Name: 1942 – Operation Torch: Allied invasion of North Africa
Start: 2024-11-08T00:00:00-05:00
End: 2024-11-08T23:59:59-05:00

1942 – A border pilot attempting to help 9 Jews escape to Sweden kills policeman; Jews are blamed

October 22, 2024 1942 – A border pilot attempting to help 9 Jews escape to Sweden kills policeman; Jews are blamed

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

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“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

October 2024

1943 – Odd Nansen arrives at Sachsenhausen Camp, Germany

1861 – Odd Nansen’s father, Fridtjof Nansen was born.

1903 – Odd Nansen’s wife, Karen (Kari) Hirsch was born

1942 – A border pilot attempting to help 9 Jews escape to Sweden kills policeman; Jews are blamed

1945 – Quisling executed at Akershus Castle

1905 – Norway achieves independence from Sweden

1942 – With the October 22 shooting as a pretext, all Jewish men in Norway over age 15 arrested.

November 2024

1943 – Moscow Declaration issued

1943 – Operation Harvest Festival begins. 18,000 murdered.

1945 – Tom Buergenthal arrives at Otwock Orphanage, Poland

1928 – Odd Nansen’s daughter Marit Nansen born

1942 – Operation Torch: Allied invasion of North Africa

Events

October 2024

November 2024

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