On July 22nd, 2011 a car bomb exploded in the government quarter in Oslo, Norway, killing eight people and injuring hundreds. The responsible terrorist then drove to Utøya, a small island about an hour drive from Oslo. There, he shot and killed 69 people, most of whom were participants at the annual labor youth party’s (AUF) summer camp. In the immediate aftermath, and in the years that have followed, different, and in part contradictory, narratives describing and explaining the terrorist attacks have emerged, the dominating one being that this was an attack on the Norwegian democracy. Consequently, the best way to heal and to prevent similar attacks in the future is to protect and strengthen democratic values within the Norwegian population. Today, Utøya is a site of commemoration and education, as well as a social center for the youth labor party. Since 2016 thousands of Norwegian secondary and upper secondary students have visited the island to learn about the July 22nd terrorist attacks, to commemorate the victims, and to participate in educational activities aimed to strengthen their democratic agency. Both within the Norwegian social science curriculum, as well as the different public narratives, knowledge about the terrorist attacks of July 22nd, 2011 is considered important to prevent radicalization, extremism and terrorism. However, studies on school trips to former concentration camps in Poland and Germany question whether it is possible to learn about, and visit, sites of past atrocities as a means to empower students as democratic citizens. This paper will study students’ reflections written shortly before, and a while after, visiting Utøya. Using a narrative analysis, I will explore students’ historical consciousness through the research question: In what way to students negotiate past, present, and future in their understanding of the July 22nd, 2011, terror attacks, and Utøya as a site of trauma, commemoration and education? As the educational activities they participate in is framed within the narrative context of empowering democratic citizens, the paper explores how the students place themselves as actors within this context.

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