audiobook Wisconsin Death Trip by Michael Lesy in History

Description

In 1942 Norwegian Odd Nansen was arrested by the Nazis; and he spent the remainder of World War II in concentration camps―Grini in Oslo; Veidal above the Arctic Circle; and Sachsenhausen in Germany. For three and a half years; Nansen kept a secret diary on tissue-paper-thin pages later smuggled out by various means; including inside the prisoners' hollowed-out breadboards.Unlike writers of retrospective Holocaust memoirs; Nansen recorded the mundane and horrific details of camp life as they happened; "from day to day." With an unsparing eye; Nansen described the casual brutality and random terror that was the fate of a camp prisoner. His entries reveal his constantly frustrated hopes for an early end to the war; his longing for his wife and children; his horror at the especially barbaric treatment reserved for Jews; and his disgust at the anti-Semitism of some of his fellow Norwegians. Nansen often confronted his German jailors with unusual outspokenness and sometimes with a sense of humor and absurdity that was not appreciated by his captors.After the Putnam's edition received rave reviews in 1949; the book fell into obscurity. In 1956; in response to a poll about the "most undeservedly neglected" book of the preceding quarter-century; Carl Sandburg singled out From Day to Day; calling it "an epic narrative;" which took "its place among the great affirmations of the power of the human spirit to rise above terror; torture; and death." Indeed; Nansen witnessed all the horrors of the camps; yet still saw hope for the future. He sought reconciliation with the German people; even donating the proceeds of the German edition of his book to German refugee relief work. Nansen was following in the footsteps of his father; Fridtjof; an Arctic explorer and humanitarian who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1922 for his work on behalf of World War I refugees. (Fridtjof also created the "Nansen passport" for stateless persons.)This new edition; the first in over sixty-five years; contains extensive annotations and new diary selections never before translated into English. Forty sketches of camp life and death by Nansen; an architect and talented draftsman; provide a sense of immediacy and acute observation matched by the diary entries. The preface is written by Thomas Buergenthal; who was "Tommy;" the ten-year-old survivor of the Auschwitz Death March; whom Nansen met at Sachsenhausen and saved using his extra food rations. Buergenthal; who later served as a judge on the International Court of Justice at The Hague; is a recipient of the 2015 Elie Wiesel Award from the US Holocaust Memorial Museum.