Denmark regrets “heartless and inhuman” attempts on Greenlandic children
In 1951, 22 children were brought from Greenland to Denmark to become pre-Danish and eventually become part of Greenland’s elite. On Wednesday, they received an official apology.
– What you were exposed to was wrong, inhuman, unreasonable and heartless, said the Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen to the six children who are still alive today.
The group of 22 children was taken from their families as part of an experiment that the hope was that they would learn Danish and eventually become part of a pre-Danish elite who would develop the Greenlandic society.
The experiment did not go according to plan. Six of the children are from Danish families, but the others were sent to Greenland – where they were left to adopt in orphanages without the opportunity to speak Greenlandic.
– None of us can change the past, but we can do something else. That’s what we do today. We can relate to that. We can take responsibility. And we can do what is right in my eyes: to say sorry to you. You have been part of something that should never happen, Frederiksen said during a ceremony at the Danish National Museum.
According to the plan, the Prime Minister will make a new apology when she travels to Greenland in a few weeks.