“Yet such is oft the course of deeds that move the wheels of the world: small hands do them because they must, while the eyes of the great are elsewhere.” The Lord of the Rings I have a confession to make: I am a big fan of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings (LOTR …
“It is a moving record of a man who, though he seems to be unconscious of it, is one of the noble and heroic spirits of our . . . times.” So ends William L. Shirer’s review of From Day to Day, first published on this day 72 years ago. Shirer was already a best-selling …
“At half-past seven the district sheriff of East Gausdal came up to the cottage with two Germans.” So begins From Day to Day, which Odd Nansen, in his usual self-deprecating way, describes thusly in his Foreword: “This book is a diary and makes no claim to be anything else.” The above opening lines were penned …
Today marks the 92nd birthday of my dear friend, Marit (Nansen) Greve, Odd Nansen’s eldest child. Marit was actually born here in America—in Brooklyn, NY, to be exact, while her father was working in New York City (1927—1930) in architecture/urban planning. Although many people refuse to believe this, I maintain that I can still detect …
Back in the good old days (surely you remember, like February last), I was looking forward to a robust 2020 speaking schedule, with events ranging from DC to New Jersey to Chicago to Minnesota to the Dakotas, and even Norway. Accordingly, I stocked up on a healthy supply of Odd Nansen’s From Day to Day …
Today is Anne Frank’s birthday. Had she lived, she would be 91 years old, the same age as Odd Nansen’s eldest child, my dear friend Marit Greve. The exact date and cause of her death are unknown, although it is now believed that she succumbed in late February, 1945, probably to a disease such as …
My readers have by now undoubtedly noticed that I have a thing about anniversaries. Today is no exception, and marks several important such anniversaries, including the fact that my mother, were she still alive, would have turned 100 today. Also, today is the fourth anniversary of the re-appearance, in print, of the English version of …
On this day, 75 years ago, the firebombing of Dresden began. Dresden was Germany’s seventh largest city, and until the raid, the largest city to escape any serious Allied bombing. All that changed in a series of raids which began on the evening of the 13th and lasted for two days. Over 1,000 British and …
As we bid adieu to an old year, and welcome in a new year, it is always worth doing a bit of stock-taking. Happily, 2019 was the best year yet for sales of From Day to Day. Rather than trailing off, sales are still trending upward three- and one-half years since Odd Nansen’s diary was …
On Sunday, September 15, I had the honor of addressing an audience about Odd Nansen’s diary at HL-Senteret, the Norwegian Center for Holocaust and Minority Studies, housed, appropriately enough, in Vidkun Quisling’s wartime residence located on Bygdøy. The event was co-sponsored with Norway’s Resistance Museum (Norges Hjemmefrontmuseum). My visit to Norway, as well as the …
“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.
