True Crime/Paranormal/Conspiracy Theory Stories Part VIII

2011 Norway Attacks Part III

Utøya – Hegnhuset

Newspaper display case that was damaged during the explosion. In 2020 the display case was moved back to where it was in 2011.

Memorial in Mo i Rana by Nico Widerberg [no]

At Utøya, the place of memorial is called ("the clearing") "Lysninga"; a part of it is ("the ring") "Ringen" – a "ring of steel [that] 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 [metal] 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 [the building at] Akersgata 55, the headquarters of Verdens Gang. The installation is referred to by the governmental organisation KORO, 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 [no] 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 [no] in Oslo has been proposed, including metal roses. It has not been authorized, as its planned dimensions of 34 meters (112 ft) by 20 meters (66 ft), with a height of 3 metres (9.8 ft), were judged to be too overwhelming.

The canceled national memorial at Sørbråten

As of September 2016, Hole Municipality has stopped case work regarding the request for permission to build a national monument at Sørbråten [no]; 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 350 m (1,150 ft) from Utvika and 900 m (3,000 ft) 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 (as of 2016, by next of kin) as inscriptions on the planned monument.

A committee, Kunstutvalget for minnestaden for 22. juli, chose a design by Jonas Dahlberg for the monument, and Karin Moe has called the planned monument at Sørbråten — "Breivik's Memorial Place". Later, in a Klassekampen article Moe said that "Many of the [local] inhabitants have described [...] the design as a violation, even a rape of nature [that is in place] at 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 traumatized 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-traumatized. Why must this incurable memorial-wound be inflicted on us, so close to [our bodies or our] life". Furthermore, she said that "Long time was needed before the September 11 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. A later article said that "What many of us don't understand is why these plan, apparently not well-considered, now are pushed through. ... Is it [because of] prestige or out of consideration to the artist"?