RENT: German Gert and Katrin Menz have rented out fisherman’s cabins in Trøndelag since 2011. They have never experienced anything like this. Photo: Magnus Kjøren Berg, Fosna-Folket / Private
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German Gert Menz (53) and his wife Katrin believe the swastika is personally aimed at them and their German guests. Now they get support from the German embassy.
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– We’m sorry. This is a terrible situation, not only for us, but also for our German guests, says Gert Menz.
On Wednesday, he and his wife Katrin Menz woke up to the fact that someone had painted a swastika on a rock wall about a hundred meters away from the fisherman’s cabins they rent out.
It was Fosna-Folket who first mentioned the case.
The 53-year-old explains that all guests who go out by boat must drive past the swastika.
– We experience that it is aimed at us, because we are German and it is mainly German tourists who rent with us. We interpret it as that we are not welcome, Menz says to VG.
– Uncomfortable considering the dark story
Menz says that four of the five fisherman’s cabins, which are located in the Beskelandsfjord in Åfjord municipality in Trøndelag, have been rented out this week.
The guests are worried, he says.
– Sometimes we also have guests from the Czech Republic and Poland. It is therefore particularly unpleasant given the dark history, Menz says.
– What will be next ?, the family wonders.
At the same time, he would like to thank the locals, who he feels are behind them. After the case was mentioned in the local newspaper, the statements of support have come in, Menz says.
German Embassy: “Terribly sad”
The German embassy in Norway has also been involved in the case.
Kristin Offerdal, honorary consul for Trøndelag at the German embassy, tells Fosna-Folket that “it is terribly sad that the German family and their guests have been exposed to such experiences”.
– Germans help to keep District Norway up. It should be received positively when Germans settle down and create tourism, Offerdal continues, at the same time as she warns that in the worst case it can scare tourists.
The German embassy in Oslo writes to the newspaper that they will pursue the case further.
– We really appreciate that Mayor Stjern immediately took up the case and alerted the police. Fortunately, it is very rare that we are contacted about similar incidents, says Anne Prix at the press department.
On Wednesday night, VG has been in contact with the lawyer on duty in Trøndelag police district, who says that they have not registered the report. He emphasizes that it may have been delivered to the local police station.
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