Welcome to the Center for Studies of the Holocaust and Religious Minorities (HL-senteret)
The Center for Studies of the Holocaust and Religious Minorities opened in 2005 as the first and only of its kind in Norway. On a mandate from the Norwegian parliament, HL-senteret is an institution for research, documentation and education on the Holocaust and religious minorities.
The permanent exhibition, which opened in 2006, documents the history of the Norwegian Holocaust within its European context. During the German war-time occupation, 772 Jews were deported from Norway to the Auschwitz extermination camp, only 34 of whom survived. The remainder of the small Jewish community in Norway, around 2,100 persons on the eve of the war, survived by escaping to Sweden.
The HL-senteret is located in the state-owned Villa Grande, which was constructed in the period 1917-1921. The building was first fully completed during the Second World War, as the residence for the Norwegian Nazi leader Vidkun Quisling. From 1942 until the end of the war the building thus emerged as a symbol of collaboration with the oppressive Nazi regime. Today, Villa Grande is a place for those who wish to learn more about the worst crimes of the Nazis.