The Holocaust Center in Oslo is located in the former home of the Norwegian Nazi party leader, Vidkun Quisling. His mansion seems in gross excess compared to most Oslo city dwellings. It is now a center that commemorates the forced removal of over 700 Jewish citizens during World War II. Many of the deportees, especially women and children lost their lives at Auschwitz.

The museum begins with propaganda about the Jewish people. It is hard to think about how any party, government, or person could do this to innocent people. What causes hate? How does xenophobia and racism take root? As I read the anti-Jewish propaganda written by Nazis I am disgusted. But it is the hate filled writings of people like Henry Ford and even Martin Luther (yes….that Martin Luther) that causes the most dismay. I think “how could they” and then I juxtapose the callous propaganda video of immigrant deportations that I saw on the official White House social media page just this morning. Different times and different media, but propaganda pieces all the same.

I keep reading and walking. Each piece is more dehumanizing than the last. Portraying entire groups of people as criminal and evil without proof. Designed in a misguided racist attempt to shape society. Soulless. Unempathetic. Evil. I am plagued by historical examples whispering to me their modern parallels. I am gutted by an exhibit that outlines how Nazi ministers got their ideas from studying American slavery and Jim Crow laws….meanwhile my government on this very day is actively trying to keep Americans from having discussions about diversity, equity, and inclusion, …I fear for our national identity if we continue to avoid facing history and ourselves.

I see the disturbing images of authoritarianism and blatant racism in photographs and artifacts. A scrapbook of Hitler Youth activities looks like wholesome sports until you see the Nazi flag and read the subtext. The Nazi discredited the teachers and education system by accusing them of disloyalty to Germany and indoctrination. So that they could replace the teachers with loyalists and require all children to join Hitler Youth where could actually indoctrinate children with Nazi ideals.

I see the modern similarities but don’t want to admit them, even to myself. I will never understand racists. I certainly can’t understand a level of cruelty that allows individuals to treat people as disposable objects instead of souls created in the image of God. This happened only 80 years ago. The people in the photos could be my grandparents. It is 2025, and the organized and targeted cruelty toward immigrants and ethnic groups is still raging around the world. Even in a country that was formed by immigrants and that helped to liberate Auschwitz. God help us all.

I walk and read the Nazi timeline displayed on the wall. I have to sit down as the parallels roll over me. Stigmatize the immigrant. Marginalize the transgender and homosexual. Mock and target the disabled and autistic. Find a vulnerable race to blame for crime and economic issues. Punish students. Build and reward trusted media sources and ban all the rest. Take over the churches and arrest ministers who don’t comply. Get the backing of industry leaders and the wealthy. Destroy the targeted group’s ability to work and seize their assets. Demand agreement with the state agenda and promise a new golden age. All of it here, written in black and white on a clear timeline. It is too much….it is horrifying…..

In the next room, artifacts from Auschwitz are on display. Photos of people having their heads shaved and being stacked into over crowded cells compete in my head with images ever in the news of immigrants entering an El Salvador prison. Different times, different reasons, different locations….. and yet the images are so closely the same. Human beings stripped of their humanity. Deliberately dehumanized and vilified. Taken away. Disposed of. Portrayed as less than human and deserving of their fate. No trial. No appeal. Disappeared because they are…..a group targeted.

A cyanide jar from the Auschwitz showers sits in a case directly across from the mansion’s escape tunnel….almost as if the Nazi owner (Quisling) knew the reign of terror wouldn’t end well for him. Racism and loss of human dignity never ends well. Genocide will not go unpunished. In Norway, the people resisted early and relentlessly. Quisling, after the war, is eventually executed for treason and crimes against humanity. I sit and look at the names of the Jews sent to Auschwitz and realize justice came too late to save them. Even with fierce and constant resistance, over 700 people from Oslo were deported to concentration camps and that most didn’t survive. The names of one family is engraved on the sidewalk right outside our apartment. It is overwhelming and awful.

Our center visit ends in an exhibit on racism. A film shows Norwegians of all ethnicities discussing the “everyday” racism they experience. Kiosks hold artifacts and examples of racism from all over the world. There are unfortunately many American examples. Question cards encourage dialogue and understanding. It is refreshing actually. Adults and children are encouraged to choose colored string that represent actions and then to braid them as a symbol of commitment to actively work against racism. The exhibit empowers Norway’s citizenry to make “never again” more than just words. If only America had the same moral courage.

We leave the museum with heavy hearts. We walk in the sunlight and sit in the park. After a light lunch of coffee and pastry from a Narveson convenience store, we board a tram to Rose Castle. It is not a castle. It is a memorial and art installation. I am hard pressed to describe the unusual beauty of the place. An artist has painted hundreds of portraits symbolizing the Norwegian resistance to the Nazi occupation.

As we walk outdoors, through snow and under blue sky, we encounter hundreds of images of people who gave everything to resist oppression and forced authoritarianism. We hear stories of sacrifice and pain and triumph. The art is beautiful and haunting. The story of occupation and resistance is compelling and jarring. A white rose rises out of the snow. We learn of the secret student group, the white rose society, that resists by fighting disinformation and misinformation. Some pay with their lives. Resistance comes at a cost.

I stand in an area dedicated to Guernica, a small Spanish town that was annihilated in a single day, for no other reason than the Nazis wanted to see if their air strategy would work. If they could kill an entire town in one lightening strike…..blitzkrieg…. Homicide on unimaginable scale. In the painting, a lone nun stands and watches the plane approach. She has no time to warn anyone. Even the churches are not safe from the coming evil.

The paintings form a series of concentric circles along a path leading to a center star. The North Star structure symbolizes a beacon of hope that future generations will remember the sacrifices and protect the democracy that has been preserved.

But the most haunting monument is the small building that sits by itself to the side of the circles of paintings. It chronicles the story of a young girl who is sent on a ship with over 700 Jewish citizens to Auschwitz. Her photo shows her innocence on the day of departure as she poses with a small smile. She thinks she is going on an adventure.

In the first of a series of paintings, the artist paints her in a red coat. The next painting shows the coat in a pile of discarded clothing next to an incinerator. I am directed into the dark structure. As I enter the building, I am already trembling. Violin music plays a serene melody, a melancholy lullaby. It is pitch black and I hesitantly move forward. A portrait appears, created with paint and ashes. It symbolizes the ashes of those killed and sent to Nazi ovens, three women burning to ash. I turn to look away. In front of me, out of the darkness, a final ash painting shows the little girl rising in her ash body to join the stars.

I choke on my tears. Who does this? Who punishes children because they live in the wrong place, they have a different color skin, they speak a different language, they have unfamiliar customs, or they are an “easy” target for political gain? The bile sits in my throat as I work to tame the rage against such injustice. I am forever changed.

As we leave, I notice a portrait of a comedian who resisted by insisting “this isn’t normal”. No, sir, it is not. It should never be. If we ignore, if we look away, we are complicit.

In Norway at Rose Castle, they honor the hundreds of people standing up. . . Fighting back. . . Sacrificing all so that their country could once again be free. It is a hauntingly moving monument in the forest.

I need to sit a bit and reflect. We rest by a fire pit near the exit. Reindeer furs make the log benches extra cozy. A friendly local asks our opinion of the monument. I can’t adequately respond. He then asks what America will do in our current situation and about the motives of our President. I can’t adequately respond. I only hope the Americans are as resilient and committed to our democratic values as the Norwegians.