Norway Commemorates Holocaust Deportations

Ervin Kohn, President of the Jewish community in Oslo, told thej.ca in an exclusive interview, “We commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day in January 27th, but for us this day is a national day. Historically the people of Norway believed that the Shoah happened to ‘some other community’ in ‘some other country’ but the Jewish community always commemorated it here. Now, it has become more public acceptance and people have come to realize that many Norwegian citizens were involved – police, bureaucrats, train drivers, taxi drivers, all members of society. I am very happy that the public attitude to this has improved significantly.”

Rabbi Michael Melchior addressed several pressing community concerns – school student’s need to take time off work on Jewish holidays, provision of kosher food for prison inmates and the ongoing threat of budget cuts for the Jewish Housing and Senior Center. To this, the audience replied with a standing ovation. Støre later replied that he couldn’t “promise anything”.

“It is good news that Norwegians have learned to accept that they participated in the Holocaust atrocities after almost 80 years.” said Rami Kafarov, a community member. “The 26th of this month is the actual commemoration date but it falls on Shabbat, so we had it two days before in Oslo city hall. The actual deportation site is a mere 10-minute walk from here.”