SerpApi.Org
Inside Norway’s parliament, Julie Bremnes recently stood before a group of visiting school pupils and spoke about something she rarely discusses in that setting.
She was 16 when she survived the far-right terrorist attack on Utøya in 2011. Today, Bremnes works as a political adviser for the Labour Party.
Wednesday, July 22, marked 15 years since the attacks in Oslo and on Utøya. Eight people were killed when far-right extremist Anders Behring Breivik detonated a bomb in the government quarter. He then travelled to Utøya, where he killed 69 people at the summer camp of the Workers’ Youth League, known by its Norwegian initials AUF. The organisation is the Labour Party’s youth wing.
Many of the pupils now studying July 22 were not alive when it happened. Others were too young to remember it.
Bremnes told NRK that teaching this generation about political involvement and social division has become increasingly important.
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“I hope that this year we manage to teach a new generation the importance of participating in democracy, of standing up against opinions when someone tries to divide us into ‘us’ and ‘them’.”
The island is now a classroom
Every summer, young people return to the same island where the attack unfolded.
Utøya now hosts workshops on the attacks, civic participation, discrimination and anti-democratic ideas. According to the Utøya Democracy Workshop, thousands of young visitors take part in educational programmes on the island each year.
Some sessions are held in buildings that survived the shooting. Guided visits also take pupils through the island’s history and the political environment in which the attack occurred.
The 22 July Centre in Oslo has a similar role. Established as a national centre for remembrance and public education, it presents the history of the government quarter bombing and the Utøya massacre. A new centre opened on Wednesday.
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These institutions allow the story to be taught without placing the entire responsibility on survivors and bereaved families.
Bremnes told NRK that the public response after the attacks helped many survivors feel supported. More than 300,000 people joined rose marches across Norway, according to the broadcaster. The gatherings became a symbol of national unity and rejection of political violence.
For some who were directly involved, however, the years since have also raised a harder question: whether the country concentrated so strongly on unity that it paid insufficient attention to the beliefs behind the killings.
The politics did not disappear
Mads Hartz was among the civilian boat owners who crossed the water to help young people escaping from Utøya. He later assisted police in transporting the attacker away from the island.
Speaking to the broadcaster, Hartz said the rose marches were both meaningful and unifying. But he believes the political attitudes associated with the attacker still require closer examination.
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“It became something uniquely Norwegian, unifying and beautiful, but the perpetrator stood for attitudes that still exist in society today. I think I would have directed my anger toward that.”
NRK writes that the attacker’s manifesto, which promoted far-right and anti-Muslim conspiracy theories, later influenced extremists in Norway and abroad.
Hartz also warned about social-media environments where users mainly encounter people who already agree with them. In such spaces, he said, unsupported claims can be repeated and reinforced until they are treated as fact.
Former police investigator Geir-Egil Løken, who questioned the attacker, offered a different perspective. He said extreme or conspiratorial ideas should be challenged directly, but argued that ridicule and personal contempt often prevent meaningful discussion.
Norway’s official inquiry focused on institutional failures. The independent July 22 Commission concluded in 2012 that serious shortcomings had affected preparedness, coordination and the emergency response. Its findings became part of a wider effort to determine what should change after the attacks.
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The transfer of memory is now visible on Utøya itself.
Pupils sit in workshops, walk through preserved buildings and discuss how political language can shape public life. Outside, the island continues to host summer camps, football matches and gatherings for young activists.
For these visitors, July 22 belongs to history rather than personal memory. Yet the classrooms, paths and gathering places where they learn about it remain part of everyday life, carrying the story forward through each new generation.
Sources: NRK, Utøya Democracy Workshop
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