10/03/2023
The history of racism in Iceland is not publically documented, but it is there, even though we, like the rest of the Nordic countries, try our hardest to hide it and deny it. A few weeks ago I wrote a post about Hans Jónatan, the man who is thought to have been the first colored person to ever live in Iceland. Now I want to write about more recent history, that is the Second World War.
One example is from WWII, in 1935-1940, around 500 Jewish refugees from Europe were denied refuge in Iceland. 16 Jews were deported. It is known that many of the people that were denied refuge in Iceland in these years sadly died. It is widely believed that a part of the reason for these denials was that some part of the nation didn't want outsiders, and wanted to "keep the Icelandic blood pure". As horrible as that belief was when we look at parts of the driving forces behind the Second World War. (Image 4: An article written by the first female doctor in Iceland Katrín Thoroddssen. She had intended to foster a three-year-old Jewish girl in 1939 since her parents had been sentenced to labour camps, the government waited for way too long to give her an answer and Katrín missed her connection with the girl's mother, most likely since she had already been taken away. The government ended up denying the girl's residency permit, like every other possible refugee from WWII).
Another example, which is not about racism but foreigners in Iceland, is the so-called "Situation" (ísl. Ástandið), which happened in Iceland during the war. Iceland was occupied in 1940 by the UK, and then in 1941 by the US. There was no fighting and the soldiers' jobs were mostly building infrastructure since this small nation didn't have roads or buildings to accommodate them. In the evenings the men would go out partying and after some time Icelandic women started joining them. It wasn't long until Icelandic men started complaining in the newspapers, accusing the women that partied with the soldiers of treason and slut-shaming them, committees were formed to observe women, they were ostracised, and in some cases, their hair was shaved, h***n checks were performed and they were sent to forced labor on a farm. (Image 1: Soldiers and Icelandic women partying, Image 2: Text from an Icelandic publication about women in the Situation "These are female failures, that no Icelander wanted, and they're completely out of hope. And should they be blamed if they get warm by the warmest fire? Isn't it just the same old story of supply and demand? Stores don't keep their expired products if someone in need wants to buy them, it's the same with these bad apples. We should congratulate them, and free them of all committee observations).
The third example is in part related to WWII but still happened a while after the war ended. After the war, we made a defense agreement with the US, and in 1951 a US army base opened in Keflavík, Iceland. There is a written statement in the agreement where it says that the Icelandic government has to accept everyone that is stationed at the base and a spoken agreement was made that made it clear that the meaning of that was that no black people were allowed at the base. (Image 3: Article from an Icelandic newspaper in 1965 complaining about the Icelandic government having stopped adhering to the original agreement of allowing no black people on the military base. The headline reads: Number of black people rising in Iceland - The defense forces authorities "forget" the contract).
