Name: 1945 – Gerda Buergenthal, Tom Buergenthal’s mother, is liberated at Malchow, a subcamp of Ravensbruck
Start: 2027-04-28T00:00:00-04:00
End: 2027-04-28T23:59:59-04:00

2016 – From Day to Day, One Man’s Diary of Survival in Nazi Concentration Camps, is republished for the first time in 67 years.

April 26, 2027 2016 – From Day to Day, One Man’s Diary of Survival in Nazi Concentration Camps, is republished for the first time in 67 years.

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

Buy The Book

“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

April 2027

1945 – Murders at Bullenhuser Damm (See Blog)

1940 – Robert Losey, America’s first soldier casualty of WWII, dies in Norway

1945 – Sachsenhausen (including Buergenthal) liberated

1889 – Oklahoma Land Rush Begins

1915 – Germany’s First Use of Poison Gas in WWI

1564 – Purported Birthday of William Shakespeare (as well as Date of Death, in 1616)

1940 – Josef Terboven appointed Reichskommissar of Norway

1945 – U.S. and Soviet troops meet up for the first time at the Elbe River, near Torgau in Germany

2016 – From Day to Day, One Man’s Diary of Survival in Nazi Concentration Camps, is republished for the first time in 67 years.

1791 – Samuel B. Morse, Inventor of the Telegraph, is Born

1945 – Odd Nansen evacuated from Neuengamme on White Buses to Denmark, then Sweden.

1945 – Gerda Buergenthal, Tom Buergenthal’s mother, is liberated at Malchow, a subcamp of Ravensbruck

Events

April 2027

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