My guess is that most of what you hear or read about Norway is positive. Land of the midnight sun, a country where gender equality is a major priority, a place that encourages a healthy lifestyle, environmentally friendly. Rarely are there negative images of Norway portrayed in the media. Whaling is definitely one of the very controversial activities Norway engages in. Another, some will say, is antisemitism. Based on both historic accounts and current issues, some argue that Norwegians are an antisemitic people. The foreign minister of Israel is the most recent example of criticism of Norway with regards to antisemitism. First, a brief history of antisemitism in Norway.
Although the population of Norway is becoming more diverse every day, for most of its history as a people, the population was very homogenous. As Norway began to encounter mainland Europe through Viking travel, opinions were formed about Jews based on what was said about them. A bit later on, after the Protestant Reformation settled in Scandinavia, Norway (under the rule of Denmark) adopted religious restrictions, some of which were against the Jews in particular. In 1814, although Denmark (and thus Norway as well) had recently lifted all bans against Jews, Norwegians gained indepedence from Denmark and actually reinforced the negative treatment of Jews, “banning them from Norway’s borders.”
Oddly enough, Henrik Wergeland, son of Nikolai Wergeland, a member of the constitutional assembly who strongly supported banning Jews, for years fought to repeal the ban. In 1851, the ban was repealed. The younger Wergeland is known to this day as the champion for the Jews in Norway.
Some of you may have read an earlier post about Vidkun Quisling, leader of the national socialist party in Norway, who supported Hitler and Nazism to the fullest extent. There is no doubt that Hitler had a strong following of Norwegians (whether passive or active) during the Holocaust, but it must be known that there were also many brave Norwegians that actively opposed the Nazi movement and risked their lives to save Jews.
Today Norway is accused of antisemitism because of her stance on the Arab-Israeli conflict. Norway supports Palestine. I will save the bulk of this issue for another post. So, back to the earlier mention of the most recent criticism of Norway as antisemitic, there is an article in Aftenposten online today titled “Isreals utenriksminister beskylder Norge for antisemittisme” (Israel’s foreign minister accuses Norway of antisemitism). The reason that prompted this headline is Norway’s celebration of the 150th year since the birth of Nobel winning author Knut Hamsun. Hamsun is believed to have been a Nazi sympathizer and thus Avigdor Lieberman, Israel’s foreign minister, is appalled that Norway would celebrate such a person. As you can see, this is certainly a controversial issue. However, regardless of Knut Hamsun’s political beliefs, he was one hell of an author. I read his book Sult (hunger) for one of my Norwegian classes and I can say that it was one of the most vivid stories I have ever read. Absolutely amazing. I will write a separate post on Knut Hamsun as well.
What is important to know about antisemitism in Norway, in my opinion, are the reasons for it’s place in Norwegian history, and the many instances of support for Jewish tolerance and cohabitation. I welcome your comments on this issue!
http://theforeigner.no/pages/news/anti-semitism-common-in-norwegian-schools/
Comments:
Stella Hermansen:
Hello,
I truly do enjoy your post regarding Norway. I was married many years to a Norwegian and yes he was antisemintic as are most of his friends.in Norway.
I believe there can be no justification for hatred and persecution of any ethnic group of people. Norway needs to bring itself in the present and not bury antisemitism in history. It is real and alive in Norway. The last time I checked, there were only about 2000 Jews living in Norway probably because of the border ban and antisemintism. I have traveled more times than I can count to Norway so I am quite familiar with the issue.
I do love Norway and Norwegians but they do carry this holier than thou attitude and simply rely on the government to tell them what to do and think. That is the primary reason I could never live there but it is a great place to visit.
Olav:
Hello!
I’ve enjoyed reading your blog about Norway for some time now. You do a great job, and for a Norwegian it’s very interesting to read.
This is my first time writing back, and you’re blog about Norwegian anti-Semitics and Hamsun is the reason. I don’t know if i can be called objective cause I am a native Norwegian. I’m not the one to make that call.
Then to my comment.
I have to say I found Stella Hermansen comment very untrue. Of course, she could very well have been married to an anti-Semitic (guess you can find those stupid people everywhere in the world), but to say most Norwegians are anti-Semitic are very wrong. This is why. After WW2 most European countries were Israel-friendly. Norway was in fact one, if not the biggest one of them all. The government was the social-democratic party (Arbeiderpartiet) under the leadership of Einar Gerhardsen and Haakon Lie. The government, and especially Lie, was much known of being very Israel friendly. Heck, Norway even smuggled out heavy-water to Israel, so they could make the A-bomb. Up till the late 80’s nothing changed in the view of Israel. But going into the 90’s and forward the view of Israel’s actions\policy against Palestine changed. The Norwegian public, and also the political parties (except the right winged political party Fremskritspartiet (Progress party), has lately been very critical of Israel’s policy over Palestine. BUT here is the big clue that everyone seems to forget. No one has ever to my knowledge (in modern times) said anything against the Jews. The issue is with the Israelian policy in Palestine.
This has actually been very much debated in the Norwegian media. The issue is, in a Norwegian point of view: “Can you not criticize the state of Israel without getting anti-Semitism claims in return”.
Israel have the last couple of years been very critical toward Norway in the media, especially the Jerusalem Post. This spring they wrote a serious of articles about the “rising” Norwegian anti-Semitism. They included interviews with the Norwegian financial minister Halvorsen (who is very critical of Israel policy) and a high-ranking military officer who claimed Norway was indeed very anti-Semitic. This we’re all unveiled as false and fabricated. Even the Jewish synagogue went out in defense of the state of Norway.
The same issue can be said about the Hamsun debate. No one can say that Hamsun is not a genius writer and deserved the Nobel prize. Norwegians is well known to be a reading people (very bad sentence, i guess) and every year one of Norway’s most influential writers gets special attention. Books is reprinted, TV-specials are made of them etc etc. Last year was Ibsen I think. The Norwegian government has made it very clear that the celebration of Hamsun is about the writings of Hamsun, NOT Hamsun himself. There has been a lot of articles\TV-programs about Hamsuns personal life which is very critical of the man himself. Last year Norway even send notice to the Israelian government making them aware that it was the writings of Hamsun, and not the man himself we we’re celebration. The Israelian government wrote back and said they had no problems with it.
Oh my god, this became a long comment. But for this issue I felt I had to do it. Norway has many faults, no doubt about it. But being called anti-Semitic really hurts the average Norwegian. It’s like saying: “If you don’t agree with everything we do, then you’re against us” And that’s a point of view Norwegians have big problems with. We have a slogan in Norway saying “Den som tier samtykker”(Those who keep quiet agrees).
Lee:
I sent your article to a good freind in Norge for his comments, thought you all might firnd them interresting Lee
Hi,
Slidabordet was great. Many people, and much herring to eat. Just like 17. mai.
An interesting article on that blog.
It’s correct that there still are much antisemitism in Norway. Earlier much of this came from the national socialists (the nazis). But to day it’s the socialist leftists and their supporters in media. They direct much of their anti semitism towards Israel and critizizes and condemn Israel for everything that happens in the middle east. Even some of the bishops of the Statskirken feel they have to critizize Israel to be so much political correct as possible.
It also seems that some people are very envious about other people that work hard and succeed.
The other day I bought a documentary about Moritz Rabinowitz, a Jew living in Haugesund when 2nd WW came to our country. “Mannen som elsket Haugesund” “The Man that loved Haugesund”. And Rabinowitz was a man that worked hard and did success with his business. And he was also a Jew.
You can read about Rabinowitz here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moritz_Rabinowitz
I saw the documentary on TV some years ago, and I’ll send the DVD to you in a few days after having watched it one more time. After watching it you may understand more of what Kari wrote about.
It’s also very sad that the present government supports Hamas and the corrupt PA with our tax money. Our foreign minister also sat and listened to Adolph Amadinejad from Iran while the other ministers marched out during his outbursts of antisemitism during the Durban II conference. I was deeply shocked about this.
That was my thoughts about Kari’s article on the blog.
Vennlig hilsen,
Terje
Kari:
I knew this topic would prompt discussion, as it should. Thank you all for posting your comments and generating some thought on this. Norway has a particularly interesting past when you take into consideration her young age as a sovereign country, involvement in WWII and current issues related to the Arab-Israeli conflict. Stay tuned for more on this-we could be talking and writing forever with topics related to this.
Aslo, I highly recommend seeing ‘Inglouriuos basterds.’ One of the best movies I’ve ever seen.