Denmark apologizes to 22 Greenlandic children who were part of a social experiment in 1951
The Danish government officially apologized to 22 Greenlandic children sent to Denmark as part of a social experiment in 1951.
The children were sent to Denmark to get rid of the “Greenlandic” in them, before returning to Greenland as a Danish-speaking elite.
“I have followed the case for many years, and I am constantly deeply affected by the human tragedies it contains,” Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said in a press release.
The apology comes after a historical investigation into the case initiated by the previous Danish government and the Greenland government last year.
“Major consequences”
“It touches me deeply to read about the fate of the 22 children. Their special upbringing had major consequences for their relationship with the family and society, and not least for their identity as Greenlanders,” Kim Kielsen, the head of government in Greenland, said.
Frederiksen says that the events strongly impacted the children.
“They lost the ties to family and relatives, their life history, to Greenland, and thus to their own people,” she noted.
© NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today
