600 Kids Trapped on an Island, Hunted & Massacred

It was a quiet afternoon in Norway, the tranquil Arctic country in Northern Europe. And then it started around 3 p.m. with an explosion in the capital city that left hundreds injured and multiple people dead. But that was just the beginning. Within two hours, this sinister killer made his way to a summer camp hosting 200 children and teenagers who were all trapped on an isolated island. Nowhere to go, nowhere to run, while a killer hunted them down. - Suddenly, the same man that I saw earlier comes out of the woods just right next to me, eight, maybe 10 meters away, and starts screaming that. - That I'm going to kill you. And you must all die today. - And by the time that afternoon was over, this would be one of the deadliest mass killing sprees in history. - We are in Norway tonight and it is a nation in shock. - Tensions remain high in Oslo as residents still try to understand what happened and why. - That horrific story still unfolding out of Oslo Norway, the city where they hand out the Nobel Peace Prize under siege today in two deadly attacks playing out one after the other. (laughing) - So many dead, so many harmed that one in four of the country's citizens were affected by the twisted mind and crimes of Anders Brijvik. My name is Brianna and I'm hot on the case. (gentle music) A lot of the time, monsters are made by other monsters. Anders Brijvik was born to a woman named Venke Brijvik, a feminist extremist who hated men. And this hatred was extended to her very own son before he was even born. A majority of expecting mothers enter their second and their third trimesters excitedly embracing all of the changes happening to their body, especially feeling their bundles of joy moving around inside of them. Everyone's excited when they feel that baby kick for the first time. But Venke felt that her son Anders kicking her while he was inside of the womb was something that he was doing on purpose to hurt her. Anders was born on February 15th, 1979 and as a baby, his mother would tell him that she hated him, that she wished that he was never born, she never wanted him and that she wished that he was dead. His mother, Venke, would tell people that this was an evil demon baby. She even stopped breastfeeding him because she truly believed that he was sucking the life out of her. The cycle of abuse is a really real thing. Anders' mother, Venke, escaped her own abusive family as a pregnant teenager and was a struggling single mother after giving birth to Anders' older half-sister. And eventually, Venke was even diagnosed with borderline personality disorder. She later met and married Anders' father, Yens, but she was very unsure after the marriage if this was something that she actually wanted to continue because she hated Ven so much. Anders' father, Yens, was a Norwegian ambassador that was stationed in London. When Anders was only one year old, his mother left his father and took her children back to Norway and they settled into the capital city of Oslo. And after this, Yens wasn't really in his son's life anymore and that is already sad on its own, but it's even more tragic considering that that meant that Anders was only going to be raised by his feminist mother, Venke. Venke hated men, so she hated her son. As far as we know, Venke was never physically abusive towards her son, Anders, but the emotional and psychological abuse was some of the worse that I have ever read that I would actually consider it torturing her child. The way that Venke treated her son, Anders, had very real psychological effects on him. Even as young as three years old, Anders was obsessively clean and neat. He was definitely showing signs of anxiety as a small toddler. Instead of playing with his toys and throwing them all around the living room without a care in the world like most toddlers, Anders would play as quietly and as cleanly as possible. And the second he was done playing without even having to be told, he would just obsessively clean up all of his toys so it was like he was never even there. Anders was always smiling as a little boy in a way that was kind of off-putting and made people feel uneasy. Even when Anders got hurt, he would never cry. And this behavior is very abnormal for a toddler, but it made sense for Anders, who felt like he had to control the situation, to control his mother's rage, her wrath, and he would do his best to not give his mother an excuse to be cruel to him. Venke was very hot and cold with her son. Most of the time she treated him terribly, but then sometimes she would almost like love bomb him and be overly affectionate and there were even some reports that the affection that Venke showed her toddler son was not necessarily appropriate in a mother's son relationship. During Anders' childhood, social services intervened in the family on more than one occasion. And it was concluded that Venke projected aggression and sexual fantasies on her child on Anders as early as him being only three years old. Anders' father Yen petitioned the court to get custody of his son multiple times, but he always lost. During my research of this case, I found a few different things that were reported differently depending on the source. What I do know is around the time that Anders was four years old, social services wanted to remove him from his mother's custody. And I do know, at four years old, Anders went and lived with a foster couple. But I saw different reports how he got there. Some reports said that he was removed from his mother's custody by social services and other reports say that social services never removed him despite all of these different reports against Venke and it was actually Venke that were linguished custody of her son temporarily. But no matter how Anders, at only four years old ended up living with this foster couple, the next part remains the same and it is extremely disturbing. Venke brought her son to this young couple's house I was going to be looking after him and instead of asking them to take care of her son, asking the couple different details about their home and their family, Venke only had one request. Venke asked the father, the foster father, if her four-year-old son Anders could touch his penis because he had only ever seen a female's genitalia. Yes, that is actually what she said and that's so disturbing on so many levels. She is asking this grown man to abuse her four-year-old son. But it also implies she was having her four-year-old son do things to her that would also be sexual abuse. Eventually, Venke regained a primary custody of Anders and he would live under her roof for the rest of his miserable childhood. In family photos of Anders growing up, you would likely believe that this is a normal boy living with a normal mother. There's a sweet smiling photos of him and his mom as Anders grew up, he seemed like a well-adjusted boy. But Anders grew up wearing a mask and he wore it very well. Growing up in the public school system, no one had any idea of the horrors that were happening behind closed doors. Anders was a very smart, good kid and he was a great student. Unlike most abused children, Anders didn't grow up to be a bully at school despite being the biggest and the strongest boy in his class, Anders would actually stand up to bullies and he would protect the weaker and the younger children. It's such an eerie, stark contrast to the man that he would grow up to be, considering that he would go on to murder 60 children. As a teenager, Anders began to rebel. He actually became a notorious graffiti artist and he got in trouble with the law on a few occasions because he got caught by the police on a few occasions doing his street art. Throughout his teen years, Anders also got really into health and fame. it honestly became a bit of an obsession. He wanted to be as strong as he could possibly be. And I definitely think that this is a little bit of a control thing. He can't control his life at home, but he can control his physical appearance. After high school, Anders was rejected from the Norwegian military because he was considered unfit to serve. I find this extremely interesting, and unfortunately I don't have an exact reason why he was deemed unfit to serve. Considering we know how strong Anders is, so I'm wondering if it was a psychological reason why he was considered unfit to serve in the military. As a young adult, Anders worked odd jobs here and there, and he continued to wear this mask. People that worked for him, people that worked with him, saw him as like a really good employee and like a really cool coworker. But it's very obvious that there was something wicked, something sinister, living within Anders' private. He had what I guess you could describe as very extremist beliefs, very fascist beliefs. Like we see so often in serial killers, especially serial killers that grew up with mothers, similar to Venge, Anders' mother, Anders grew up to hate women. And he really hated feminism, and remember his mother was like an extreme feminist, but Anders really believed that feminism was destroying Europe and the Western world. Along with feminism, Anders believed that multiculturalism, immigration, political correctness, and wokeness was destroying Europe and specifically Norway. He became a member of their Norwegian political party, the Progress Party, which was actually anything but progressive. And Anders really hated the liberal labor party in Norway. And it was this hate that fueled his evil actions as he planned his deadly attack for almost a decade. He thought his actions would be a wake-up call for Norway and actually save the nation. And this was meticulously planned. Anders rented some farmland in the Norwegian countryside, so it wouldn't raise any alarm bells when Anders started to purchase order large amounts of fertilizer. If you were unaware, fertilizer, a lot of it can be used in homemade bombs. Five days before his attack, Anders posted on social media, one person with a belief is equal to 100,000 who only have interests. July 22, 2011, the day that would forever change the country and its citizens started for Anders within email. Anders emailed his 1,518 page manifesto to over 1,000 email dresses that were mainly the emails of government leaders and officials. Honestly, I'm so sick of these mass murderers and their wack ass manifestos. I've covered so many cases on TikTok recently of these mass killers and their stupid manifestos. They're always dumb. Every single time in Anders is actually no different because Anders manifesto wasn't even an original. He plagiarized it from a bunch of different killers and he even stole some stuff blatantly from movies like stuff he heard in movies. He titled his work, 2083, European Declaration of Independence. It was pretty much just a bunch of anti-woke ramblings and how women and immigrants were ruining Europe and how he had this desire to return to the patriarchy. In his manifesto, Anders also expressed his support for eugenics. He believed that he should be in charge of picking Norwegians for selective breeding. He thought that political correctness was a genocide on white nations. Before leaving his home, Anders changed into a fake policeman uniform, even had a fake police badge and then he drove off in a white van loaded with a homemade bomb that took him six entire months to build. Anders drove right into the heart of the capital city of Oslo and parked at the van right outside a grouping of government buildings that were occupied by the ruling left-leaning labor party that Anders opposed so much. After parking the van, Anders got out and he started walking away without a care in the world for what was about to happen. The explosion happened at 3.26 p.m. and the effects were devastating. Multiple casualties -hundreds injured. -The blast shattered this capital city on a sleepy Friday afternoon. -Now here's a big thing. It was like a riot. The war is killing some kind of maybe a fire. People are in the street and the street is carpeted with broken glass windows blown out. Smoke rising from the center of town. -It looks like a war zone. There was people running around with blood in from the head. It was kind of panic. -The sidewalks quickly became makeshift emergency rooms. Bystanders raised to help the injured pour in the faces of those who witnessed the carnage. Wars hit a government building home to the prime minister. Luckily he wasn't there. Inside those buildings, the dead and those who badly wounded to get out. But this was only the beginning because the bombing in Oslo was only meant to be a distraction. About an hour drive away from Oslo, is an island located in Lake T. Reformed called Utoya. Every summer, Utoya hosts about 600 children and teenagers for their annual summer camp that is hosted by the labor party that Anders hated. So a great majority of the attendees of the summer camp had parents or guardians that were affiliated with the labor party. Many of the campers were actually the children of politicians in the labor party. And the sick and twisted mind of Anders Breivik thought that targeting the children of his opposed politics would send the greatest message. Innocent children. I mean, like at 11 years old, you don't know anything about politics. You don't have your beliefs. Really, you know, set in stone yet. These are children. They don't know who they are yet. They don't know how they're going to vote when they're 30. Only moments after the explosion in Oslo, phones on the island of Utoya began ringing nonstop as the tragic news came in. Panic set in for campers and counselors alike. Most of them wanted off the island, but fairies were canceled following the news of the attack on their capital. And it was around this time that camp leaders got a radio call from the mainland telling them that a police officer was on his way over to the island. He was sent as a precaution to protect them in case there were any more attacks. The man dressed in black flashed a police badge as he arrived on shore of Utoya Island around 5.22 PM. He was greeted by the camp's leader and their security officer and they would be his first victims on the island. Those first gunshots rang out on this small, tiny, isolated island, wielding a handgun and a semi-automatic, Anders made his way to the center of the island where a majority of the campers were. And as he was running towards them, he was yelling at them, "Come here, come to me. I'm going to protect you." But as this group of children started running towards Anders, believing that they were running towards safety, he opened fire on them. These are children, teenagers, completely innocent, with their whole lives ahead of them. No real affiliation with either political party, despite what their parents or guardians tell them to believe. But as he shot at these innocent kids, Anders was screaming at them, "You're going to die today, Marxist." I really want you to try and put yourself in the mindset of these 564 children. One moment they're at a summer camp, they're playing games with their friends, and the next moment they're being hunted. They're on a small island, they're trapped. They don't have anywhere to go. They don't know if anyone's coming there to help them. I don't think, even if I tried, I could come up with something more terrifying. This sounds like something that should be out of horror fiction. Like it doesn't sound real, but it was. These terrified kids ran off in every single direction. literally running forward their lives, some jumped into the frigid water hoping that they be able to swim to the mainland before they drowned. A majority of the kids tried to hide, but deciding where to hide, where to run, was literally a life or death decision. Many of the injured would just lie on the ground and pretend to be dead. But Anders thought of that already, so he would fire multiple rounds at the bodies that were scattered across the island. I heard screams, and that's what people were running, and that's what people were falling as they were running, because they were shot in the back. He went over to one of the people who was on the ground, who had fallen to the ground, and he shot him in that, and then he went over to one of the others and shot him in the head as well. One point, Anders strolled through the island, listening to music as he massacred these innocent campers. It was so nonchalant, like he was just walking through his neighborhood on a warm afternoon. A one point Anders lined up a group of innocent teenagers up against a wall, and then executed them. And he said that he was actually surprised that they didn't try to run away or fight back, like they do in movies or in video games. He's so out of touch with reality in these moments, like he's so far beyond comprehension of what normal people think and feel, that he doesn't understand that these are terrified children that have a gun pointed at them. Anders shot the kids that were in the lake trying to swim to safety. He shot at kids that were hiding within the rocks of the coastline, 47 children barricaded themselves inside of one of the main buildings on the island. They listened in horror as Anders tried to get himself inside, but luckily he was unsuccessful, and those 47 innocent lives were spared. Two 16 and 17-year-old boys named Rushman and Mozart bravely worked together to try and save as many younger children as they could by directing them to hide in a particular underwater cave that could only be accessed through the water. And together, those two brave boys saved 23 children. There were a few moments where Anders would surprisingly show some kind of humanity. I don't even want to say that, but I don't know how else to describe what he does next. I don't even think it's humanity. I think it's control, like he has a god complex and he decides who gets to live and who gets to die. A 1.22-year-old counselor came out of hiding and he begged Anders for his life. And for whatever reason, Anders decided to spare him. There was another boy, about 10 years of age, that was based the face with the barrel of Anders' gun who was also spared after the boy cried out that he was too young to die. Sadly, a majority of the other children did not receive such mercy. Maxine and 18-year-old sisters, Bana and Lara Rashid, were attending the camp together. Their family had recently immigrated to Norway after fleeing from a war zone. And tragically, 18-year-old Bana would endure all of that and survive just to lose her life at a summer camp at the hands of Anders. There was another 17-year-old boy named Vilhaar Hansen that was attending the summer camp with his younger brother, who ran to hide with his friend Simon Sabo down by the water. And then out of nowhere, as him, his little brother and his friend are trying to hide, Vilhaar feels like he can hear the strange whistling noise and he also realizes that he can't see anything out of his right eye. He tries to lift up his hand to reach for his eye for his face and that's when he realized that three of his fingers were blown off. And when he grabbed the side of his head, Vilhaar realized that he was touching his brain. His skull had been blown off on the side of his head. Vilhaar collapsed on the ground right next to his friend Simon that was also lying on the ground. Vilhaar whispered to Simon that they were going to get through this, that they were going to survive, not knowing that his friend Simon was already dead. Vilhaar lost three fingers, his right eye and he lives with permanent brain damage and bullet fragments still in his brain, but he survived. While hundreds of innocent children were trapped on an island and being hunted by a monster, the capital city of Oslo was still spiraling from the chaos and carnage that was also inflicted on them by the exact same monster. All units, all hands were already deployed. Calls were already flooding in when police in Oslo started receiving dozens and dozens of calls from scared staff and children on Utoya Island. All the local helicopters were already being used at the bomb site and by now they were all low on fuel, meaning that it would take police officers over an hour to get to the island of Utoya. Over an hour that Anders could continue the savage barbaric massacre on these innocent children. This plan was so completely thought out. Real police finally arrived on the shoreline of the island at 6.25 pm. The massacre had turned the water surrounding the island red with blood. Anders called the police officers multiple times while they were on the island to taunt them, kind of like a "I'm here, come find me." But eventually Anders called the police to tell them that he had completed his objective and he was ready to surrender. Anders Breivick was surrounded on all sides by police that told him to drop his weapons or be killed. Anders put his weapons on the ground and he was finally arrested. With the killer in custody, all the focus was now on rescuing survivors and when I tell you that everyone that was able to come out and volunteer to help rescue these innocent children on this island, I really mean everyone. Fishermen opted to lose out on profits to bring their boats out to the island, Taurus, that were there for vacation, came out to volunteer their time and efforts. The island was extensively searched for days, multiple days looking for survivors because a lot of the poor children that were there hiding from Anders who was dressed like a police officer was too afraid to come out for the real police officers there to rescue them because they were so scared that these were more people there to kill them. Under the bombing in Oslo and the massacre on Utoya, 320 people were injured and 77 were killed. There were 110 injured and 69 murdered on the island and then there was another 210 injured and 8 killed in Oslo with the youngest victims being only 14 years old. And this was the deadliest attack on Norway's soil since World War II and is actually one of the deadliest mass killing sprees in the history of the entire world. It is believed that one in four Norwegian citizens were affected one way or another by Anders actions, his terrible crimes. It was 25% of the country that was affected because of one evil man. 320 injured 77 dead on the span of three hours. Considering that Anders sent out a 1500 page manifesto to 1,000 different people, it really wasn't that hard to conclude his motives. Anders is very delusional and he truly did believe that Europe was being destroyed by different cultures and by feminism and political correctness and he believed that his actions would inspire people and it would be a wake up call to save their nation. And in this mindset, he sacrificed 77 innocent lives to get his ideas out there to get more attention and he thought murdering 77 people would be an opportunity. to spread his message. His main goal was to save the Nordic race from extinction, which is really ironic that he believed this and that he believed he could save the Nordic race from extinction by committing the deadliest attack in his own country on his own people. Anders has never once showed any emotion or any remorse for his victims or his victims families. In fact, Anders is proud of what he did. Has he shown any remorse or any regret for what he did? He said it was necessary to start a war here in Europe and throughout the Western world. So he's sorry that it was necessary, but it was necessary. He says, imagine setting your makeup than forgetting it's even theirs. Meet new grippy setting mist from Mavily New York. Gel to mist technology locks in your look for up to 24 hours with flexible all-day comfy grip. No tightness, no stickiness, no residue. Just plump, dewy, hydrated skin that still feels like your skin. Try new grippy setting mist from Mavily New York. Maybe it's Mavily! He was very cooperative with police after he was brought into custody. I think that's because he thought that he was a hero and that the police would see him as such and not a child killer and a terrorist. He was charged with 319 separate charges and these were for a whole lieu of things. Terrorism, attempted murder and 77 counts of murder. Before his trial, Anders had a psychological evaluation where he was diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic. It was also deemed that he was psychotic during the times of both attacks and he was deemed legally insane and unfit to stand trial. And for the time being, Anders was going to be held at a mental health facility instead of behind bars. This was heavily contested. It's really hard for a lot of people to believe that he was psychotic during the nine years he spent meticulously planning every single detail of these horrific acts. This whole case is indicated that he's insane. But does he say he's not insane? That he's insane. What does he say? Have you asked him why you insane? He's in a war and he says that the rest of the world, especially the western world, don't understand his point of view. But in 60 years times, we all will understand him. And even Anders himself was upset with the diagnosis and that he was being held in a psychiatric hospital. Anders is himself as some crazy criminal. He saw himself as a powerful political activist that was only trying to save the nation. He felt like he should be celebrated and instead he was embarrassed that his hard work was being mocked like he was crazy. He said and I quote, "I must admit this is the worst thing that could have happened to me as it is the ultimate humiliation to send a political activist to a mental hospital. It's more sadistic and evil than to kill him. It is a fate worse than death." Say that to the parents of the children you killed. That going to some cushy, Norwegian mental health facility is worse than death. You sick, evil, bastard. So Anders, against his defense team's wishes, underwent a second psychiatric evaluation this time with very different results. Instead of being a diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic, Anders was diagnosed with anti-social and narcissistic personality disorders. He was also deemed not psychotic at the time of either attack or ever and he was deemed sane and competent to stand trial. Very different. Very different things. His trial began on April 16th 2012. Not once did he ever show any emotion or any remorse. Even while the parents of the children that he killed at a summer camp had to hear every detail on how their babies lives ended. Instead, Anders used the opportunity of his trial to insert his ideologies throughout the trial. He actually wanted it to be filmed and televised but the judge ordered against this probably because he knew what Anders was going to try and do. Like during the trial, he gave out a Nazi salute and he also held up a sign that said, "Stop your genocide on our white nations." In August of 2012, Anders was found guilty on all charges and he was sentenced to the harshest punishment allowed in Norway, which is 21 years. And he has possibility for early release after serving only 10 of those 21 years. Now I'm with you. I'm with you all that this sentence is a joke and it really makes the Norway prison system look like a huge joke but it's very misunderstood and actually has been like there's been a lot of misinformation about this sentence spread. So this 21-year sentence comes with one major caveat and that is that he can only be released if he can prove that he is rehabilitated and is no longer a threat to society. So after his 21 year sentence, he will have an assessment every single five years to determine if he is safe to rejoin society and it's pretty much confirmed by every single person that is a part of making that decision that Anders will be serving a life sentence. While behind bars in a maximum security prison, Anders has remained in solitary confinement which sounds pretty harsh but the prisons in Norway are a lot busier than the prisons in America. This will be on the screen for anyone watching the video version of this podcast by the way. Anders has a private bedroom, a private bathroom, a private TV room and his own personal gym. He has a computer which has no internet access, what a shame but he makes up for that with his own Xbox and PlayStation 2. And only a few months into his sentence, the spoiled brat really had the nerve to write a 27-page complaint about his living conditions and then he even sued the government saying that his human rights were being infringed upon. He said the chair at his computer that he had wasn't comfy enough and he was really upset that his PlayStation 2 wasn't being replaced with the newer model PlayStation 3. He also wanted more communication with the outside world like internet access and he also wanted to be let out a solitary confinement. Now even though he was not released from solitary confinement and he was absolutely not given access with the outside world, I actually saw reports that the government gave him compensation of 330,000 Norwegian currency which is about like 40,000 dollars in America and because he's been such a well-behaved prisoner, he's also gotten other privileges while behind bars like he gets to have pet parakeets in his cell. After serving the first 10 years of his sentence, he was eligible for parole but he was denied in 2022. And then as recently as February of 2025, he also filed to be released from solitary confinement which was also denied and as far as I know, he's still in isolation to this very day. Thank you so much for making it to the end of this week's episode. This was a really, really hard one. I'm actually really shocked that I hadn't heard of this case before. That was really shocking to me. I never covered a case from Norway so this was a first for me for sure. Really interested to know if any of you have ever heard of this case before, really interested to hear all of our thoughts and opinions. So let me know all of that down in the comments. But while you're there, please always remember to be respectful because you actually have no idea at any giving point who's reading your comments and someone that actually knew and loved some of the people that were lost in today's case. Could be reading our comment. You have no idea. So please always remember to be respectful. I'm going to wrap up this week's episode. Thank you again so much for making it to the very end and listening to these people's stories. I found this case very difficult to research, very difficult to talk about. It's such a shame. The childhood that Anders had but that does not give him any excuse to become the sick and twisted monster that he grew up to be. There are so many people out there that grow up having the most miserable childhoods that don't go on to be evil, evil people. So interested to hear all your thoughts. Let me know in the comments and I will see you guys all next week when we are hot in the case once again. Before we end this week's investigation, I'm going to include all of the names of the lives lost and a brief description on who each of these innocent people were. [Music]