Survivors relive Utøya massacre 15 years on as teacher uses his story to warn of far-right extremism

What happened on 22 July 2011

On that day a car bomb detonated in Oslo, killing eight people and injuring many. While emergency services concentrated on the capital, the attacker was already driving towards the island of Utøya.

On Utøya, a summer camp for the youth wing of the Labour Party was under way. Initial calls from participants assured parents they were safe. Then gunfire shattered that illusion, and Breivik spent more than an hour shooting unchecked across the island.

A daughter who never came ashore

Merete Stamneshagen spoke with her daughter Silje shortly before the shooting began. It was the last time she heard her voice.

She didn't pick up.

Stamneshagen and her husband drove seven hours to the island, where a makeshift reception centre posted the names of those who had made it to land. Silje's name was not on the list. A full week passed before they received confirmation: she had been shot three times in the head and found on the "Lovers' Path", a narrow track along the steep shore that now serves as a memorial.

A survivor's rhythm of remembrance

Magnus Håkonsen was 18 when he ran for his life on Utøya. Today he is a social studies teacher and marks every 22 July with his students. The approach of the anniversary stirs a familiar unease.

You become more thin-skinned, more irritable, sadder more easily, react more sensitively.

Once the memorial ceremony passes, he says, a great weight lifts: another year withstood.

From survivor to teacher

Håkonsen now uses his story when the curriculum turns to right-wing extremism.

It's an opportunity to talk about far-right forces and how they try to pit groups against each other.

He believes that speaking about his own experience gives his classroom warnings a force a textbook cannot supply. The perpetrator is serving a life sentence and is expected to remain in prison for the rest of his life.