Buried Nazi monument divides opinion
A history professor in Trondheim has sparked controversy by calling for a buried Nazi monument to be unearthed at one of Norway’s most historically resonant sites.
The nine-meter high pillar was erected on St Olaf’s day 1944 by the Nasjonal Samling, Norway’s wartime Nazi Party.
It was put up at the site of the battle of Stiklestad, where the saint, who as King Olaf is lauded for uniting and Christianising Norway, was killed. It was decorated with a nordic sun cross, and scenes from the battle.
After the defeat of the Nazis it was buried, ripped down by resistance fighters and covered with soil.
Tor Einar Fagerland, professor of History at the NTNU in Trondheim, now wants the pillar to be unearthed.
“Norwegian nationalism is often described as being positive and inclusive,” he told Aftenposten. “But Behring Breivik and Varg Vikernes' variants of racist nationalism shows that extreme nationalism also exists in our society. A partial unearthing of the monument will force the realisation that political extremism is something that is also found here, and not only there, amongst others,” he said.
The suggestion has generated sharp controversy, with Kolbein Dahle, a journalist and conservationist in Nord-Trøndelag county dismissing the suggestion as “sensationalist”.
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The nine-meter high pillar was erected on St Olaf’s day 1944 by the Nasjonal Samling, Norway’s wartime Nazi Party.
It was put up at the site of the battle of Stiklestad, where the saint, who as King Olaf is lauded for uniting and Christianising Norway, was killed. It was decorated with a nordic sun cross, and scenes from the battle.
After the defeat of the Nazis it was buried, ripped down by resistance fighters and covered with soil.
Tor Einar Fagerland, professor of History at the NTNU in Trondheim, now wants the pillar to be unearthed.
“Norwegian nationalism is often described as being positive and inclusive,” he told Aftenposten. “But Behring Breivik and Varg Vikernes' variants of racist nationalism shows that extreme nationalism also exists in our society. A partial unearthing of the monument will force the realisation that political extremism is something that is also found here, and not only there, amongst others,” he said.
The suggestion has generated sharp controversy, with Kolbein Dahle, a journalist and conservationist in Nord-Trøndelag county dismissing the suggestion as “sensationalist”.
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