Today, January 27, marks the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. The anniversary has been designated by the United Nations as International Holocaust Remembrance Day. As the number of Holocaust survivors dwindles, as does the number of contemporary witnesses, and as antisemitism appears resurgent everywhere, even and especially here in the U.S., one is …
Not long ago I wrote about a book that was only recently rediscovered and republished—dealing with an Arctic expedition (here). I have just finished reading another treasure that lay dormant for many years: A Bookshop in Berlin, a memoir written by Françoise Frenkel. Frenkel, born Frymeta Idesa Frenkel, was a Polish Jew who studied at …
As part of an occasional series focused on individual lives, and in anticipation of International Holocaust Remembrance Day (January 27), I dedicate today’s blog to the memory of Konrad Kaplan (aka Conrad Caplan), a Norwegian Jew, and an unsung hero of WWII, who died 75 years ago this day, on January 10, 1945. Odd Nansen …
As we bid adieu to an old year, and welcome in a new year, it is always worth doing a bit of stock-taking. Happily, 2019 was the best year yet for sales of From Day to Day. Rather than trailing off, sales are still trending upward three- and one-half years since Odd Nansen’s diary was …
Today marks the 118th anniversary of Odd Nansen’s birth, on December 6, 1901. Recently I gave a lecture on Odd Nansen’s father, Fridtjof Nansen (whom I’ve written about here). Afterward, a gentleman in the audience recommended reading a book called In the Land of White Death by Valerian Albanov. Albanov, a Russian, joined the Saint …
Those of you who have attended my presentations on From Day to Day know of the spectacularly successful career enjoyed by Thomas Buergenthal: Justice, International Court of Justice at The Hague; Judge, Inter-American Court of Human Rights; United Nations Human Rights Committee; United Nations Truth Commission for El Salvador; Dean, Washington College of Law, American …
In my previous blog about my recent trip to Norway, I described my visit to the former home of Vidkun Quisling, where I viewed his private office while he was Minister-President (1942-45). What I didn’t mention was that I had a much more enjoyable visit to Odd Nansen’s private home and office as well. After …
On Sunday, September 15, I had the honor of addressing an audience about Odd Nansen’s diary at HL-Senteret, the Norwegian Center for Holocaust and Minority Studies, housed, appropriately enough, in Vidkun Quisling’s wartime residence located on Bygdøy. The event was co-sponsored with Norway’s Resistance Museum (Norges Hjemmefrontmuseum). My visit to Norway, as well as the …
I am excited to announce that on Sunday, September 15, at 2:00 pm, I will be speaking about Odd Nansen’s diary at Villa Grande, Huk Aveny 56, Oslo. Villa Grande is the home of HL-Senteret, the Norwegian Center for Holocaust and Minority Studies. During World War II, Villa Grande was occupied by none other than …
Seventy-five years ago today (August 2, 1944), Thomas Buergenthal, age 10, entered Auschwitz, the largest and most lethal concentration camp the Nazis ever built, and the symbolic heart of the Holocaust. Tom was immediately separated from his mother Gerda—thereafter he was to see her only once, through the wire, before she was transported to Ravensbrück, …
“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.
