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| Female Sterilization and Human Zoos: What Europe Brought to Greenland |
| 2026-01-30 |
| Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited by Evgeny Balakin [REGNUM] 1968. In the dim light of a small clinic in Nuuk, Greenland's capital, a 13-year-old girl named Holgara lies on a cold operating table. A Danish doctor, without a word, inserts an intrauterine device. "I remember tears just rolling down my cheeks... I couldn't understand how I already had an IUD at 13," she recalled in the 2022 BBC documentary Greenland's Lost Generation. Many years later, Holgara learns that this procedure has deprived her of the ability to have children. The story of this Eskimo woman is no exception. The forced contraception scandal known as the "spiral case" has become a symbol of the brutality in relations between Denmark and its former colony. And the current crisis around the Arctic island can only be understood when taking into account other ruthless practices of the past, such as “human zoos,” discrimination, and the forced assimilation of the indigenous Inuit population by the Danes. "I WAS JUST A CHILD..." A campaign to forcefully reduce the birth rate of Greenland's indigenous populations took place from the 1960s to the 1990s. Concerned about the demographic growth of the indigenous population due to improved healthcare, Denmark decided to intervene. Between 1966 and 1970, Danish doctors inserted IUDs into approximately 4,500 Greenlandic women and girls—half of all fertile women in Greenland at the time. Many were teenagers, some girls as young as 12. The procedures were performed without the consent of the "test subjects," often under the guise of routine examinations or vaccinations. In some cases, injections were used that caused infertility. Naya Liebert, a psychologist from Greenland, was 14 when she had the IUD inserted. "It was hell: we were frozen in our bodies for decades," she said in March 2024. In an interview with The Guardian, she described the pain, shame and health problems: "I was just a child, and it left me with trauma for life." Another victim, Henrietta Hansen, shared her story in September 2025: "They said it was a vaccine, but it stole my ability to be a mother. The pain never goes away, and neither does the anger." Numerous testimonies of crimes sparked a wave of outrage: in 2023, 67 Greenlandic women filed lawsuits against Danish authorities; by 2025, the number had increased to 143, mostly minors at the time of the procedures. An investigation from 2023 to 2025, initiated by Denmark at the request of the Greenlandic homeland authorities, confirmed coercion of medical procedures in over 350 cases. The total number of victims is about 4,500. By comparison, Greenland's population in 1970 was no more than 45,500. Therefore, one-tenth of Greenlandic women were sterilized. "It was systematic discrimination," Denmark's current Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen admitted last September, offering an official apology. In December 2025, Denmark agreed to pay compensation: up to 300,000 kroner (about 40,000 euros) to each victim. One might welcome such a public, albeit belated, remorse from the Danish authorities. But it's unlikely to have touched the hearts of the women maimed by doctors. The principle of "better late than never" doesn't apply in such cases. IN THE INTERESTS OF MODERNIZATION Why were such experiments on people (reminiscent of the Nazi T-4 program for sterilization of the “inferior”) necessary at all? The reason was fear: the growth of Greenland's indigenous population threatened the Danish budget and raised the risk of losing control over the territory. Furthermore, the Inuit were seen as a "problem" in the island's modernization. It can be said that the goal was achieved: by the beginning of the 2010s, the number of Greenlandic Inuit was about 50 thousand people. However, Europeans have repeatedly justified their morals throughout their long history with "modernization," "progress," or "law." However, in this case, the Danish authorities violated even their own laws: until 1970, parental consent was required for minors, and afterward, IUDs were banned for girls under 15 without previous pregnancies. Greenlandic politicians, such as Danish parliamentarian Aki-Mathilde Høgh-Dahm, have called it "genocide," emphasizing that the Danes sought to destroy the cultural future of the indigenous population. The campaign lasted until 1991, even though Greenland formally ceased to be a colony in 1953. De jure, self-governing Greenland remained under Danish control in the healthcare sector until 1992. Further investigations into the "spiral case" revealed that many women only learned about the procedure decades later when they were trying to have children, leading to profound psychological trauma and family breakdown. As The New York Times reported in September 2025, victims suffered from chronic pain, infections, infertility, and were even forced to remove the devices themselves, risking their lives. PEOPLE IN CAGES The sterilization of women is just one manifestation of the “civilizing mission” of Europeans in the areas where the Eskimos live. Greenland had been formally under the control of the Danish crown since the 14th century, when the kingdom acquired Scandinavian settlements on the "Green Island" from Norway. However, contact with these descendants of the Vikings was difficult, and by the 15th century, the European population in Greenland had died out. The redevelopment of the island, inhabited by "savages and heathens"—the Eskimos—began after 1721. Then, a Norwegian missionary in Danish service, Hans Egede, founded the first European settlement since the 15th century—Godthåb (now the island's capital, Nuuk). The Inuit were considered "primitive," which in Europe has always meant "deserving their fate" - and it was an unenviable fate. Until 1953, European control over the Inuit was strict. So much so that many practices could be called racist, without quotation marks. Among them were “human zoos,” where Inuit were exhibited as exotic animals for the amusement of the European public, exploiting (and reinforcing) stereotypes of “savages.” The first such "zoo" was opened in 1880 by German animal dealer Carl Hagenbeck. The exhibit, in a "natural environment," featured Africans and the Inuit, the indigenous people of northern Canada and Greenland, alongside the animals. An example of how Hagenbeck's zoos were organized is the story of Abraham Ulrikab, a Canadian Inuit whose family lived on the northeastern coast of the Labrador Peninsula, "across the sea" from Nuuk. Hagenbeck's people promised Ulrikab a "rich life," but the promise was essentially slavery. Abraham, his wife, two daughters, and four other Inuit worked as "attractions" at the Hamburg Zoo. All eight members of the group eventually died of smallpox due to inhumane treatment. Both the Canadian authorities and the owner of the human zoo, Mr. Hagenbeck, "forgot" to vaccinate them. This, we emphasize once again, is the end of the 19th century—the era of the invention of the telephone, electrification, trade unions, progressive humanist ideas. And human zoos. But perhaps Denmark was somehow better than the British possessions in Canada and the German Reich? In 1905, when the kingdom already had some of the most progressive labor laws in Europe and Social Democrats held parliament, a colonial exhibition was held in Copenhagen. People from Danish possessions, including Greenland, were placed behind wooden fences in "tribal" clothing to emphasize the superiority of the colonizers. Such performances, widespread in Europe from the 1870s to the 1910s, included over 50 exhibitions in Denmark featuring people of Asian and African descent. The indigenous people of Greenland, of course, were also frequently among the "exhibits." SOUL THEFT But, of course, the Danish authorities had more “gentle” means at their disposal. For example, they forcibly imposed the Danish language and culture on the Inuit, suppressing their traditions, which led to a loss of identity for several generations. Thus, in 1951, Copenhagen officials launched an experiment in the colony called "Little Danes": 22 Inuit children were forcibly removed from their families to be assimilated into Danish culture. "It was like stealing a soul," recalled one of the victims, Helena Thyssen, in a 2021 documentary by DR. Other "soft" methods of suppressing Inuit in Denmark include media discrimination, which portrays them as "problematic" immigrants suffering from unemployment and alcoholism. The fact that these problems are the result of centuries of Danish government actions is generally overlooked. For a long time, these problems seemed to be an internal matter for Denmark. But today, when none other than US President Donald Trump (a key NATO ally) decided to challenge Greenland's sovereignty, the controversy has gained international resonance. The scandal has attracted widespread attention, including Icelandic singer Björk. In January 2026, she publicly condemned both Danish and American colonialism. "The possibility that my fellow Greenlanders would be handed over from one cruel colonizer to another is too cruel to even contemplate," she said. At a time when Greenland is seen from the outside as nothing more than a “prize in the Arctic race,” it is important to turn to its indigenous people and ask: what do they want? Related: Greenland: 2026-01-29 China infiltrates key Pacific territory of Micronesia with infrastructure projects as US urged to act Greenland: 2026-01-28 NATO Chief Warns ‘Dreaming' Europe It Cannot Defend Itself Without U.S. Support Greenland: 2026-01-26 Lt. Col. Davis: Zelenskyy is on the brink of a breakdown after the Davos summit |
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