(A version of the following blog first appeared in 2022.) At 8 o’clock on the evening of Sunday, October 30, 1938, millions of Americans were settling in by their radios. It was the golden age of radio, and they were looking forward to hearing one of the most popular programs, NBC’s Chase and Sanborn Hour. …
When did World War II in Europe begin? Most people conveniently pick September 1, 1939, the day Germany attacked Poland (which I have previously written about here). Some of my British friends maintain, however, that a conflict between two European nations hardly makes for a world war, and, as of September 1, no other nations …
August 28, 1941 is not a particularly notable day in the annals of World War II. There was no climatic battle, no turning of the tide, no great surrender, no alliance made or broken. And yet, it was certainly lethal. In my very first blog, written almost nine years ago, I quoted Josef Stalin, no …
I am pleased to announce that an article I recently wrote has been published in the August issue of the Norwegian American Newspaper. Entitled “A Viking ship makes its way to the New World,” my article relates the fascinating story around the construction, in 1893, of a Viking ship, identical in all respects to a …
“[T]o become a journalist . . . that’s what I want! I know I can write. . . . [M]uch of my diary is vivid and alive. . . . I want to be useful or bring enjoyment to all people, even those I’ve never met. I want to go on living even after my …
In the early morning hours of Monday, July 30, 1945—just minutes past midnight to be exact—the United States Navy suffered one of its worst disasters ever. Two torpedoes fired from Japanese submarine I-58 slammed into the USS Indianapolis, a Portland class heavy cruiser captained by 46-year-old Charles B. McVay, III, with devastating effect. Despite its …
Eighty years ago today Raoul Wallenberg, a 31 year-old architect, businessman, diplomat and humanitarian, arrived in Budapest, Hungary. He had been recruited and appointed to the Swedish legation in Budapest to lead a rescue operation for Hungary’s beleaguered Jews who were then being deported to extermination camps in Germany. [Hungary, a one-time ally of Germany, …
“Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity.” (Remarks given in a graduation speech by politician, abolitionist, and social reformer Horace Mann, founder, in 1852, and first president, of Antioch College, and subsequently observed as the school’s motto.) Odd Nansen, who died 51 years ago today, may never have heard of …
Eighty years ago today, the largest amphibious assault ever undertaken, Operation Overlord, began. In retrospect, events like D-Day increasingly to take on an aura of historical inevitability. It seems inevitable that the massive Allied landings would succeed, inevitable that the second front would be established, inevitable that Germany’s demise would ultimately follow. It had to …
Tom Buergenthal died one year ago today, after a long and illustrious career. He had just turned 89 years old a few weeks prior. When I first met Tom in early 2011, all I knew about him was what I had read in his memoir, A Lucky Child, and in the pages of Odd Nansen’s …
“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.
