Speech at Yad Vashem Holocaust Center

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Ladies and Gentlemen,

When tonight we look up on the sky above Jerusalem, our eyes will receive the light from stars which ceased to exist many centuries ago.

And like the stars, we humans also receive the light from people that went before us and are no more.

It goes for our individual forefathers – my own people and relatives. But equally it goes for those to whom we are not related personally, but in spirit.

I can think of no other place where the light from those who are no longer with us, is so strongly felt as here at this memorial.

There were 1,700 Jews among Norway's population of 3 million before the Second World War. Their fate was the same as that of the Jews in other occupied countries.

Jewish property was confiscated and passports issued identifying individual as Jews.

Nearly half of our Jewish citizens were sent to the camps. A handful came back to tell the story.

All countries have a moral obligation to settle the issue of Jewish Property Restitution. All countries involved should make public all information concealed in their wartime archives.

The Norwegian Government has carried out an inquiry into the issue of Jewish property with the active participation of the Jewish community in Norway.

My government has proposed to our parliament to grant compensation to the survivors, as well as to the Jewish community and the Jewish people. The total sum to be set aside for these purposes amounts to approximately Norwegian kroner 450 million, which equals approximately 60 million USD.

This compensation is based on moral considerations and an acceptance of responsibility for errors of the past. Of the 60 million dollar compensation package, 60 per cent will go to collective purposes.

The remainder will be given on an individual basis to private persons who suffered tragedies and confiscation of property during the war.

The collective part is divided into three parts:

1. A fund which will be administered by the Mosaic community in Norway and which will be used to promote Jewish culture and Jewish presence in Norway.
2. A fund for supporting Jewish culture worldwide. The members to decide on the use of the fund are our Government, Parliament, the Mosaic community in Norway and the World Jewish Community. I am honoured that Nobel Peace Prize Winneer, Eli Wiesel, has accepted to head the fund.

   3. A sum which will be used to establish a center for education, documentation and information on the Holocaust, and the situation for the Jewish and other minority groups in Norway.

Ladies and gentlemen,

No money can take away the suffering and pain of the memory from the holocaust.

But what it can do, is to offer justice and compensation to individuals whose forefathers and relatives were hit by the full force of the brutality of the Nazi regime.

And then, we hope, that the funds and centers to be set up, will promote the richness of Jewish culture and your way of life, and serve as a warning that intolerance and hatred must never be allowed to rise again. In short, that the light of those who suffered in the Holocaust may enlighten the path of us, the living.

Thank you.