Salomon Schulman reminds us of a celebrating Norway that has not dealt with its past.

Surely it is joyful to see the Norwegians in national dresses walking, singing and waving their flags. "Syttende mai" is a delight for one's eyes. However, this excitement seems to border on the naive. That they "elsker sitt land" [love their country] you can understand, but the question is if there's reason for this pride.

Their past misdeeds haunted Norway's subconscious long before the slaughter on Utöya. The heritage from the German occupation cannot be processed. The resistance that Hjemefronten succeeded with was courageous, but the fate of the Jews did not have the highest priority. The collaboration was even more striking. Norwegians joined the Nazi war machine in the thousands, and the Waffen-SS. They fought for nazism as far away as the Caucasus. Even during the final days of the war they defended Berlin to their death.