By Amanda Gillies
A New York broadcaster has outraged Norwegian students living in Auckland by suggesting the young political activists killed by gunman Anders Breivik reminded him of the Hitler Youth.
Glenn Beck, a notorious shock jock and a favourite of the United States’ Tea Party, compared those massacred on the island youth camp to the Nazi Party's Youth Wing.
“And as the thing started to unfold… and then there was a shooting at a political camp which sounds a little like the Hitler Youth,” he said.
“Who does a camp for kids that is all about politics? Disturbing.”
The comments disturbed Norwegian students living in Auckland including Pernille Skaare Lier, who says youth camps are common in Norway and Beck’s comments were “ridiculous”.
“They are like the finest youths of our country, the future, they have the ambitions to be the leaders of our country one day. So it's a good thing, these political camps.”
About 700 Norwegian Labor Party enthusiasts, aged between 14 and 25, attend the four-day camp every summer, where they take part in debates and are addressed by prominent Labor politicians.
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