An adventure for later this week

While browsing through Wikipedia, I've discovered something very interesting about a particular T-bane stop:

"Helsfyr (station)

Helsfyr is a subway station on the east side of the Oslo Metro system located in the borough of Gamle Oslo. The station is shared by the Furuset Line (Line 2), the Østensjø Line (Line 3) and the Lambertseter Line (Line 4). In addition, Line 1, which runs on Holmenkoll Line in the west, terminates at Helsfyr (during rush hour, however, line 1 is extended to Bergkrystallen). The station is located between Ensjø and Brynseng.

Helsfyr is located underground. The entrance to the station is located within the perimeter of a bus terminal, and the surrounding localities consist mostly of office buildings and also some industrial establishments. An ice rink and concert stadium are located nearby at Valle Hovin. Just northeast of the station is the cemetery Østre Gravlund (Eastern Cemetery), which includes Jødenes Gravlund (the Jewish Cemetery). In this cemetery there is a monument to the Norwegian Jews who were killed during the holocaust."

I take line three to campus and to downtown on a daily basis, and Helsfyr is only a few stops past Oslo S., which is the central train/bus/tram station. I think tomorrow after my Norwegian language class, I will fetch my camera and venture up to this cemetery in order to take some photographs.

Norwegians, I've noticed, don't do nearly as much talking about their involvement in the Holocaust as Germans did during my trip to Munich and Berlin in 2008. I can't tell if this is because they are tired of hearing about it, as I know lots of younger German people are, or if because they just don't think about it nearly as much as the Germans, or other western Europeans. I can't say I blame them for not wanting to talk about it; I think that in the United States, most Americans automatically start groaning and rolling their eyes whenever the topic of slavery comes up. But the Holocaust is as much a part of the Norwegian cultural narrative as slavery is ingrained in my psyche as a Southerner in the United States: at some point, to properly accept it as part of your history, you've got to confront it, accept it as something that cannot change, and move forward with it--but part of that acceptance involves making yourself uncomfortable. People should get used to being uncomfortable.

Anyway, there you go. Hadet!