Following my June 7 presentation at the new Nordic Museum in Seattle—on the occasion of the 23rd annual Raoul Wallenberg Memorial Dinner—I met with and spoke to many in the audience while signing books. Often these people had their own important connections to World War II, and equally fascinating stories to tell. I only wish …
Serendipity. There’s that word again. The final stop in my west coast tour was Nordia House, the lovely cultural home of Nordic Northwest, a Portland, Oregon, based organization dedicated to preserving, communicating and celebrating Nordic culture, heritage and innovation. Now, one would think that, after more than 100 presentations, I would finally have my act together. …
One of the greatest highlights of my recent trip west was the opportunity to give the keynote address at the 23rd annual Raoul Wallenberg Memorial Dinner, held at the new Nordic Museum in Seattle on June 7. Speaking to a sellout audience of 200, it was both a thrill and an honor to memorialize the …
Most of my blog readers already know of my friend Siri Svae Fenson. Previously I had written about her uncle, Hjalmar Svae, described by Odd Nansen as “a fine type of Norwegian patriot.” Svae, along with two other Norwegians, had attempted to escape to Great Britain from Norway in a stolen German motorboat in August …
Odd Nansen died 45 years ago today, on June 27, 1973, age 71. I always feel that the anniversary of his death is an appropriate time to memorialize his life, and to try and draw lessons from it. Although Nansen wrote several books during his lifetime, his sole “porthole” through which we English speakers can …
Well, the great Northwest Pacific book tour of 2018 is now officially in the record books. A 5-city, 24-day, 31-appearance extravaganza officially ended when I landed in Charlotte Douglas International Airport at 6:05 am this morning from my red eye flight from Portland, OR. The trip was a success on so many levels—presentations made, …
The following tribute was not written on Father’s Day, nor was it intended for Father’s Day. It was written on December 7, 1944—the anniversary of Pearl Harbor—by a 21 year-old Marine to his father back home in the States. The Marine was James W. Johnston. Long after the war, at age 76, Johnston wrote of …
Today’s news feed (here) was filled with stories of a 550-pound unexploded bomb discovered in Dresden that was successfully defused today. Approximately 9,000 city residents living near the site of the bomb were evacuated from their homes for two days while the defusing operation was underway, and flights to and from the Dresden airport were …
Fridtjof Nansen, father of Odd Nansen, polar explorer, statesman, humanitarian, died eighty-eight years ago today, age 68. I have written previously about Fridtjof Nansen (here). I also recently wrote about my forthcoming lecture at the 23rd annual Raoul Wallenberg memorial dinner at the Nordic Museum in Seattle on June 7 (here). In preparing for my …
No, not that bomb story. This doesn’t involve the Trinity test site near Alamogordo, New Mexico, where the first atomic bomb was successfully exploded (although there is, as we shall see, a tie-in to that matter as well). No, this story involves the twentieth Earl of Suffolk, otherwise known as Charles Henry George Howard, or …
“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.
