knowledge. A compendium may concisely summarize a larger work. In most cases, the body of knowledge will concern a sp ...
entitled ''2083: A European Declaration of Independence'' bearing the name "Andrew Berwick".[ The file was e-mailed to 1,003 addresses about 90 minutes before the bomb blast in Oslo. Analysts described him as having ]Islamophobic
Islamophobia is the fear of, hatred of, or prejudice against the religion of Islam or Muslims in general, especially when seen as a geopolitical force or a source of terrorism.
The scope and precise definition of the term ''Islamophobia'' ...
views and a hatred of Islam, and as someone who considered himself as a knight dedicated to stemming Muslim immigration into Europe.
The introductory chapter of the manifesto defining "cultural Marxism
The term "Cultural Marxism" refers to a far-right antisemitic conspiracy theory which claims that Western Marxism is the basis of continuing academic and intellectual efforts to subvert Western culture. The conspiracy theory misrepresents the ...
" is a copy of ''Political Correctness: A Short History of an Ideology'' by the Free Congress Foundation. Major parts of the compendium are attributed to the pseudonymous Norwegian blogger Fjordman
Peder Are Nøstvold Jensen (born 11 June 1975) is a prominent Norwegian counter-jihad blogger who writes under the pseudonym Fjordman and who has been characterized as far-right and Islamophobic. Jensen wrote anonymously as Fjordman starting i ...
. The text also copies sections of the Unabomber manifesto
''Industrial Society and Its Future'', generally known as the ''Unabomber Manifesto'', is a 1995 anti-technology essay by Ted Kaczynski, the "Unabomber". The manifesto contends that the Industrial Revolution began a harmful process of natura ...
, without giving credit, while substituting the words "cultural Marxists" for "leftists" and "Muslims" for "black people". ''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' described American influences in the writings, noting that the compendium mentions the anti-Muslim American Robert Spencer 64 times and cites Spencer's works at great length. The work of Bat Ye'or
)
, birth_date =
, birth_place = Zamalek, Cairo, Egypt
, death_date=
, death_place=
, occupation = Writer
, nationality = British
, signature=
, alma_mater = University College LondonUniversity of Geneva
, genre=
, notableworks = '' The Declin ...
is cited dozens of times. Far-right and anti-Islam blogger Pamela Geller
Pamela Geller (born 1958) is an American anti-Muslim, far-right, political activist, blogger and commentator. Geller promoted birther conspiracy theories about President Barack Obama, saying that he was born in Kenya and that he is a Muslim. Sh ...
, Neo-pagan writer Koenraad Elst
Koenraad Elst (; born 7 August 1959) is a Flemish right wing Hindutva author, known primarily for his support of the Out of India theory and the Hindutva movement. Schola ...
and Daniel Pipes
Daniel Pipes (born September 9, 1949) is an American historian, writer, and commentator. He is the president of the Middle East Forum, and publisher of its ''Middle East Quarterly'' journal. His writing focuses on American foreign policy and the ...
are also mentioned as sources of inspiration. The manifesto further contains quotes from Middle East expert Bernard Lewis
Bernard Lewis, (31 May 1916 – 19 May 2018) was a British American historian specialized in Oriental studies. He was also known as a public intellectual and political commentator. Lewis was the Cleveland E. Dodge Professor Emeritus of Near ...
, Edmund Burke
Edmund Burke (; 12 January NS.html"_;"title="New_Style.html"_;"title="/nowiki>New_Style">NS">New_Style.html"_;"title="/nowiki>New_Style">NS/nowiki>_1729_–_9_July_1797)_was_an_NS.html"_;"title="New_Style.html"_;"title="/nowiki>New_Style">N ...
, Mahatma Gandhi
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure who transformed ... anti- ...
, Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809. He was previously the natio ...
and George Orwell, as well as from Jeremy Clarkson
Jeremy Charles Robert Clarkson (born 11 April 1960) is an English broadcaster, journalist, game show host and writer who specialises in motoring. He is best known for the motoring programmes '' Top Gear'' and '' The Grand Tour'' alongside R ...
's '' Sunday Times'' column and Melanie Phillips
Melanie Phillips (born 4 June 1951) is a British journalist, author, and public commentator. She began her career writing for ''The Guardian'' and ''New Statesman''. During the 1990s, she came to identify with ideas more associated with the righ ...
' '' Daily Mail'' column. The publication speaks in admiration of Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Ayaan Hirsi Ali (; ; Somali: ''Ayaan Xirsi Cali'':'' Ayān Ḥirsī 'Alī;'' born Ayaan Hirsi Magan, ar, أيان حرسي علي / ALA-LC: ''Ayān Ḥirsī 'Alī'' 13 November 1969) is a Somali-born Dutch-American activist and former politicia ...
, Bruce Bawer
Theodore Bruce Bawer (born October 31, 1956) is an American writer who has been a resident of Norway since 1999. He is a literary, film, and cultural critic and a novelist and poet, who has also written about gay rights, Christianity, and Islam.
...
, Srđa Trifković, and Henryk M. Broder
Henryk Marcin Broder (born 20 August 1946, self-designation Henryk Modest Broder) is a Polish-born German journalist, author, and TV personality.
Broder is known for polemics, columns, and comments in written and audiovisual media. Starting as ...
. The compendium advocates a restoration of patriarchy, which it claims would save European culture.
The compendium contains his militant far-right ideology and xenophobic
Xenophobia () is the fear or dislike of anything which is perceived as being foreign or strange. It is an expression of perceived conflict between an in-group and out-group and may manifest in suspicion by the one of the other's activities, a ...
worldview, which espouses an array of political concepts; including support for varying degrees of cultural conservatism
Cultural conservatism is described as the protection of the cultural heritage of a nation state, or of a culture not defined by state boundaries. It is usually associated with criticism of multiculturalism, and opposition to immigration. Cultu ...
, right-wing populism, ultranationalism
Ultranationalism or extreme nationalism is an Extremism, extreme form of nationalism in which a country asserts or maintains detrimental hegemony, Supremacism, supremacy, or other forms of control over other nations (usually through violent coerc ...
, Islamophobia
Islamophobia is the fear of, hatred of, or prejudice against the religion of Islam or Muslims in general, especially when seen as a geopolitical force or a source of terrorism.
The scope and precise definition of the term ''Islamophobia'' ...
, far-right Zionism
Zionism ( he, צִיּוֹנוּת ''Tsiyyonut'' after '' Zion'') is a nationalist movement that espouses the establishment of, and support for a homeland for the Jewish people centered in the area roughly corresponding to what is known in Je ...
, and Serbian paramilitarism. It regards Islam and "cultural Marxism
The term "Cultural Marxism" refers to a far-right antisemitic conspiracy theory which claims that Western Marxism is the basis of continuing academic and intellectual efforts to subvert Western culture. The conspiracy theory misrepresents the ...
" as the enemy and argues for the annihilation of "Eurabia
Eurabia is a political neologism, a portmanteau of Europe and Arabia, used to describe a far-right, anti-Muslim conspiracy theory, involving globalist entities allegedly led by French and Arab powers, to Islamise and Arabise Europe, thereby wea ...
" and multiculturalism
The term multiculturalism has a range of meanings within the contexts of sociology, political philosophy, and colloquial use. In sociology and in everyday usage, it is a synonym for " ethnic pluralism", with the two terms often used interchang ...
, to preserve a Christian Europe
Christendom historically refers to the Christian states, Christian-majority countries and the countries in which Christianity dominates, prevails,SeMerriam-Webster.com : dictionary, "Christendom"/ref> or is culturally or historically intertwine ...
. He further urged Europeans to restore the historic crusades
The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and sometimes directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The best known of these Crusades are those to the Holy Land in the period between 1095 and 1291 that were ...
against Islam as in the Middle Ages
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...
. A video Breivik released on YouTube 6 hours before the attack has been described as promoting violence towards leftists and Muslims who reside in Western Europe.
Among other things, in the manifesto he identified the Beneš Decrees, which facilitated the expulsion of Germans from Czechoslovakia after the Second World War, as an example for committing that act on European Muslims. In his manifesto he also urges the Hindus to drive Muslims out of India. He demands the gradual deportation of all Muslims from Europe from 2011 to 2083 through repatriation
Repatriation is the process of returning a thing or a person to its country of origin or citizenship. The term may refer to non-human entities, such as converting a foreign currency into the currency of one's own country, as well as to the pro ...
.[Norway Gunman Anders Behring Breivik Released Manifesto on the Web – Video and 1,500 page document](_blank)
The Last Refuge, 23 July 2011. He blames feminism for allowing the erosion of the fabric of European society.
Breivik's writings mention the English Defence League
The English Defence League (EDL) is a far-right, Islamophobic organisation in the United Kingdom. A social movement and pressure group that employs street demonstrations as its main tactic, the EDL presents itself as a single-issue movement ...
, claiming that he had contact with senior members of the EDL, and that a Norwegian version of the group was 'in the process of gaining strength'. He wrote that the EDL were 'naïve fools' because in his words the EDL 'harshly condemns any and all revolutionary conservative movements that employ terror as a tool'. EDL leader Tommy Robinson denounced Breivik and the attack on 26 July 2011 and denied any links with the Norwegian.
After being apprehended, Breivik was characterised by police officials as being a right-wing extremist
Extremism is "the quality or state of being extreme" or "the advocacy of extreme measures or views". The term is primarily used in a political or religious sense to refer to an ideology that is considered (by the speaker or by some implied share ...
. Breivik is described by the newspaper ''Verdens Gang
''Verdens Gang'' ("The course of the world"), generally known under the abbreviation ''VG'', is a Norwegian tabloid newspaper. In 2016, circulation numbers stood at 93,883, having declined from a peak circulation of 390,510 in 2002. ''VG'' is n ...
'' as considering himself a conservative nationalist. According to ''The Australian
''The Australian'', with its Saturday edition, ''The Weekend Australian'', is a broadsheet newspaper published by News Corp Australia since 14 July 1964.Bruns, Axel. "3.1. The active audience: Transforming journalism from gatekeeping to gatew ...
'', Breivik was highly critical of Muslim immigration into Christian societies, is pro-Israel and an admirer of the Tea Party movement
The Tea Party movement was an American fiscally conservative political movement within the Republican Party that began in 2009. Members of the movement called for lower taxes and for a reduction of the national debt and federal budget defi ...
in the United States. Deputy police chief Roger Andresen initially told reporters that "We have no more information than... what has been found on isown websites, which is that it goes towards the right and that it is, so to speak, Christian fundamentalist." Subsequently, others have disputed Andresen's characterisation of Breivik as a Christian ''fundamentalist.'' Furthermore, Breivik stated that "myself and many more like me do not necessarily have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ
Born again, or to experience the new birth, is a phrase, particularly in evangelicalism, that refers to a "spiritual rebirth", or a regeneration of the human spirit. In contrast to one's physical birth, being "born again" is distinctly and se ...
and God
In monotheistic thought, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. Swinburne, R.G. "God" in Honderich, Ted. (ed)''The Oxford Companion to Philosophy'', Oxford University Press, 1995. God is typically ...
." According to the '' International Business Times'', in his manifesto, he "did not see himself as religious", but he did identify as a cultural Christian
Cultural Christians are nonreligious persons who adhere to Christian values and appreciate Christian culture. As such, these individuals usually identify themselves as culturally Christians, and are often seen by practicing believers as nom ...
and wrote about the differences between cultural and religious Christians, but stressed that both were Christians, and shared the same identity and goals. After his imprisonment, Breivik stated he had never personally identified as a Christian, and called his religion Odinism
Heathenry, also termed Heathenism, contemporary Germanic Paganism, or Germanic Neopaganism, is a modern Pagan religion. Scholars of religious studies classify it as a new religious movement. Developed in Europe during the early 20th cent ...
, stating that he would "pray and sacrifice" to Odin. He also identified himself as a fascist and a national socialist
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...
, stating that he previously exploited counterjihad
Counter-jihad, also spelled counterjihad and known as the counter-jihad movement, is a self-titled political current loosely consisting of authors, bloggers, think tanks, street movements and campaign organisations all linked by apocalyptic beli ...
ist rhetoric in order to protect " ethno-nationalists".
He has written many posts on the far-right website '' document.no''. He attended meetings of "Documents venner" (Friends of Document), affiliated with the Document.no website. He is a former member of the Progress Party (FrP) and its youth wing FpU. According to the then FpU leader Ove Vanebo
Ove André Vanebo (born 2 May 1983) is a Norwegian politician for the Progress Party.
From 2008 to 2012 he was the chairman of the Youth of the Progress Party, the youth wing of the Progress Party.
He served as a deputy representative to the N ...
, Breivik was active early in the 2000s, but he left the party as his viewpoints became more extreme.
In his online YouTube video, he expressed admiration of past European leaders who fought against Islam and Muslims, naming Charles Martel
Charles Martel ( – 22 October 741) was a Frankish political and military leader who, as Duke and Prince of the Franks and Mayor of the Palace, was the de facto ruler of Francia from 718 until his death. He was a son of the Frankish statesm ...
, Richard the Lionheart
Richard I (8 September 1157 – 6 April 1199) was King of England from 1189 until his death in 1199. He also ruled as Duke of Normandy, Aquitaine and Gascony, Lord of Cyprus, and Count of Poitiers, Anjou, Maine, and Nantes, and was overl ...
, El Cid, Vlad the Impaler
Vlad III, commonly known as Vlad the Impaler ( ro, Vlad Țepeș ) or Vlad Dracula (; ro, Vlad Drăculea ; 1428/311476/77), was Voivode of Wallachia three times between 1448 and his death in 1476/77. He is often considered one of the most im ...
, Jacques de Molay
Jacques de Molay (; c. 1240–1250 – 11 or 18 March 1314), also spelled "Molai",Demurger, pp. 1-4. "So no conclusive decision can be reached, and we must stay in the realm of approximations, confining ourselves to placing Molay's date of birth ...
, Tsar Nicholas, and John III Sobieski. A social media
Social media are interactive media technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, interests, and other forms of expression through virtual communities and networks. While challenges to the definition of ''social medi ...
website created bearing Breivik's name and picture but of unknown authorship refers to him as an admirer of Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 during the Second World War, and again from ...
and Max Manus
Maximo Guillermo "Max" Manus DSO, MC & Bar (9 December 1914 – 20 September 1996) was a Norwegian resistance fighter during World War II, specialising in sabotage in occupied Norway. After the war he wrote several books about his adventu ...
, and also of controversial Dutch politician Geert Wilders
Geert Wilders (; born 6 September 1963) is a Dutch politician who has led the Party for Freedom (''Partij voor de Vrijheid'' – PVV) since he founded it in 2006. He is also the party's leader in the House of Representatives (''Tweede Kamer'' ...
, whose political party, the Party for Freedom, is described by the site as "the only true party of conservatives". The music that is played in the video comes off the soundtrack to the video game '' Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures''.
Unsubstantiated claims of Breivik being assisted
There was suspicion at the time of the attack that there were accomplices, and the police initially prepared to meet two to five shooters on Utøya. Several youths at Utøya reported to be convinced that there was more than one shooter, with some reports of shots fired from the mainland. A second shooter at Utøya was described by several youths as having thick dark hair, about tall who did not wear a police uniform, while carrying a pistol and a rifle. During judicial examination, at least two witnesses independently of each other both described two different shooters at Utøya, while a third witness was reported to have swum from the island beside a previously unknown dark-haired man. After his arrest Breivik claimed he acted with accomplices, but later changed his statements to his acting alone, giving several demands for him to tell about accomplices. On 24 July 2011, six people were arrested in Oslo suspected of having connections with the attacks; all were released. The police later issued a statement that there was only found evidence of one shooter at Utøya, amid "widespread conspiracy theories" of there having been more than one shooter.
In the initial hours after the attacks, the group Ansar al-Jihad al-Alami led by Abu Suleiman al-Naser
Neaman Salman Mansour al-Zaidi ( ar, نيمان سلمان منصور الزيدي), known as Abu Suleiman al-Naser ( ar, أبو سليمان الناصر), was the military commander or "War Minister" of the militant group Islamic State of Iraq ( ...
claimed responsibility for the attacks.
Reactions
Domestic
King Harald V
Harald V ( no, Harald den femte, ; born 21 February 1937) is King of Norway. He acceded to the throne on 17 January 1991.
Harald was the third child and only son of King Olav V of Norway and Princess Märtha of Sweden. He was second in the lin ...
sent his condolences to the victims and their families, and urged unity. He and Queen Sonja
Sonja (born Sonja Haraldsen on 4 July 1937) is Queen of Norway since 17 January 1991 as the wife of King Harald V.
Sonja and the then Crown Prince Harald had dated for nine years prior to their marriage in 1968. They had kept their relation ...
personally visited the victims of the attacks, as well as the families of those killed.
At a press conference the morning after the attacks, Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg
Jens Stoltenberg (born 16 March 1959) is a Norwegian politician who has been serving as the 13th secretary general of NATO since 2014. A member of the Norwegian Labour Party, he previously served as the 34th prime minister of Norway from 2000 to ...
and Justice Minister Knut Storberget
Knut Storberget (born 6 October 1964) is a Norwegian lawyer and politician for the Labour Party. He is currently serving as the county governor of Innlandet since 2019. He previously served as Minister of Justice under Jens Stoltenberg from 2005 ...
addressed the country. Stoltenberg called the attack a "national tragedy" and the worst atrocity in Norway since World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
. Stoltenberg further vowed that the attack would not hurt Norwegian democracy, and said the proper answer to the violence was "more democracy, more openness, but not naivety". In his speech at the memorial service on 24 July 2011, he opined what would be a proper reaction: "No one has said it better than the AUF girl who was interviewed by CNN: 'If one man can show so much hate, think how much love we could show, standing together.'"
The leader of the Workers' Youth League, Eskil Pedersen, vowed to "return to Utøya" and urged Norway to continue its tradition of openness and tolerance.
Leaders of Norwegian political parties expressed grief and sent condolences in public statements.
On 1 August 2011, Norway's parliament, nominally in recess for the summer, reconvened for an extraordinary session to honour the victims of the attack. In a departure from parliamentary procedure, both King Harald V and Crown Prince Haakon
Haakon, Crown Prince of Norway (; Haakon Magnus; born 20 July 1973) is the heir apparent to the Norwegian throne. He is the only son of King Harald V and Queen Sonja.
Haakon represents the fourth generation of the sitting Norwegian royal fa ...
were present. The president
President most commonly refers to:
*President (corporate title)
* President (education), a leader of a college or university
* President (government title)
President may also refer to:
Automobiles
* Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...
of Norway's Parliament, Dag Terje Andersen
Dag Terje Andersen (born 27 May 1957 in Frogn, Akershus) is a Norwegian politician for the Norwegian Labour Party. In addition to professional politics he has worked at a steel mill and as a lumberjack, something that has given him a reputation fo ...
, read out loud the names of all 77 victims. The session was open to the public, but due to limited seating, priority was given to relatives of the deceased. August 21 in Norway was declared a day of national mourning
A national day of mourning is a day or days marked by mourning and memorial activities observed among the majority of a country's populace. They are designated by the national government. Such days include those marking the death or funeral of ...
to commemorate the victims of the terrorist attack.
The seven political parties in the parliament
In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries. Th ...
agreed to postpone the electoral campaign for local elections
In many parts of the world, local elections take place to select office-holders in local government, such as mayors and councillors. Elections to positions within a city or town are often known as "municipal elections". Their form and conduct vary ...
, held in September, until mid-August. School debates were cancelled, though the school elections were not.
Initially, Magnus Ranstorp
Per Magnus Ranstorp (born 13 March 1965 in Hästveda) is a Swedish scholar who has written about Hezbollah, Hamas, Al-Qaeda and other militant Islamic movements. He is the Research Director of the Centre for Asymmetric Threat Studies at the ...
and other terror experts suspected that foreigners were behind the attacks. In the immediate aftermath of the attack, non-ethnic Norwegians, especially Muslim Norwegians, were subjected to harassment and violence.
On 13 August 2012, Norway's prime minister received the Gjørv Report
The Gjørv Report (''Gjørv-rapporten'' or ''NOU 2012: 14, Rapport fra 22. juli-kommisjonen'') is a report that was ordered by Norway's parliament, as a consequence of the 2011 Oslo bombing and the following Utøya massacre. The report was delive ...
, which concludes that Breivik could have been stopped from carrying out the Utøya massacre. (The report had been ordered by parliament, in August 2011.)
International
The United Nations, the European Union, NATO, and governments around the world expressed their condemnation of the attacks, condolences, and solidarity with Norway. However, there have also been reports of Western European right-wing populist politicians giving support to the killings or excusing them as a result of multi-culturalism
The term multiculturalism has a range of meanings within the contexts of sociology, political philosophy, and colloquial use. In sociology and in everyday usage, it is a synonym for " ethnic pluralism", with the two terms often used interchang ...
. Interviewed on a popular radio show, the Italian MEP Francesco Speroni
Francesco Enrico Speroni (born 4 October 1946, in Busto Arsizio) is an Italian politician.
Career
Speroni has been flight engineer from 1970 to 1997, remaining on leave since 1989. A member of the Northern League, Speroni has been a Member of t ...
, a leading member of the Lega Nord, the junior partner in Berlusconi's conservative coalition, said: "Breivik's ideas are in defence of western civilisation." Similar views were voiced by Italian MEP Mario Borghezio. Werner Koenigshofer, a member of the National Council of Austria
The National Council (german: Nationalrat) is one of the two houses of the Austrian Parliament and is frequently referred to as the lower house. The constitution endows the National Council with far more power than the Federal Council.
Responsi ...
, was expelled from the right-wing Freedom Party of Austria
The Freedom Party of Austria (german: Freiheitliche Partei Österreichs, FPÖ) is a right-wing populist and national-conservative political party in Austria. It was led by Norbert Hofer from September 2019 to 1 June 2021.Staff (1 June 2021"Aus ...
after equating the massacre with the death of millions of fetuses through abortion.
On 25 July 2011, at noon (CEST), each of the Nordic countries held a minute of silence to dignify the victims of the two attacks. Norway's minute of silence stretched to five minutes. In Oslo, a city of approximately 600,000 inhabitants, an estimated 200,000 people attended a "flower march".
The Norwegian media reported criticism against Fox News
The Fox News Channel, abbreviated FNC, commonly known as Fox News, and stylized in all caps, is an American multinational conservative cable news television channel based in New York City. It is owned by Fox News Media, which itself is owne ...
and its commentator Glenn Beck for their coverage of the attacks. Beck's comparison of the AUF to the Hitler Youth
The Hitler Youth (german: Hitlerjugend , often abbreviated as HJ, ) was the youth organisation of the Nazi Party in Germany. Its origins date back to 1922 and it received the name ("Hitler Youth, League of German Worker Youth") in July 1926. ...
led Frank Aarebrot
Frank Henrik Aarebrot (19 January 1947 – 9 September 2017) was a Norwegian political scientist, political commentator, and professor of comparative politics. Among the most quoted and popular academics in the Norwegian press, he became bette ...
, a Norwegian professor with political sympathies to the Norwegian Labour Party, to call Beck a "fascist" and "swine".
Memorial ceremonies
A number of memorial ceremonies took place following the attacks. On 25 July 2011, around 200,000 people took part in a "rose march" at Rådhusplassen in Oslo. The NRK
NRK, an abbreviation of the Norwegian ''Norsk Rikskringkasting AS'', generally expressed in English as the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation, is the Norwegian government-owned radio and television public broadcasting company, and the largest ...
memorial concert, titled "Mitt lille land" ("My Little Country") and named for the song " Mitt lille land" which "came to symbolize the sorrow many people went through", took place in Oslo Cathedral
, native_name_lang =
, image = Oslo Cathedral.jpg
, imagesize = 230px
, imagelink =
, imagealt =
, landscape =
, caption = Oslo Cathedral from Sto ...
on 30 July 2011. A national memorial ceremony took place on 21 August 2011. In September 2011, the Norwegian People's Aid
Norwegian People's Aid ( no, Norsk Folkehjelp) was founded in 1939 to provide post-conflict reconstruction assistance and humanitarian relief during conflicts. NPA is now engaged in more than 33 countries in de-mining, humanitarian relief, promot ...
and Sony Music
Sony Music Entertainment (SME), also known as simply Sony Music, is an American multinational music company. Being owned by the parent conglomerate Sony Group Corporation, it is part of the Sony Music Group, which is owned by Sony Entertainme ...
released the memorial album '' Mitt lille land''.
Memorials
National memorials
A national memorial stands at Johan Nygaardsvolds plass at ''Regjeringskvartalet
Regjeringskvartalet (the Government Quarter) is a collection of buildings located in the centre of Norway's capital city Oslo, housing several offices for the Norwegian Government. The complex is situated approximately 300m northeast of the Pa ...
'' in Oslo. It was unveiled on 22 July 2016, and is temporary.
Construction on a memorial in Hole, Viken, is ongoing as of 2022. The memorial is expected to be completed during the first half of 2022.
Work started in August 2020 on a national memorial at Utøya-kaia (on the shores of Tyrifjorden
Tyrifjorden (Lake Tyri) is a lake in Norway. It lies northwest of Oslo and is the nation's fifth largest lake with an area of 139 km2. It has a volume of 13 km3, is 295 meters deep at its deepest, and lies 63 meters above sea level. T ...
) in Hole, Viken
Viken may refer to:
*Viken, Scandinavia, a historical region
*Viken (county), a Norwegian county established in 2020
*Viken, Sweden, a bimunicipal locality in Skåne County, Sweden
*Viken (lake), a lake in Sweden, part of the part of the Göta cana ...
. As of 7 December 2020 work is in progress; in January next year a court case is scheduled to continue; the lawsuit's aim is to block further construction.
Previously, in September an injunction from Ringerike District Court
Ringerike District Court (Norwegian: Ringerike tingrett) is a district court located in Hønefoss, Norway. It covers the municipalities of Hole, Ringerike and Jevnaker and is subordinate to the Borgarting Court of Appeal
The Borgarting Court ...
blocked further construction on the memorial; in November, a higher court removed the injunction; on 30 November a trial that was scheduled for two weeks, started in Ringerike District Court and has been discontinued until January; Sixteen neighbours of the construction site are suing to have the work stopped; the litigant
-
A lawsuit is a proceeding by a party or parties against another in the civil court of law. The archaic term "suit in law" is found in only a small number of laws still in effect today. The term "lawsuit" is used in reference to a civil acti ...
s are claiming that the memorial will be a onstantreminder about the terror f the attack and they expect that the influx of visitors also will be an added source of strain n the health of litigants In December, one neighbour testified in court, that he rescued persons ho had been wounded by the terrorist and added: "We are again and again reminded about what happened. I will not have the strength to look at the columns design element of the memorial I will only be able to see the face of the dead"; the witness testified about the continuous gunfire, and the dead and wounded youths, and the repeated shuttling of youths in his boat – from open water to the lake shore at Utøya-kaia, and the sight of the perpetrator at Lovers' Lane, and youths being shot and killed in front of his eyes, and having to leave a critically wounded boy in the lake when bullets were whizzing past his ears. The witness is still haunted by the image of the boy, and by the mangled bodies mauled by the bullets of the terrorist, and by his last trip around the island when only the dead were left and the noise had died down except for the sound and lights from unanswered mobile phones eft in the terrain by the victims of the attack Another person to testify in court was the current secretary general of AUF, himself a survivor of the attack; he testified that he does not understand the neighbours' angst
Angst is fear or anxiety ('' anguish'' is its Latinate equivalent, and the words ''anxious'' and ''anxiety'' are of similar origin). The dictionary definition for angst is a feeling of anxiety, apprehension, or insecurity.
Etymology
The word ...
in regard to the memorial.
Later that month, in a newspaper article, a licensed psychologist (retired) said that 250 or 300 victims have been estimated to have been helped during the attack and immediately after,by people belonging to the local community, and incomprehensibly many young people were killed, but without the help of these action-oriented and caring people nhabitants of the local communitythen the number would have been higher; who wants this memorial at Utøya-kaia?... or the rest of us who erelywere informed through media eports When the saviours don't want the memorial so close to heir community orthemselves, then it's shows an extreme lack of empathy and valuation of the rescue work, in my opinion, when one ..trumphs through the construction ofthe memorial; there are already enough memorials or this attackat other locations; furthermore if there must be a memorial in the area, then move it up to the main road, so that the local community t Utøya-kaiadoes not get destroyed by an influx of tourists and cars; up there n the area of the main roadit's not that easy too make it into a place of worship of the mass-murderer.
The cost for a national memorial in Hole municipality has increased more than ten-fold, previously from 40.5 million Norwegian kroner—to more than 700 million. The artistic project has been rejected, and the project has been handed over to architects, as of October 2020.
Other memorials and symbols
*At Utøya
Utøya () is an island in the Tyrifjorden lake in Hole municipality, in the county of Viken, Norway. The island is , situated off the shore, by the E16 road, about driving distance south of Hønefoss, and northwest of Oslo city centre.
Ove ...
, the place of memorial is called ("the clearing") "Lysninga"; a part of it is ("the ring") "Ringen" – a "ring of steel hat
A hat is a head covering which is worn for various reasons, including protection against weather conditions, ceremonial reasons such as university graduation, religious reasons, safety, or as a fashion accessory. Hats which incorporate mecha ...
hangs between trees and here the names and age of the majority of those 69 killed are engraved"; "it lies at the highest point of the island"; It was unveiled during summer 2015.
*'' Hegnhuset'' was inaugurated in 2016.
* the iron roses"'' Jernrosene'' is located at Domkirke-parken in Oslo. The memorial has around 900 etal
Etal ( )not is a small village in the far north of the county of Northumberland, England, in the civil parish of Ford. It lies on a bridging point of the River Till ten miles south west of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and includes the substantial ru ...
roses; they were donated by persons in various countries; one rose was created by a survivor, and some by others who were bereaved.
*A newspaper display case that was collaterally damaged has been left unrepaired with its glass fractured but not dislocated by the shockwave of the bomb. In 2020 the display case was moved back to where it was located in 2011—outside he building atAkersgata 55, the headquarters of ''Verdens Gang
''Verdens Gang'' ("The course of the world"), generally known under the abbreviation ''VG'', is a Norwegian tabloid newspaper. In 2016, circulation numbers stood at 93,883, having declined from a peak circulation of 390,510 in 2002. ''VG'' is n ...
''. he installationis referred to by the governmental organisation KORO Koro may refer to:
Geography
*Koro Island, a Fijian island
* Koro Sea, in the Pacific Ocean
* Koro, Ivory Coast
*Koro, Mali
* Koro, Wisconsin, United States, an unincorporated community
Languages
*Koro language (India), an endangered language spo ...
, as «Relocating the past: ruins for the future». Artist Ahmad Ghossein took the initiative to create a memorial from the shattered display. The newspaper edition from the day of the bombing, is still on display.
*One monolith stands in each municipality. There are memorials created by the artist Nico Widerberg in the 53 affected municipalities in Norway who welcomed the same sculpture, funded by a private donation.
*A ''minnestein'' (" memorial stone") to commemorate the attacks at Utøya is located at a roadside rest area with a view of Utøya that is located on E16 at Nes in Hole (municipality).
=Proposed memorials
=
A monument at Stensparken in Oslo has been proposed, including metal roses. It has not been authorised, as its planned dimensions of by , with a height of , were judged to be too overwhelming.
The cancelled national memorial at Sørbråten
, Hole Municipality has stopped case work regarding the request for permission to build a national monument at Sørbråten; media said that the case work could be arrested for around two and a half years or longer. The government is scheduled to be a defendant in court during a three-week trial, starting 25 April 2017; the underlying lawsuit aims to deny construction at the planned location.
Previously, in March 2016, the location for a planned national place of memorial was moved from Utøya to Sørbråten – located on the mainland from Utvika and from Utøya; in September 2014 the Hole municipal council had refused a memorial at Sørbråten. The names of several of the victims are reportedly being denied (, by next of kin) as inscriptions on the planned monument.
A committee, '' Kunstutvalget for minnestaden for 22. juli'', chos
a design
by Jonas Dahlberg for the monument, and Karin Moe
Karin Moe (born 3 December 1945) is a Norwegian writer and literary critic.
She made her literary debut in 1980 with the text collection ''Kjønnskrift''. Other collections are ''39 Fyk'' from 1983, and ''Sjanger'' from 1986. She published the ...
has called the planned monument at Sørbråten — " Breivik's Memorial Place". Later, in a Klassekampen
''Klassekampen'' ( en, The Class Struggle) is a Norwegian daily newspaper. It describes itself as "the newspaper of the Left." The paper's net circulation is 34,000 (2021), and it has around 111,000 daily readers on paper (160,000 on Saturdays). ...
article Moe said that "Many of the ocal Ocal or OCAL may refer to:
* Öcal, Turkish surname
* Öçal, Turkish surname
* Open Clip Art Library
Openclipart, also called Open Clip Art Library, is an online media repository of free-content vector clip art. The project hosts over 160,000 ...
inhabitants have described .the design as a violation, even a rape of nature hat is in placeat Sørbråten. Such is the intensity of how the memorial is being felt, that physical pain is felt merely by imagining having to face the memorial every day. The traumatised neighbors re-live the acts of terror through the brutal cut into the mountain slope... a reminder of who acted: Anders Behring Breivik. Here his misdeed is carved in stone. No wonder that fear lies in the reactions.... The baffling thing for the locals is this: ..., but we were supposed to be honored – not re-traumatised. Why must this incurable memorial-wound be inflicted on us, so close to ur bodies or ourlife". Furthermore, she said that "Long time was needed before the September 11
Events Pre-1600
* 9 – The Battle of the Teutoburg Forest ends: The Roman Empire suffers the greatest defeat of its history and the Rhine is established as the border between the Empire and the so-called barbarians for the next four hu ...
memorial place on Manhattan was in place. Now an encompassing – in regard to ethics and aesthetics – pause for thinking is needed – both for the placement and the final design of the memorial". A later article suggested that "we create the monument as envisioned, but fill the scar with rock and beautify the surface", inspired by kintsugi
, also known as , is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery by mending the areas of breakage with lacquer dusted or mixed with powdered gold, silver, or platinum; the method is similar to the technique... As a philosophy, it treats bre ...
. A later article said that "What many of us don't understand is why these plans, apparently not well-considered, now are pushed through.... Is it ecause ofprestige or out of consideration to the artist"?
Minister of Local Government and Modernisation has been criticised for announcing – while Breivik was a plaintiff in a 4-day trial – the urrentdecision to construct the monument.
On 14 April 2016, media said that a "report has indicated that the place of memorial will create great mental strains on the persons living in its close proximity"; The report, ''Nasjonalt kunnskapssenter om vold og traumatisk stress a/s'', was completed in April 2015. A later newspaper article asked "And why should the little island ic ørbråten be punished with the jötunn cut – what wrong has the island done?" On 16 April 2016 media quoted board member Anne-Gry Ruud of neighbourhood association, ''Utstranda Velforening'': "I don't think that the work of art honors all who were killed, but symbolizes only pain and open wounds.... If this work of art gives any associations, then they are to terror, death, pain and the inadequacy of society.... This is not just a small cut on a point – it is an area of 1.2 decare
The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100-metre sides (1 hm2), or 10,000 m2, and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. An acre is a ...
hat will become surrounded by water.... I don't think that the ocal Ocal or OCAL may refer to:
* Öcal, Turkish surname
* Öçal, Turkish surname
* Open Clip Art Library
Openclipart, also called Open Clip Art Library, is an online media repository of free-content vector clip art. The project hosts over 160,000 ...
inhabitants have a responsibility to provide a location for a memorial at Sørbråten. Especially in the summer we experience a steady flow of tourists on a pilgrimage to Sørbråten. Some take selfies with Utøya in the background. Others stop the inhabitants and ask what they did that day and how we contributed.... We have two schoolbuses that drive back and forth every day on the road just above, others pass on their way to the store, leisure activities, work or municipal centre... 260 inhabitants".
The national convention of the Progress Party decided to say "no" to placing the memorial at Sørbråten.
On 25 April 2016 Hole Municipal Council decided to fund Norwegian kroner 25,000 to ''Utstranda Velforening'', for a proposed lawsuit against the government.
In a 14 May 2016 ''Aftenposten
( in the masthead; ; Norwegian for "The Evening Post") is Norway's largest printed newspaper by circulation. It is based in Oslo. It sold 211,769 copies in 2015 (172,029 printed copies according to University of Bergen) and estimated 1.2 milli ...
'' article , a film director and -producer, said that the monument of the original contest was supposed to have a price limited to Norwegian kroner 20 million; now that the government has estimated the price to 70 million including relevant extra expenses, the contestants that operated within the original price limits have been deceived.
In May 2016 the government wrote that the ongoing lawsuit about lacingthe monument t Sørbråten will not change the government's plans; the letter was signed by Minister of Local Government and Modernisation and Minister of Culture
A culture minister or a heritage minister is a common cabinet position in governments. The culture minister is typically responsible for cultural policy, which often includes arts policy (direct and indirect support to artists and arts organizatio ...
.
In an 11 June 2016 ''Dagbladet
''Dagbladet'' (lit.: ''The Daily Magazine'') is one of Norway's largest newspapers and is published in the tabloid format. It has 1,400,000 daily readers on mobile, web and paper. Traditionally ''Dagbladet'' is considered the main liberal newspa ...
'' article Hans Normann Dahl
Hans Normann Dahl (7 October 1937 – 29 January 2019) was a Norwegian illustrator, painter and sculptor.
Dahl was educated at the Norwegian National Academy of Craft and Art Industry from 1952 to 1957 and the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw from ...
was quoted, "The monument itself is incomprehensible, and the idea so crass that it contains a negative and destructive material".
An 18 June 2016 ''Dagbladet'' article quoted (writings of) one mother (Gunn Rusten) who lost her daughter: "My daughter's name will NOT be displayed on any memorial at Sørbråten, but it is displayed at Utøya". She added that "Why should all the phenomenal persons living there, and who put their lives on the line that day – to save as many as possible of those on Utøya ho were later rescued from the lake— have this as a lifelong, daily reminder of the fateful Friday when police and those in charge let a crazy man walk around for around an hour and a half – and kill at will – without intervening". Furthermore, another mother (Mai Britt Rogne) who lost her daughter said that: "We already have the grave, ndUtøya, and one monolith in every municipality. How many places of memorial do we need"?
On 24 June 2016 the government was sued (in Ringerike District Court
Ringerike District Court (Norwegian: Ringerike tingrett) is a district court located in Hønefoss, Norway. It covers the municipalities of Hole, Ringerike and Jevnaker and is subordinate to the Borgarting Court of Appeal
The Borgarting Court ...
) with a claim that "The government is being denied construction of the memorial ''Memory Wound'', including a parking lot, a footpath, and auxiliary developments at Sørbråten and Bergli othin Hole".
the government has offered to ditch the "Memory Wound" draft for a monument; the site for a national memorial at Sørbråten, remains unchanged.
Swedish psychiatrist Per-Olof Michel said "I have been thinking why the government was in such a hurry. In Sweden one will be unveiling the Tsunami Monument next year – 13 years after the fact. Regarding something that affects so many people, one should let time pass and go thru things again".
Bodil Cappelen
Bodil Cappelen (born April 26, 1930) is a Norwegian painter, textile artist, and book illustrator. She has also written children's books.
Early life
Cappelen was born in Stavanger, the daughter of Johan Munthe Cappelen from Oslo and Edith Heiber ...
said in a ''Klassekampen
''Klassekampen'' ( en, The Class Struggle) is a Norwegian daily newspaper. It describes itself as "the newspaper of the Left." The paper's net circulation is 34,000 (2021), and it has around 111,000 daily readers on paper (160,000 on Saturdays). ...
'' article that "Centuries will pass... Oh, yes. Here they have cut off a point—from the mountain mama. A landscape was not that much worth—then".
Regarding "Memory Wound" possibly being plagiarism of one of 300 candidate proposals for the pre-qualification in the contest for monument design, art historian said that "My first impression was that this is closest oplagiarism"; "But when the idea is so similar, I think one should examine the case further"; he final written work for the master's degree,''masteroppgaven'', of architect students Kristin Ulrikke Rønnestad og Hildegunn Slotnæs had already been published on NTNU's website, and had been exhibited in Trondheim, and had been mailed to around 200 persons and offices.
So far the case has led to: government agency informing Dahlberg and the Department of Culture of potential allegations of plagiarism; Dahlberg denied any knowledge of ''masteroppgaven''; student Rønnestad met with the director of KORO in April 2014. The lawyer (from the architects' trade union) that accompanied Rønnestad there, said that KORO showed "a quite condescending attitude towards her". Other views regarding the case includes the view of Arve Rød, art critic of ''Dagbladet
''Dagbladet'' (lit.: ''The Daily Magazine'') is one of Norway's largest newspapers and is published in the tabloid format. It has 1,400,000 daily readers on mobile, web and paper. Traditionally ''Dagbladet'' is considered the main liberal newspa ...
'', saying about the sketches "The likeness is peculiar, and impossible to overlook. It is difficult not to conclude that these are two completely alike ideas, but I can not from that claim that Dahlberg has plagiarized the work of the two students"; he thinks that it is quite remarkable that woideas, so alike, were found in the same contest and situation, in the same place and at the same time.
In November 2016 news broke that case work regarding the request for permission to build the monument at Sørbråten, had been arrested in September; Hole municipality's justification, cited in part the upcoming court case. In June 2017 the government cancelled the project.
Attempts at art creation
A 2016 Norwegian news article said that "Most of those that work in the field of art, probably were aware of the support group's the national support group after the 22 July incidents", or ' marked attempts at stopping the Danish playwright Christian Lollike when he wanted to stage a drama based on the terrorist's manuscript. Artists are in fact not as daring, as many like to think".
Legal proceedings
The police initially kept the choice of counsel secret after request from the attorney. Attorney Geir Lippestad
Geir Lippestad (born 7 June 1964) is a Norwegian lawyer, politician and social activist. He is known for his involvement in several high-profile legal cases, and for starting the political party ''Sentrum'' in 2020.
As a criminal appellate law ...
elected to act on behalf of Breivik's defence; Breivik had specifically requested that Lippestad become his attorney.
On 25 July 2011, Breivik was arraigned
Arraignment is a formal reading of a criminal charging document in the presence of the defendant, to inform them of the charges against them. In response to arraignment, the accused is expected to enter a plea. Acceptable pleas vary among jurisdi ...
in Oslo District Court
Oslo District Court ( no, Oslo tingrett) is a district court located in Oslo, Norway. This court is based at the Oslo Courthouse in the city of Oslo. The court serves the entire city of Oslo and the court is subordinate to the Borgarting Court of ...
. The police feared that Breivik would use the hearing as an opportunity to communicate with possible accomplices. Because of this, the arraignment was held completely closed to the media and all other spectators. Instead, judge Kim Heger held a press conference shortly afterwards where he read the court's decision. The practice of completely closed court hearings is extremely rare in the Norwegian justice system.
The debate over which criminal charges to file was fierce. Many police attorneys wanted high treason
Treason is the crime of attacking a state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its diplo ...
or crimes against humanity. The prosecution ended up indicting Breivik on terrorism charges. Breivik admitted to being the gunman at Utøya and the perpetrator behind the Oslo bomb, also admitting all the other actual events. Nonetheless he pleaded not guilty, stating "I do not recognise this justice system". District Attorney Christian Hatlo asked that Breivik be detained for eight weeks without mail or visitation. The judge ruled in favour of the prosecution, stating "the accused is an imminent danger to society and must be confined for the safety of himself and others. It is highly probable that he is guilty of the alleged crimes and imprisonment is necessary to prevent destruction of evidence". In accordance with the prosecution's wishes, Breivik was remanded to eight weeks detention without mail or visitation, four of those in complete isolation, to be renewed no later than 19 September 2011. He was immediately transferred to Ila Landsfengsel, a maximum security prison.
On 13 August 2011 Breivik was taken to Utøya by police to recreate his actions on the day of the massacre. Neither the media nor the public was alerted to the operation. The police explained that the surprise walk-through was necessary because Breivik was to be charged and tried for all 77 murders individually. The police deemed it less offensive to the survivors to do it before rather than during the trial. Despite the many police boats and helicopters, none of the civilians who had come to lay down flowers on the shore that day perceived what was happening just a few hundred metres across the lake from them for eight hours. On the evening of 14 August the police held a press conference about the reconstruction. It was reported that Breivik was not unmoved by his return to Utøya, but that he showed no remorse. Inspector Pål Fredrik Hjort Kraby described Breivik's behaviour and indifference on the island as "unreal", as he had over the course of eight hours willingly showed the police exactly how he had carried out all of the 69 murders.
The trial began on 16 April 2012 and lasted until 19 June 2012. 170 media organisations were accredited to cover the proceedings. Breivik acknowledged that he had committed the offences but pleaded not guilty as he believed the killing was needed. The main issue for Breivik was that he was not to be deemed "insane" or "psychotic", because that would lose the meaning of his message.
On 24 August, Breivik was found to be sane by the panel of five judges. He was sentenced to preventative detention (''forvaring''), a sentence of 21 years in prison which can be repeatedly extended by 5 years as long as he is considered a threat to society. This is the maximum sentence allowed by Norwegian law, and it is the only way to allow for life imprisonment.
Aftermath
Coop Norway, a chain of retail stores in Norway, removed several games from its shelves as a result of the attack. Some of the titles includes games like '' Homefront'', ''Call of Duty'' series, '' Sniper: Ghost Warrior'', '' Counter-Strike Source'' and ''World of Warcraft
''World of Warcraft'' (''WoW'') is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) released in 2004 by Blizzard Entertainment. Set in the ''Warcraft'' fantasy universe, ''World of Warcraft'' takes place within the world of Azeroth ...
''. Some games were also temporarily removed from the Norwegian WiiWare
WiiWare was a service that allowed Wii users to download games and applications specifically designed and developed for the Wii video game console made by Nintendo. These games and applications could only be purchased and downloaded from the Wii ...
catalogue, including an on-rails shooter game.
In the days following the attacks, Norway's largest represented political parties noted a significant increase in interest for membership from young people. Both the Norwegian Young Conservatives
Norwegian Young Conservatives (Norwegian: Unge Høyres Landsforbund, UHL, normally referred to as Unge Høyre) is the Norwegian youth party of the Conservative Party. Its ideology is liberal conservatism
Liberal conservatism is a political ...
and the Progress Party's Youth, as well as the Workers' Youth League (AUF) had signed up a significant number of new members after a few days. The mother parties also reported an unusual increase in new member applications, with the Conservative Party
The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right.
Political parties called The Conservative P ...
and the Progress Party having signed up almost 1,000 new members each by early August, while the Labour Party reported over 6,000 new members at the end of the month.
Far-right groups such as Stop the Islamisation of Norway
Stop Islamisation of Norway ( no, Stopp islamiseringen av Norge, SIAN) is a Norwegian anti-Muslim group that was established in 2008, although its history goes back to a group started in 2000. Its stated aim is to work against Islam, which it ...
(SIAN) and the Norwegian Defence League (NDL), as well as the Democrats, had reportedly witnessed a boom in their memberships and interest by mid-August, with the Democrats party having signed up around one hundred new members, and the NDL around three hundred.
In the September local elections
In many parts of the world, local elections take place to select office-holders in local government, such as mayors and councillors. Elections to positions within a city or town are often known as "municipal elections". Their form and conduct vary ...
almost two months after the attacks, gains were made by the Conservative Party (up 9% to 28%), and to a lesser extent the Labour Party (up 2% to 32%). On the other hand, setbacks were witnessed by the Progress Party, the party Breivik had been a member of, (down 6% to 11%) and the Socialist Left Party (down 2% to 4%).
In the Gjørv Report
The Gjørv Report (''Gjørv-rapporten'' or ''NOU 2012: 14, Rapport fra 22. juli-kommisjonen'') is a report that was ordered by Norway's parliament, as a consequence of the 2011 Oslo bombing and the following Utøya massacre. The report was delive ...
, received by the prime minister in advance of a press conference on 13 August 2012, it was concluded that more actions could have been taken by authorities, to stop Breivik, to track him, or to interrupt his attacks. It also criticised the police action, in stark contrast to an internal report issued by the police earlier. A few days later, national police chief Øystein Mæland submitted his resignation, citing a lack of clear support for his position from his superiors and saying: "If the usticeministry and other political authorities do not clarify this matter unequivocally, it will become impossible for me to continue." His resignation was accepted and announced by Justice Minister Grete Faremo
Grete Faremo (born 16 June 1955) is a Norwegian politician, lawyer and business leader. From August 2014 to May 2022, she held the post of Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS). ...
.
Vegard Grøslie Wennesland, a survivor of the incident, ran for parliament on a Labour Party ticket in the 2013 Norwegian parliamentary election A further 33 Labour Party candidates in the election were Utøya survivors and of those, Åsmund Aukrust, Stine Renate Håheim
Stine Renate Håheim (born 13 May 1984) is a Norwegian politician (representing the Labour Party). She is from Valdres, Oppland. She was a municipal councillor for Nord-Aurdal 2003–2007, and a member of Oppland county council between 2007 and ...
and Fredric Holen Bjørdal were also elected. However, the result brought a coalition government of the Conservative party
The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right.
Political parties called The Conservative P ...
and the right-wing Progress Party, of which Breivik had been a member from 1999 until 2004, to power.
In 2013, former AUF local leader and Labour Party cabinet advisor Ivar Fjeld released the pamphlet ''Den rødgrønne terrorøya'' ("The Red-Green Terror Island"), which documented how Utøya over several years had been used to build up support for anti-Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
politics and Palestinian
Palestinians ( ar, الفلسطينيون, ; he, פָלַסְטִינִים, ) or Palestinian people ( ar, الشعب الفلسطيني, label=none, ), also referred to as Palestinian Arabs ( ar, الفلسطينيين العرب, label=non ...
terrorists. In the book he documents among other things that AUF had allowed far-left Red Youth to arrange camps on Utøya, who collected money for and welcomed representatives from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine ( ar, الجبهة الشعبية لتحرير فلسطين, translit=al-Jabhah al-Sha`biyyah li-Taḥrīr Filasṭīn, PFLP) is a secular Palestinian Marxist–Leninist and revolutionary so ...
(PFLP) on the island. Fjeld claimed that his purpose with the book was to warn the Labour Party about the activities of its increasingly radicalised and Islamised youth organisation.
Embezzlement from terror attack victims fund
In 2016, one person was sentenced to 120 days in prison for embezzling
Embezzlement is a crime that consists of withholding assets for the purpose of conversion of such assets, by one or more persons to whom the assets were entrusted, either to be held or to be used for specific purposes. Embezzlement is a type ...
300,000 Norwegian kroner
The krone (, currency sign, abbreviation: kr (also NKr for distinction); ISO 4217, code: NOK), plural ''kroner'', is currency of the Kingdom of Norway (including Svalbard). Traditionally known as the Norwegian Crown (currency), crown in English. ...
from Støttegruppen etter 22. juli, a Norwegian NGO
A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in h ...
; the money was supposed to have gone to victims of the terror attack. The perpetrator was a steward of the NGO.
Semi-automatic weapon ban for hunting and Mini-14 rifle ban
On 28 February 2018, Peter Frølich of the Norwegian parliament's committee on judicial affairs, said a proposal to ban semi-automatic weapons proposed the year prior now had enough political support to become law by 2021. The law will ban the Ruger Mini-14 rifle model that was used in Utøya massacre and other semi-auto rifles for hunting. However, using semi-automatic firearms for shooting sports is still legal for sportsmen who have permission for practice and competition shooting from Dynamic Sports Shooting Norway (DSSN) or the Norwegian Reserve Officers' Association (NROF).
Potential copycat incidents
Czech copycat
On 10 August 2012, the Rapid Reaction Unit (URNA
In Buddhist art and culture, the Urna (more correctly ūrṇā or ūrṇākośa (Pāli uṇṇa), and known as in Chinese) is a spiral or circular dot placed on the forehead of Buddhist images as an auspicious mark. It symbolizes a third eye, ...
) of the Czech Police
The Police of the Czech Republic ( cs, Policie České republiky) is the national law enforcement agency of the Czech Republic. It was established on 15 July 1991 under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of the Interior. The agency is tasked with pr ...
, backed up by a local SWAT unit and over 100 other police, arrested a 29-year-old admirer of Breivik, Vojtěch Mlýnek, in Ostrava
Ostrava (; pl, Ostrawa; german: Ostrau ) is a city in the north-east of the Czech Republic, and the capital of the Moravian-Silesian Region. It has about 280,000 inhabitants. It lies from the border with Poland, at the confluences of four riv ...
, the Czech Republic
The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...
's third largest city. The police suspected that Mlýnek was preparing a copycat attack inspired by the 2011 Norway attacks. He was stockpiling weapons (including a fully automatic assault rifle and armor-piercing bullets) and had converted an aerial bomb in order to be able to remotely detonate it. Mlýnek had the remote control with him while arrested. He had also obtained uniforms of the Czech police and of the Czech prison service and a police ID.
Mlýnek, who was using the pseudonym ''Anders Behring Breivik'' in electronic communication, has had a history of four prior criminal convictions, including a six-month-long suspended sentence for setting off an explosive which demolished an empty wooden cottage.
Mlýnek was initially charged with endangering public and with illegal arming, which carried a penalty from three to eight years in prison. He was first held in a remand prison, but was transferred to an isolation unit of prison hospital in Brno following a psychiatric evaluation. On 3 April 2013, a court in Ostrava found Mlýnek criminally insane. At the same time he was found dangerous to the public and ordered psychiatric detention. The reasons for detention will be reviewed by the court periodically every two years. Police determined that Mlýnek, despite being a Breivik sympathiser, was not preparing an actual terrorist attack; however, he suffered from paranoia and was stockpiling the weapons and bombs with the aim of self-defense.
Polish copycat
On 20 November 2012 the Polish authorities announced the arrest of a 45-year-old lecturer in chemical engineering at the Agricultural University of Cracow
Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people ...
under suspicion of preparing a similar attack. According to the authorities, was an admirer of Breivik and was further inspired by the Oklahoma City bombing
The Oklahoma City bombing was a domestic terrorism in the United States, domestic terrorist truck bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States, on April 19, 1995. Perpetrated by two anti-federal go ...
.
Poland's Internal Security Agency (ABW) first found out about Kwiecień after it launched investigation into Breivik's Polish contacts when it became known that Breivik had ordered some of the chemicals for his bomb from Poland via internet. According to ABW, Kwiecień was preparing an attack against the Sejm
The Sejm (English: , Polish: ), officially known as the Sejm of the Republic of Poland ( Polish: ''Sejm Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej''), is the lower house of the bicameral parliament of Poland.
The Sejm has been the highest governing body of ...
, the lower house of the Polish parliament. He wanted to detonate of explosives in a car bomb parked at the building during deliberation of the next year's budget, as it is the time when all the members of parliament, the Prime Minister as well as the President are all present in the building.
Kwiecień tried to arm himself already in 1997, however the authorities refused his application for a firearm permit. He later started arming himself illegally, mostly with weapons bought in Belgium. He bought firearms, ammunition, bulletproof vests with ceramic plates and kevlar helmet
Personnel Armor System for Ground Troops (PASGT, pronounced ) is a combat helmet and ballistic vest that was used by the United States Armed Forces, United States military from the early 1980s until the mid-2000s, when the helmet and vest were s ...
s. He had visited the Sejm and tested whether it is possible to use radio remote controls in the buildings for the purposes of planned detonation of the car bomb. Being a graduate of Warsaw University of Technology
The Warsaw University of Technology ( pl, Politechnika Warszawska, lit=Varsovian Polytechnic) is one of the leading institutes of technology in Poland and one of the largest in Central Europe. It employs 2,453 teaching faculty, with 357 professor ...
program on explosive manufacturing, Kwiecień was conducting illegal trials of explosives from at least 2000. In some cases, he detonated small explosives on Warsaw bridges, making small dents and holes in their construction. Apart from targeting the parliament, Kwiecień was also preparing murders of Monika Olejnik, an influential journalist, and Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz
Hanna Beata Gronkiewicz-Waltz (, born 4 November 1952) is a Polish politician and lawyer, Professor of Jurisprudence and politician who served as the city mayor of Warsaw between 2006 and 2018. She is the first woman to hold this position.
Life ...
, the mayor of Warsaw.
Kwiecień intensified his preparations after Breivik's conviction. He conducted an experimental explosion of a bomb in the Polish countryside in the municipality of Przeginia, which he also filmed. He had recruited four other people for his cause, however at least two of them were actually ABW's secret agents. He was convicted and sentenced to nine years of imprisonment on 19 April 2017. Brunon Kwiecień died in prison on 6 August 2019 from what is believed to have been a suicide.
Christchurch mosque shootings
Brenton Harrison Tarrant, the perpetrator of two consecutive mass shooting
There is a lack of consensus on how to define a mass shooting. Most terms define a minimum of three or four victims of gun violence (not including the shooter or in an inner city) in a short period of time, although an Australian study from 20 ...
s at mosques in Christchurch
Christchurch ( ; mi, Ōtautahi) is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. Christchurch lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula on Pegasus Bay. The Avon Rive ...
, New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
, said in his manifesto "The Great Replacement" (in reference to a far-right theory from France by Renaud Camus
Renaud Camus (; ; born Jean Renaud Gabriel Camus on 10 August 1946) is a French novelist, conspiracy theorist and white nationalist writer. He is the inventor of the " Great Replacement", a far-right conspiracy theory that claims that a "glob ...
) that he was in particular inspired by Breivik and claimed to have been in "brief contact" with him, as well as meeting with his organisation, the Knights Templar. The shootings took place at Al Noor Mosque and Linwood Islamic Centre
The Linwood Islamic Centre is a Sunni Islam mosque in Linwood, Christchurch, New Zealand. The mosque opened in early 2018 on the grounds of the former Christchurch Bahai Centre and the building had most recently been the Linwood Community Centr ...
during Friday Prayer on 15 March 2019, killing 51 people and injuring 40 more.
Depiction in popular culture
*The poem hese memories have no time to wait''Desse minna har ikkje tid til å vente'' (2021), by Frode Grytten
Frode Grytten is a Norwegian writer and journalist. Born 11 December 1960 in Bergen and a native of Odda, he is the author of the Brage Prize-winning novel ''Bikubesong'' ("Song of the Beehive") as well as other short stories and poems. His wor ...
Films
* o the Youth''Til ungdommen'' (2012), directed by Kari Anne Moe
*'' Utøya: July 22'', directed by Erik Poppe
Erik Poppe (born 24 June 1960) is a Norwegian film director, producer and screenwriter.
Poppe is regarded as one of Scandinavia's most experienced and compelling film directors recognized for his work with actors and multi-pronged narrativ ...
, was released in 2018.
*''22 July
Events Pre-1600
* 838 – Battle of Anzen: The Byzantine emperor Theophilos suffers a heavy defeat by the Abbasids.
*1099 – First Crusade: Godfrey of Bouillon is elected the first Defender of the Holy Sepulchre of The Kingdom of J ...
'', directed by Paul Greengrass
Paul Greengrass (born 13 August 1955) is a British film director, film producer, screenwriter and former journalist. He specialises in dramatisations of historic events and is known for his signature use of hand-held cameras.
His early film ' ...
, was released in 2018.
* he legacy of 22 July''Arven etter 22. juli'', directed by Tommy Gulliksen (Simple English Wikipedia
The Simple English Wikipedia is a modified English-language edition of Wikipedia, a free online encyclopedia, written primarily in Basic English and Learning English. It is one of seven Wikipedias written in an Anglic language or English-based ...
), was released in 2021
Music
The Austrian black metal
Black metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. Common traits include fast tempos, a shrieking vocal style, heavily distorted guitars played with tremolo picking, raw (lo-fi) recording, unconventional song structures, and an emp ...
band Harakiri for the Sky
Harakiri for the Sky is an Austrian post-black metal band formed in Salzburg and Vienna in 2011 by vocalist JJ (Michael V. Wahntraum) and multi-instrumentalist Matthias Sollak, formerly of black metal band Bifröst. They have released five studio ...
released a song titled, "69 Dead Birds for Utøya", on their 2014 album ''Aokigahara.''
Dutch symphonic metal band Epica
Epica or EPICA may refer to:
* Epica (band), a Dutch symphonic metal band
* ''Epica'' (Kamelot album), 2003
* ''Epica'' (Audiomachine album), 2012
* The European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica (EPICA)
* The Epica Awards (International Adver ...
released a song entitled "Internal Warfare", on their 2012 album ''Requiem for the Indifferent
''Requiem for the Indifferent'' is the fifth studio album by Dutch symphonic metal band Epica. It was released on 9 March 2012. The album was the first to feature solos by keyboardist Coen Janssen, which very rarely occur on the band's other re ...
''. Singer Simone Simons
Simone Johanna Maria Simons (born 17 January 1985) is a Dutch singer. She is best known for being the lead singer of Dutch symphonic metal band Epica, which she joined at the age of seventeen, releasing eight studio albums and touring the world ...
stated in an interview that it was about the Breivik attacks in Norway.
Norwegian pop singer Aurora
An aurora (plural: auroras or aurorae), also commonly known as the polar lights, is a natural light display in Earth's sky, predominantly seen in high-latitude regions (around the Arctic and Antarctic). Auroras display dynamic patterns of bri ...
released a song entitled "Little Boy in the Grass", on her 2015 EP ''Running with the Wolves
''Running with the Wolves'' is the debut extended play (EP) by Norwegian singer-songwriter Aurora (singer), Aurora. It was released on 4 May 2015 via Decca and Universal Music.
Composition
According to Aurora, every song of the EP has a diff ...
'', which is about the tragedy.
A 2016 song performed by the Norwegian pop-rock band deLillos, "Vi ser dere nå" ("We see you now"), was written about the attacks; one verse says: ".. he set off a bomb, to go to an island, where he gunned down youth, as if it was fun".
Television
Season 6 of '' Seconds from Disaster'' premiered on the one-year anniversary of the 2011 Norway attacks (aired 22 July 2012), with the episode titled, "Norway Massacre: I Was There".
The '' Futurama'' episode "The Cryonic Woman
"The Cryonic Woman" is the nineteenth and final episode of the second season of ''Futurama''. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on December 3, 2000. The plot incorporates a cryonics theme. Sarah Silverman does the voice o ...
" was briefly changed on some syndicated reruns, including the DVD rerelease, because a moment in the episode included a screen saying "Prime Minister of Norway". This was later changed to "Chainsaw Juggler".
A TV miniseries, ', about the respondents to the attack premiered on NRK
NRK, an abbreviation of the Norwegian ''Norsk Rikskringkasting AS'', generally expressed in English as the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation, is the Norwegian government-owned radio and television public broadcasting company, and the largest ...
5 January 2020.
See also
* Timeline of the 2011 Norway attacks
* List of right-wing terrorist attacks
This is a list of right-wing terrorist attacks. Right-wing terrorism is terrorism that is motivated by a variety of different right-wing and far-right ideologies, most prominently by neo-Nazism, neo-fascism, ecofascism, white nationalism, whit ...
* 22 July Information Centre, the government enquiry into the attacks
* Anders Behring Breivik
Fjotolf Hansen (born 13 February 1979), better known by his birth name Anders Behring Breivik () and by his pseudonym Andrew Berwick, is a Norwegian far-right domestic terrorist, known for committing the 2011 Norway attacks on 22 July 2011. On ...
* Oklahoma City bombing
The Oklahoma City bombing was a domestic terrorism in the United States, domestic terrorist truck bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States, on April 19, 1995. Perpetrated by two anti-federal go ...
, a terrorist attack against government offices in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Oklahoma City (), officially the City of Oklahoma City, and often shortened to OKC, is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The county seat of Oklahoma County, it ranks 20th among United States cities in population, and ...
, US, using similar explosives
* 2016 Munich shooting, a mass shooting that occurred exactly five years after the attacks.
*
References
Further reading
* Borchgrevink, Aage Storm, and Guy Puzey. ''A Norwegian Tragedy: Anders Behring Breivik and the Massacre on Utøya''. 2013. (translated from the Norwegian)
* Seierstad, Åsne, and Sarah Death. ''One of us: the story of Anders Breivik and the massacre in Norway''. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2015. (translated from the Norwegian)
* Turrettini, Unni, and Kathleen M. Puckett. ''The Mystery of the Lone Wolf Killer: Anders Behring Breivik and the Threat of Terror in Plain Sight''. New York: Pegasus Crime, 2015.
External links
Stor eksplosjon i Oslo sentrum
''Aftenposten
( in the masthead; ; Norwegian for "The Evening Post") is Norway's largest printed newspaper by circulation. It is based in Oslo. It sold 211,769 copies in 2015 (172,029 printed copies according to University of Bergen) and estimated 1.2 milli ...
'', News report in Norwegian, with pictures.
Allvarligt bombattentat skakar Oslo
'' Sveriges Radio'', News report in Swedish, with pictures.
Norway – Breivik Attacks, July 2011
collected news and commentary at ''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
''
Victims from the attacks in Oslo and at Utøya
( Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation)
Oslo Terrorist Attacks – Terrorism with a different face, in a different place
(Official report)
* Kjetil Alstadheim. https://www.aftenposten.no/meninger/kommentar/i/V9yBAl/noe-gikk-galt-paa-stortinget-etter-22-juli omething went wrong in Parliament, after the 22 July (attack) 27 August 2022. Aftenposten
( in the masthead; ; Norwegian for "The Evening Post") is Norway's largest printed newspaper by circulation. It is based in Oslo. It sold 211,769 copies in 2015 (172,029 printed copies according to University of Bergen) and estimated 1.2 milli ...
.no
Images
Deadly Attacks In Norway
– slideshow by ''NPR
National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...
''
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