Norwegian Blogs About Odd Nansen Presentation

On Saturday, August 20, I had the privilege of speaking to a Sons of Norway lodge in Roswell, GA. Attending was a young Norwegian exchange student, Anette Sorensen, who later provided an excellent summary of the talk, as well as some good photos, on her personal blog of her experiences in the US, “Anette in the USA.” I was particularly touched by her concluding sentence: “I find it absolutely amazing that a man from North Carolina, without any ties to Norway, took on this task [to republish Nansen’s diary] and became so engaged in the life of a Norwegian.” Thank you for those very kind words Anette!

Here’s the full blog post, with photos (apologies for those who don’t read Norwegian):
http://m.anettesorensen.blogg.no/1471792477_en_smakebit_fra_andre.html

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

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.