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German expat helped save people fleeing Norway shooting
Published: 25 Jul 11 06:10 CET | Print version
Online: http://www.thelocal.de/national/20110725-36509.html
While Norway mourns the deaths of 93 people in one of the worst mass-murders in modern history, the country is honouring those who put their lives at risk to stop the killings – including a German man, Marcel Gleffe.
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“We thought that there was a fireworks display,” he recounted to news agency, DPA. But as he heard volley after volley of automatic gunfire, Gleffe became convinced he was hearing shooting instead.
He found a spot to look at the water and saw desperate people trying to swim to safety. That’s when Gleffe took action, jumping into a boat and racing to help people.
Despite the danger, Gleffe quickly pulled person after persons into his small boat.
“It all worked without speaking very much,” he said.
Managing to rescue around six people at a time, Gleffe made multiple trips – officials say he likely rescued around 30 survivors in all. He kept doing it until police showed up at the island, roughly an hour after the shooting started.
Only then, he said, did he think about himself.
“I was myself so frozen that I had to first warm myself up. I was turning blue,” he said.
The Local/DPA/mdm
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Your comments about this article:
wa
This guy does deserve a great amount of attention and praise, but do not dispair, there are tons like him in every country, they just haven't needed to show who they are, and I hope they never do.
@whpmgr........you are petty and pathetic. You sound like a disgruntled old man who would like to be in the heroes chair. Think twice, will you, before you open your sniveling mouth next time. You should be ashamed of your post, but of course, you are too arrogant to feel shame.
There were only FOUR comments praising the Australian guy who KNEW that he would lose his life if he saved the three German journalists. So far there are 12 comments of praise in this article and counting. Some sort of imbalance don't you think !!!
You may have noticed that I did praise Herr Gleffe, but we are not absolutely sure of the the number he saved from ACTUAL death, and as he was in a boat he did have at least some cover so I imagine that every time he got near the island he didn't think he was going to HIS certain death. This was not the case with the Australian guy. Plus I live quite close to the area of the airship tragedy and I scanned our local weekly newspaper for a couple of weeks after the accident and was shocked that it was NOT covered especially as it was 3 journalists who were saved.
Ok thats just me being a jerk. I commend this man for doing something great. But i do have a bone to pick with the german people. Do you guys not realize that you have troops in Afghanistan? or do you just not care or support them? Yeah there might not be that many there but they shouldnt go unnoticed and I have never seen one accolade given to a returning German soldier from the german people. It sickens me.