Norway: Celebrating Nazi-sympathizer unrelated to Holocaust Indoctrination

Norway's honoring of novelist and Nazi-sympathizer Knut Hamsun "does not in any way affect" the country's chairmanship of the international task force for Holocaust education, the body's head yesterday said.

But the Raul Wallenberg Foundation told Norway's queen that in light of the chairmanship, Hamsun's commemoration was "incomprehensible."

Last month Haaretz quoted prominent anti-Semitism campaigners who said Norway was not suited to chair the Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research (ITF), due to its commemoration of the 150th anniversary of Hamsun's birth this year. Hamsun was a Nobel Prize winner who publicly supported Nazism.

In his first reaction to the controversy, ITF Chair Tom Vraalsen said Norway was "dedicated to the fight against contemporary anti-Semitism."

Vraalsen added: "It is Hamsun's literary work that is being honored. His pro-Nazi activities must continue to be condemned. Because of this sordid aspect, Hamsun will remain controversial in Norway and globally."

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1101691.html