Oslo Holocaust centre unveils controversial statue

OSLO, Nov 25 (Reuters) Norway's Centre for Studies of Holocaust and Religious Minorities unveiled a statue of Knut Roed, an Oslo police chief who helped deport about 850 Norwegian Jews to Nazi death camps during World War Two.

''The artist was appalled by this entire history and the statue is a provocation,'' said Kari Amdam yesterday from the Holocaust Centre, set up to examine all types of prejudiced persecution.

Only 11 Jews survived the deportation. Roed was acquitted for his actions by a Norwegian court after the war.

Oeivind Kopperud, a researcher at the centre, said the statue is meant to remind Norwegians of their role in the deportation of their Jewish neighbours, most to Auschwitz.

The centre has not yet decided how long it will leave up the bronze, 1.5-metre statue of Roed in a Nazi uniform and with his hand extended in a Nazi-style salute.

Roed, who served in the Oslo police until 1965, was acquitted after Norwegian anti-Nazi resistance groups said he helped them during the German occupation of Oslo in 1940-1945.

''Actions, which separately may be seen as acts of assistance to the enemy, were necessary in order to execute other far more significant acts of resistance,'' the Norwegian district court said in its 1949 sentence, according to the Holocaust centre.

''The monument stands until the sentence of April 9, 1948, is annulled,'' the artist, Norwegian Victor Lind, said.

Roed died in 1986.

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