[Note: The following was to have been published yesterday, but I was without Internet all day.] “Ich habe Deutschland auch so geliebt/And I have loved Germany so much.” Mildred Fish-Harnack Mildred Fish was born September 16, 1902 (or about nine months after Odd Nansen) in Milwaukee, WI. Growing up in a heavily ethnic German …
“Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.” Winston Churchill, November 10, 1942 When you think about World War II, it is easy to focus on events such as Pearl Harbor and D-Day. I would submit, however, that the …
Today marks the end of the 30-day period of mourning for Jimmy Carter, 39th U.S. President of the United States, who died on December 29, 2024, age 100. Carter was known for so many humanitarian undertakings that to list or describe them all would be impossible. One of his many endeavors was the establishment of …
Today’s news headline: “Alerts for cold weather are in effect for nearly half the U.S. population, running from the northern Plains to the Gulf Coast and the Rockies to the Southwest.” As you’re reading this blog you are probably one of the many millions who qualify for the above weather alert. Even here in western …
Two (2) days hence—January 13—marks the 83rd anniversary of Odd Nansen’s arrest at the hands of the Nazis. It would be the start of a 39-month saga, involving incarceration in jails, police detention camps, work camps and two concentration camps. What better way to commemorate that event than by watching a new Norwegian film, now …
As we close the books on 2024, and, in the words of Odd Nansen, “fix our hopes, our burning wishes and our ache of longing on the new year,” I would like to thank the many people who aided me this year in furthering the awareness of Odd Nansen’s inspiring diary. Whether by inviting me …
Today marks the 78th anniversary of the first screening of one of my favorite films, Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life. Originally slated to be released in January 1947, the movie’s premier was moved up to December 20, 1946 in order to qualify for that year’s Academy Awards. Although nominated in five categories, including Best …
What do the USS Arizona and USS Indianapolis have in common? At first glance, not much. The first was a battleship; the second a heavy cruiser. One was named after a state; the other, a city. The Arizona was the first major U.S. ship to be sunk by the Japanese in World War II, 83 …
“Aeschylus and Plato are remembered today long after the triumphs of imperial Athens are gone. Dante outlived the ambitions of 13th century Florence. Goethe stands serenely above the politics of Germany, and I am certain that after the dust of centuries has passed over our cities, we, too, will be remembered not for our victories …
Hiltgunt Zassenhaus died 20 years ago today (November 20, 2004), age 88, in Baltimore, MD. Born in Hamburg, Germany, Zassenhaus was employed by the Nazi regime throughout World War II, including by the feared Department of Justice. Despite that, she is the only German ever to be awarded Norway’s Order of St. Olav, given as …
“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.
