77 people were killed on 22 July 2011. Eight after the bomb in the government quarter. 69 during the shooting at AUF’s summer camp on Utøya. Many certainly remember that day. But that is no longer a given. Nor within AUF. Skjervø is currently deputy chairman of AUF. The 29-year-old is one of the last survivors of the terror attack who is still active in the youth party. – 22 July was the start of a far-right wave in Europe. AUF has a unique knowledge of what these attitudes can lead to, says Skjervø. Gaute Skjervø (left), Astrid Hoem and Jonas Gahr Støre at AUF’s summer camp on Utøya last year. Photo: Anikka Byrde / NTB From the best to the worst day On Monday, Skjervø Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre (Ap) and local team leader in AUF Sagene Waris Ahmed met for a conversation about July 22 in Nyhetsmorgen. Skjervø tells about how he experienced being close to the biggest terrorist attack in Norway in peacetime. The day before the terrorist landed on Utøya, Skjervø describes as perhaps the finest day of his life up to that point. Together with their comrades from Levanger, they went to bed with great expectations – Gro Harlem Brundtland himself was to come. The ground on Utøya as it usually is. Here from AUF’s summer camp last year. Photo: Private – Didn’t feel like someone who wanted to take their life The idyll on Utøya should quickly turn around. While the terrorist started shooting around the island, Skjervø saw several people being shot. – We didn’t know how many attacked us, what the motivation was. I didn’t feel like someone would kill myself, so I thought at first that I had no reason to be afraid, says Skjervø. The seriousness was to quickly sink in, however. – It went on and on. It never ended, he says further. Skjervø joined a group that went swimming. He thanks volunteers in a boat who rescued him from the water. Jonas Gahr Støre, Waris Ahmed and Gaute Børstad Skjervø met to talk about their relationship until 22 July. Photo: Javier Ernesto Auris Chavez / news – Great personal cost The 29-year-old from Levanger is today one of the few active AUFs left who experienced the terror on Utøya. Skjervø is currently deputy leader of the youth party. Recently, it became clear that the current AUF leader, Astrid Hoem, who was also on Utøya, will not stand for re-election. For Skjervø, it was by no means an easy decision to return to the island he had fled from. Skjervø is concerned that Utøya is again filled with life and politics. Here is Waris Ahmed (th) at summer camp last year. Photo: Private In the first four years after the attack, he only returned once. – It is a great personal cost to have been as scared as many of us survivors have been. I am very happy that I have been given the opportunity to come back, says Skjervø. – I am part of a small number who have chosen to return to politics. Others have had families, moved on and taken other paths. Of course that’s fine too, but I think it’s a shame that we don’t have the people who should have been involved in the battles we face, he continues. Continued police protection Skjervø says that they meet everyone new to Utøya as they always would. With open arms and room for everyone. – Nevertheless, with the background that thirteen years later AUF’s summer camp still has to have police protection around the clock. – We have a responsibility to manage that history. For me, it is important that it is love and not hate that should win. That is why it is important for me to continue the fight. Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre agrees with that. He thinks it’s good that the island has been put back into use. – The fact that both the summer camp atmosphere and politics are back on the island testifies that democracy and not terror has won, he says. For both Støre and Skjervø, it is important that the story of what happened on 22 July be told for many years to come. Jonas Gahr Støre believes we must never stop telling the stories from what happened on 22 July 2011. Photo: Torstein Georg Bøe / news Was at the cabin – Going to Utøya the day after the attack is one of the strongest impressions I’ve had, says Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre to news. The Prime Minister himself was not on Utøya when the attack occurred, but had been there the day before. He was at the cottage with his family when the reports of an explosion in the government quarter came in. The following morning he went to Utøya and Sundvolden hotels where he met the bereaved and survivors. – Then I got to see and discover what a disaster this really was, says Støre. New generation of AUF-ers In just over a week, hundreds of excited AUF-ers will be packing their bags to once again go back to the traditional summer camp. One of these, leader of Sagene AUF, Waris Ahmed. She was only three years old when the terror struck Norway. Ahmed himself does not remember anything from that painful day in 2011, but has been told about it by his mother. – We were on holiday. Mum has said that she was called by dad who was back in Oslo. He said that there had been an explosion in the city. Mum was scared and wanted to go home, she says. It went well with father, who fortunately was not near the explosion. Although Ahmed is only 16 years old, she has been to summer camp before. She is looking forward to it. – Even though the history is dark, it is very nice to be able to go into the old cafe building and look at the history. It’s very nice to be at summer camp, she says. Published 22.07.2024, at 11.31 Updated 22.07.2024, at 11.35
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Gaute (29) survived the terror – one of the few still active in AUF – news Norway – Overview of news from different parts of the country
