King Harald and Queen Sonja of Norway made a poignant visit to Utøya, the site of one of the two attacks perpetrated by a terrorist on 22 July 2011.
The royal couple arrived on the island via the MS Thorbjørn, one of the ferries transporting passengers between the two shores. Upon their arrival, they were welcomed by Astrid Hoem, leader of the Workers’ Youth League, Lisbeth Røyneland, the leader of the National Support Group for 22/7 Victims, and Jørgen Watne Frydnes, general manager of the island.
The King and Queen’s first stop was Hegnhuset, one of the memorials built on Norwegian soil to commemorate the tragedy. Its core is supported by 69 pillars, one for each of the victims, while the exterior is fenced by almost 500 pillars, one for each of the massacre’s survivors.
In the innermost portion of Hegnhuset, a wall is covered in the texts that victims and survivors sent to their loved ones outside of the island. Many people opted to text instead of calling to avoid making any noises, thus alerting the shooter to their position.
King Harald and Queen Sonja then went to the centre’s café, one of the places where the shooting occurred, and listened to stories of that day by Lisbeth Røyneland and Jørgen Watne Frydnes.
Following that conversation, the royal couple moved to the Lysninga memorial, a clearing in the forest at the centre of which stands a metal ring with the names and ages of all the victims engraved. Queen Sonja laid a flower bouquet.
In addition, the King and Queen laid flowers underneath the name of Didrik Aamodt Olsen, who would have celebrated his birthday. He was 19 when he was fatally shot and was the vice president of the Workers’ Youth League magazine.
This gesture is a tradition at the Lysninga memorial – whenever one of the victims would be celebrating a birthday, the local staff and leaders lay flowers underneath their name on the Ring.
To conclude the day, King Harald and Queen Sonja met with the young participants in a democracy workshop. The group was composed of 10th-grade students visiting the island with their class, one of the many groups of students that are welcomed in Utøya every year so that young people can learn about the events of 22 July and think about the democratic fundaments on which Norway rests.
This was King Harald and Queen Sonja’s first visit to the island, although it was far from being the first time they met with victims of the Utøya massacre, as they were very involved in all commemorations of the tragedy that happened immediately after and in the 11 years since.
On 22 July 2011, at 3:22 pm, a car bomb exploded near the Regjeringskvartalet government complex, next to the block housing the Prime Minister’s office. The attack killed eight people and injured at least 209.
Approximately an hour and a half later, at 5:22 pm, the perpetrator arrived on the island of Utøya dressed as a police officer. He started shooting indiscriminately within the premises of the AUF summer camp, killing 69 people and injuring 32, before surrendering to the police at 6:34 pm.
The AUF (Arbeidernes ungdomsfylkingm or Workers’ Youth League) is Norway’s largest political youth organisation and is affiliated with the country’s Labour Party. That is the reason why the shooter is said to have screamed: “You are going to die today, Marxists!” before opening fire.
Among the victims were friends of the former Prime Minister (and current NATO Secretary General) Jens Stoltenberg, as well as the stepbrother of Crown Princess Mette-Marit.
Note: because of their expressed desire to acquire fame from these acts, the name of the perpetrator was deliberately left out.
