"You do not get scared in such a situation, you just do what it takes," Marcel Gleffe said.
But the 32-year-old German roofer's actions of sailing towards Utoya island - as gunman Anders Behring Breivik was on his shooting spree - to try to rescue the youths who were trying to escape from him, has been hailed as nothing short of heroic.
Mr Gleffe and his parents had been drinking coffee at the Utvika camping ground - just 600 metres opposite Utoya island where a summer camp for youth members of Norway's ruling Labour Party was being held - when they heard a series of bangs. They looked up and saw smoke coming from the island.
When they rushed down to the camp ground's jetty, hoping to find out what happened, they saw another camper pulling a teenager out of the water as a girl swimming behind her screamed "help", "shooting" and told them to call the police, Mr Gleffe told German magazine Der Spiegel.
Mr Gleffe, his parents and other campers snapped into action, jumping into their small boats and paddling towards the island in an attempt to save as many people in the water as possible.
"I immediately suspected that there was a connection to the attack in Oslo. I know the difference between fireworks and gunfire. I knew what it was about," Mr Gleffe, who was described in media reports as having a military background, told Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet.
"In such a situation, you don't think at all," he told Der Spiegel.
"There were people swimming everywhere in the water. I threw them lifejackets and pulled those into the boat who were having the most trouble. Everyone was screaming, but they were also helping each other."
Mr Gleffe brought his boat as close to the shore of Utoya island as he could and kept an eye out for Breivik - whom he had earlier spotted through his binoculars.
He was initially puzzled as to why some of the youths were frightened of him when he tried to rescue them, with some screaming "don't come too close" or "do you want to kill us", but later found out that Breivik, while dressed in a policeman's uniform, had called the youths to come to him before he fired on them.
Mr Gleffe made about four or five boat trips and pulled up to 30 people out from the water. Together with other campers, they rescued a total of 150 people from the island.
He brushed aside praise, telling Der Spiegel: "What we did simply goes without saying."
Hero. Simple, straight-forward, modest, righteous man. Bless you, Mr. Gleffe.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/26/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
Thanks for finding that, Dr. White. Too bad you had to go to Australia (electronically) to find it.
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/26/2011 6:22 Comments ||
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#2
Having known some Norweigians pretty well and having visited Oslo, one of the eyeopeners I had involved firearms and the norwegian culture.
While "peace loving" is Norweigian "brand attribute", I got into a couple of discussions about gun violence in America. What I discovered is that among the generations, from 20 somethings to those that remember the Nazi's marching "the wrong way" down their main boulavard, is knowledge and use of firearms. I was in a crowd of 10 young adults and every one of them had handled guns before- part of the rural culture where most everyone of them has some type of rural mountain cabin- usually without electricity that has been in the family.
I realized they did not share the same debate politicized debate we are subjected to in the USA.
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