Today Norwegians everywhere celebrate Syttende Mai (literally 17th May), the anniversary of the signing of Norway’s constitution on May 17, 1814, in Eidsvoll, Norway. Typically, Norwegians mark Syttende Mai with celebrations and festivities—parades, feasts, etc. I suspect this year’s activities will be much more subdued, if held at all. More likely the celebration will be …
Seventy-five years ago today World War II ended in Europe. Hitler was dead, and a devastated Germany surrendered unconditionally. In his diary for that day William L. Shirer wrote: “All day I have had to rub my eyes to believe it; to realize that this is really the end of the nightmare that began for …
“So completely has our world been turned upside down. Is it strange that one should be confused and still unable to fit oneself into reality.” Thus ends Odd Nansen’s final diary entry, on April 28, 1945. Nansen was in Horsens, Denmark at the time, and, while technically not yet “free”—there were still German guards about—it …
My readers have by now undoubtedly noticed that I have a thing about anniversaries. Today is no exception, and marks several important such anniversaries, including the fact that my mother, were she still alive, would have turned 100 today. Also, today is the fourth anniversary of the re-appearance, in print, of the English version of …
Seventy-five years ago today, Polish and Russian armed forces liberated Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp, and with it, Thomas Buergenthal. Tom was nineteen days shy of his 11th birthday. He had been a captive, in one form or another, of the Nazis since early 1940, when he and his family were herded into the Kielce Ghetto in …
My readers already know that I have a thing about diaries. I’ve written about Anne Frank’s diary (here), and a recently discovered Holocaust diary (here). Some of you may have seen in the April 15 issue of the New York Times a fascinating piece about World War II diaries—more than 2,000—kept by Dutch civilians. Apparently, …
Eighty years ago today German Armed Forces showed up in Norway—uninvited, unannounced, and unwelcome. Despite holding out for longer than most other European countries overrun by the Nazis, Norway finally capitulated on June 10, 1940. It would remain occupied for over five years—longer than any other European country, excepting only Czechoslovakia and Poland. Germans employed …
[Blogger’s Note: Most of my forthcoming scheduled appearances are now being postponed until further notice. In my own contribution to “social distancing,” I plan to stay home as much as possible, and write more blogs.] The 15th of March has had a bad connotation for quite some time—since at least 44 BC to be exact, …
Civilian casualties in war have existed for as long as war itself—it is happening today in Syria and elsewhere as we speak. World War II, the most violent cataclysm ever, took civilian deaths to new heights. For example, 77 years ago today, Great Britain experienced what would prove to be the worst single loss of …
On this day, 75 years ago, the firebombing of Dresden began. Dresden was Germany’s seventh largest city, and until the raid, the largest city to escape any serious Allied bombing. All that changed in a series of raids which began on the evening of the 13th and lasted for two days. Over 1,000 British and …
“I want to thank Tim Boyce for this . . . . It would be lost to history if people like Tim Boyce did not devote the effort and time and expense–a good part of his life–to preserve the Odd Nansen story. It is a moving and gripping story. . . .”
–U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal
Hailed by The New Yorker as “among the most compelling documents to come out of the war,” From Day to Day is a World War II concentration camp diary—one of only a handful ever translated into English—secretly written by Odd Nansen, a Norwegian political prisoner. Arrested in January 1942, Nansen, son of polar explorer and humanitarian Fridtjof Nansen (Nobel Peace Prize 1922) was held captive for the duration of the war in various Nazi camps in Norway and Germany.
Nansen’s diary entries detail his palpable longing for his wife and family, his constantly frustrated hopes for release, the quiet strength and sometimes ugly prejudices of his fellow prisoners, and his horror at the especially barbaric treatment reserved for the Jews. The diary brilliantly illuminates Nansen’s daily struggle, not only to survive, but to preserve his sanity and maintain his humanity in a world engulfed by fear and hate.
First published in English in 1949, From Day to Day had been out of print for almost seventy years. The new edition contains entries and sketches never previously available in English. It also features a new introduction and extensive annotations by Timothy Boyce and a preface by Thomas Buergenthal, whose life (as a ten year-old) Nansen saved while in Sachsenhausen, later recounted in his own memoir A Lucky Child: A Memoir of Surviving Auschwitz as a Young Boy.
