Name: 1944 – The ferry SF Hydro is sunk
Start: 2027-02-20T00:00:00-05:00
End: 2027-02-20T23:59:59-05:00

1942 – Singapore surrenders to the Japanese

February 15, 2027 1942 – Singapore surrenders to the Japanese

From Day to Day: One Man’s Diary of Survival in Nazi Concentration Camps

“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.

On this day in history

February 2027

1945 – Dresden, Germany firebombed; thousands killed.

1952 – Winter Olympics begin; Eigil Nansen lights Olympic Torch.

1942 – Singapore surrenders to the Japanese

1898 – Battleship USS Maine Blows Up in Havana Harbor, Sparking the Spanish-American War

1933 – President-Elect Franklin Roosevelt Barely Escapes Assassination in Miami, FL

1940 – Altmark Affair in Jøssingfjord, Norway

1945 – Odd Nansen meets Tommy Buergenthal

1943 – Mildred Harnack murdered in Plötzensee Prison, Berlin, Age 40

1945 – Count Folke Bernadotte meets with Himmler to negotiate the release of Scandinavian prisoners

1945 – U.S. Marines land on Iwo Jima

1863 – Edison’s phonograph patented

1944 – The ferry SF Hydro is sunk

Events

February 2027

From Day to Day: One Man’s Diary of Survival in Nazi Concentration Camps