Public apology demanded over colonial experiment
An official apology is being sought for a Danish experiment using Greenlandic children as ‘guinea pigs’ A group of 22 children lost their language, culture and family when they were moved from Greenland to Denmark in 1951, according to Politiken...
A group of 22 children lost their language, culture and family when they were moved from Greenland to Denmark in 1951, according to Politiken newspaper.
Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen is now being urged to issue a public apology for the experiment, which used 22 Greenlandic children aged between five and eight years old as ‘guinea pigs’.
The Social Democrats, the Greenlandic government and the subjects involved in the experiment all agree that an official apology is necessary.
The experiment was designed to create an elite group of Danish-minded Greenlanders who were to take the lead in Greenland’s education system. The children were taken from their parents and indoctrinated with the Danish language and culture.
The experiment failed and the children never returned home. Some were adopted and others spend the rest of their childhoods in children’s homes.
More than half of them died as young adults, but those still alive are now demanding that the experiment be acknowledged by the Danish government.
Greenland Premier Kuupik Kleist said he wanted to discuss the matter with the Danish prime minister. The issue was a ‘classic colonial case’ and calls for a through investigation, he said.
The Social Democrats are calling for a commission to be set up to investigate the experiment, which they describe as a ‘black chapter’ in Denmark’s history.
Neither Rasmussen nor Social Affairs Minister Karen Ellemann have yet responded to the apology demands.