From Day to Day

Updates: Lecture in Oslo; Fourth Printing

I am excited to announce that on Sunday, September 15, at 2:00 pm, I will be speaking about Odd Nansen’s diary at Villa Grande, Huk Aveny 56, Oslo. Villa Grande is the home of HL-Senteret, the Norwegian Center for Holocaust and Minority Studies.  During World War II, Villa Grande was occupied by none other than …

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Third Royalty Checks Go Out

I am pleased to announce that the third distribution of royalty checks has just been made.  As I explained in earlier posts (here and here), I determined at the outset of my journey with From Day to Day that any royalties derived from the sale of Nansen’s diary would go to a charity or charities …

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MHQ Publishes Article on Nansen Passport

I am pleased to announce that the Winter 2019 issue of MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History, has just hit the newsstands, and contains an article I authored regarding the Nansen Passport. One of the many reasons Fridtjof Nansen was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1922 was his work as the first High …

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Odd Nansen’s Postscript

Back in June I was honored to give a presentation to the Nordic Museum in Seattle, WA (which I have written about here). Following my talk, one of the first audience members I met were Shlomo Goldberg and his wife Karen Treiger.  Shlomo explained that his father had escaped from Treblinka–from Treblinka!–one of the deadliest …

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THE Book Tour (Part VI): YouTube

On June 14 I had the opportunity to address the residents of Sun City Lincoln Hills, in Lincoln, CA.  The 150-seat auditorium soon filled up, and chairs were brought in, and finally, when no more chairs could be accommodated, some resorted to sitting in the aisles.  I was honored by the presence of a Holocaust …

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On This Day in 1942

On this day in 1942,  three officials—two German, one Norwegian—approached a small cabin in snowy East Gausdal, Norway, and informed Odd Nansen that he was wanted for questioning in Oslo.  In fact, he was part of a round-up ordered by the German overseer of Norway, Reichskommissar Josef Terboven. That very night Nansen began his prison diary.  …

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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.