‘Auschwitz’ cocktails & SS soldier costumes: Norwegian students in hot water over Nazi-themed party
A students’ union in Norway is under fire for holding a theme party in which bartenders dressed as SS soldiers and served drinks with names such as 'Auschwitz' and 'Blitzkrieg.' Every visitor was issued an “entry visa” bearing Hitler’s photo.
At the party, which took place at the Norwegian town of Trondheim this weekend, attendees were greeted by doormen in SS uniforms. Bartenders wearing Nazi military fatigues served cocktails and drinks dubbed 'Auschwitz,' 'Blitzkrieg,' 'Blood and Honor' and 'Mein Kampf,' local media reported.
Visitors had to produce their IDs at the entrance and were given some sort of entry visa bearing gothic script and an image of Adolf Hitler, 25-year-old Maja Sandstroem, who was visiting Trondheim from the Swedish town of Oestersund, told Norway’s NRK broadcaster.
Sandstroem said she was ashamed to have paid an entrance fee, adding she was devastated by what she saw at the party. “This is really unheard of,” the student said, adding, “There may be people who have relatives killed in the war.”
According to Sandstroem, some people did not even bother to admit that the party organizers had bad taste. “Some said it's just fun, you have no sense of humor because you’re from Sweden,” the student said, according to SVT.
In the end, however, neither guests nor organizers were reportedly happy with the event. After the story was reported by local media, Trondheim’s students’ union issued a formal apology, writing on Facebook that the party’s theme was supposed to be “politically incorrect,” but “unfortunately it went too far.” link
The union insisted the bizarre event was meant “to make a mockery of the Nazi movement, and the anti-Nazi propaganda on the walls tried to highlight this.” Tale Baerland, head of the students’ union, disavowed the event and said it “does not reflect our values,” saying the union rejects Nazi ideology.
Weyman Bennett, of the UK-based ‘Unite Against Fascism’ organization, told RT he was shocked by the fact the students had “so little respect for the people fighting [in World War II] for their freedom they truly enjoy.”
He recalled Anders Behring Breivik, the infamous Norwegian neo-Nazi who staged the 2011 rampages in Oslo and the island of Utoya, saying the formal apologies from the union were not enough. An investigation “into what’s happening among Norwegian students” should follow, Bennett argued, adding serving ‘Auschwitz’ cocktails was “an insult to the millions that were murdered.”
Norway was occupied by the Nazis in 1940, and remained under German rule until 1945. During the war, Trondheim saw fierce fighting between Nazi troops and the British Royal Navy, which was seeking to capture the important city and better protect northern sea routes.
