Norweigan massacre exhibition sparks ‘hall of fame’ fears

A planned exhibition about the killings of 77 people in 2011 is angering some Norwegians, who fear it will turn into a “hall of fame” for mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik.

The exhibition, opening next week in the government building in central Oslo where Breivik killed his first eight victims, will include his fake police identity card and bits of the mangled van in which he planted a bomb.

Norway’s Conservative-led government says the information centre, likely to last five years, has been planned in consultation with some survivors and relatives to help the Nordic nation come to terms with the attacks. But many want to forget Breivik, now in prison.

“It’s regrettable that the attacker is getting the attention he always sought,” said Tor Oestboe, whose wife was among those killed in Oslo.

After detonating the bomb, Breivik travelled to an island outside Oslo and shot dead 69 people, many of them teenagers attending a summer camp run by the then-ruling Labour Party.

Minister of local government and modernisation Jan Tore Sanner said. “Knowledge is the most important instrument against hate, violence and extremism.”