Nightly News   |  August 20, 2011

Norway survivors return to scene of mass killings

Survivors of the massacre of 69 people return to a youth camp to remember the friends and relatives they lost there. NBC's Jay Gray reports.

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This content comes from Closed Captioning that was broadcast along with this program.

>>> it was an emotional day on a tiny island in norway where survivors of the massacre of 69 people at a youth camp returned to the scene to remember the friends and relatives they lost. we get our report tonight from nbc's jay gray.

>> reporter: the boat ride may have been just five minutes. but it was a difficult journey.

>> i was scared and also filled with a little bit of anxiety. the images from last time were so horrible.

>> reporter: these are the last images this man and so many survivors had of utoya.

>> we escaped our lives. everything was about getting away from it there. i was a bit scared and worried, yeah.

>> caller: worried about what he would feel as he went back. a trip that he made on this fer ferry, the same boat that the confessed killer, andres breivik, used the day of the deadly attack. but as he coasted into the island where he spent the last ten summers, the sounds of screams and bullet gave way to o a decade of what was so good about this place.

>> it's ten years with good memories and one year with bad memories. but that was the result of one man. but the good memories from all those years is the results from hundreds and hundreds of good friends. so.

>> reporter: he left personal memorials to friends who did not survive. none of those who escape that is horrific day will ever stand alone again.

>> we are going to be veterans all our lives of this day that happened. we're going to be friends. we're going to know each other and we are hugging each other still.

>> reporter: and holding tight to the memories 69 friends lost. jay gray, nbc news, just off