– It is very difficult to forget what I have seen

In connection with the fact that 75 years have passed since the end of the war, the Crown Prince Haakon Refugee Route went from Norway to Sweden in August.

He hopes to better understand the story by following in the footsteps of those who had to flee Norway at the time.

TV 2 joined the trip and had a unique opportunity to get to know the future King of Norway better. Watch the documentary “On a Journey with the Crown Prince” on TV 2 Sumo.

Along the way, the party encountered those who felt World War II in their body, but also those who have been on the run in recent times.

Mannan Muhammad (30), Rămia Săed (21) and Wael (27) have arrived in Norway in recent years as war refugees from Syria.

– Your Royal Highness, you’re welcome, Mannan Muhammad greets when the tour group arrives at the DNT Øvresaga hut, where they will spend the first night of the tour.

The 30-year-old is a Syrian Kurd and came to Norway as a refugee in 2017. He has a degree in Petroleum and Energy Engineering and wanted to travel from the war-torn homeland to Norway because of the opportunities in the oil sector here.

– I thought now I have to travel to Europe, so I started googling which is the best country in terms of oil and gas, he says.

Therefore, Mannan decided to travel to Norway, but the road here was not easy. He came to Greece from Turkey as a refugee by boat.

– It was very difficult. The first time I tried it, I was very scared, he says, adding that the smugglers who organize the boat trips care little about the people on board.

– They don’t care if people die in the sea or not. There were 63 of us in the small boat, he says.

– It was very difficult. And when you can’t swim … I don’t know … But you had to. He had no choice, he says.

It took him several tries, but in the end he managed to reach Greece, more precisely Lesbos.

– I thought it was paradise, but it wasn’t, he says.

Because on Lesbos it was the field of Moria that he was waiting for.

– I was in Moria for four months. The first day they burned the whole camp and I lost all my clothes and everything, he says.

– Almost dead

Getting from Lesbos to Athens was even more difficult than going from Turkey to Greece, according to Mannan.

– I almost died there. I thought now I just had to go back or do something else, he says.

But he also managed to overcome this stage, and thus continued the journey further north by plane, under a false identity, before finally making it to Norway.

– Hard to forget

Rămia says that she and her family moved several times within Syria due to the war.

– I have seen many people die in front of me. It is very difficult to forget what I have seen. The last time I saw a murdered man in front of me, I started to lose my hair after two days because I was so scared, she says, adding:

– It was very difficult what we saw there. After that, we decided to go to Lebanon to live there.

From Lebanon, he spent eight months arriving in Norway. Rămia currently lives in Eidskog, where she just finished upper secondary school.

Lost his father

Wael (27) fled Syria only as part of the refugee influx in 2015 and 2016. He grew up with three brothers and two sisters, and talks about a good and safe life in Syria before the war started.

– When I began to pursue higher studies, the war began, he says.

He says it was his mother who told him he had to leave the country.

– We lost my father there. And she said “I can’t lose another, so just find a country and get out, I don’t want to lose you too,” she says.

Like Mannan, Wael traveled from Turkey to Greece by boat, and from there to Norway via Europe. By train and on foot.

Today he lives in Eidskog. He has completed high school and is now an apprentice in ICT subjects.

His family is still in Syria.

– My goal was to continue studying. I don’t want to lose any more years of my life, because I lost four years of my life due to the war. I decided to come to Norway and do my best to thank Norway for allowing me to be here, he says.

Kongens nei

The fear that all three describe and the feeling of having to flee the war in their own country reinforces the impressions of the stories that the Crown Prince himself has grown up with.

He tells of his grandfather’s escape during the war.

– Skaugum’s guard rolls down the window and says “load up with sharp boys”, and then they left. In a way, it was the beginning of the escape, he says.

The then Crown Prince Harald went with his sisters and their mother from Hamar to Sweden, while the Crown Prince’s grandfather and great-grandfather went to Elverum.

It was then that my great-grandfather, King Haakon, had a meeting with Bräuer, who was the German envoy who had a meeting on behalf of Hitler, who wanted a pro-Nazi government. They wanted Quisling as head of government and for the king to accept the new government, he says, continuing:

– He said he had to ask the government about it and that it was not his choice. Then he returned to the government and told him that “it is you who decides, but if you say yes, then I will abdicate.” This is what is called the King’s no in Norwegian history.

Mannan Muhammad believes that there may have been many of the same feelings and experiences then, as for refugees today.

– War is war anyway, he says.

– I think it is different, but there are some similarities, answers the Crown Prince, and continues:

– It turns upside down on safe life. Things are tested and tested a lot, and you are very tested in your values.