Trondheim’s venerable student union (Studentersamfundet) was embarrassed and angry after a group of bartenders decided to host a “politically incorrect” party on Saturday night. They dressed up in SS uniforms, and neither guests nor leaders of the organization were amused.
“I was shocked and upset,” 25-year-old Maja Sandström, who was visiting Trondheim from Östersund in Sweden, told Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) on Sunday.
She and some friends had been told they may want to check out a concert at the student’s main gathering place, but it was no ordinary concert. “When we arrived and showed our ID, we were given a sort of visa with a photo of Adolf Hitler on it,” Sandström said. “The doormen and bartenders were wearing military uniforms and barbed-wire fencing had been put up on the walls. Some of the doormen were also carrying toy pistols. We left. I think it’s incredible that something like that would be arranged at a student union.”
Tale Bærland, leader of Samfund i Trondheim, apologized for the event, which was shut down. “There were some bartenders who had permission to hold a ‘politically incorrect’ party,” Bærland told NRK. “As soon as the leader on duty found out what was going on, it was stopped.”
She stressed that the student union distanced itself from anything to do with nazism, “that’s even in our bylaws. We can only apologize for what happened Saturday night. It does not reflect the values of the student union.”
newsinenglish.no staff
