O.M. Magnussen of the WWII Norwegian resistance is picked up by the Gestapo (the Nazis took over Norway in 1940) in '41 and endures three prisons and two concentration camps. He secretly records prison life in notes and drawings, smuggled out after his release in '45, which he expands into the narrative, Vi Ventet (We Are Waiting) under his prison name. In 2005, an English interpretation of the narrative entitled The Long Norwegian Night by Kaare Bolgen, a childhood friend of Magnussen's, is found in Mr. Bolgen's papers after his death (Bolgen emigrated to the U.S. in the 1930s). His account traces the physical and psychological levels of Magnussen's survival and meticulously observes the senseless routines and atrocities of the S.S. and prison administrations. Techniques on when to adapt or work the system to the prisoners' advantage are reported, occasionally with humor, but always committed to not giving up.
About the Author: Kaare A. Bolgen (1908-2005) was born in Oslo, Norway where he lived until he was nine years old when his family moved to Rjukan, Telemark, Norway. In Rjukan he began a friendship with Odd Magnus Magnussen. Rjukan is a town with a rich culture and is where Mr. Bolgen developed a deep appreciation of nature, the arts, and science, which instructed his work for the rest of his life. In the early 1930s at the end of his education, he left Norway to travel: first to Germany where he foresaw Hitler's intent during the early rallies, then to Vancouver Island in Canada for a year before enrolling at the University of Washington in Seattle. His musical talents (he played and taught all the string instruments) and curiosity took him to New York. In 1940, he published The Science of Violin Playing which is still available through antiquarian book dealers. During this period he taught music, was the editor of several classical music journals, and married Patrice. They lived on Long Island for over twenty years until the call of nature and open space brought them to Berkshire County in Western Massachusetts, where he lived for the rest of his life. At the age of 91, he wrote and published Dead Ends and Detours: The World and Science in the 20th Century. As Kaare says in his "Note to the Reader" at the beginning of The Long Norwegian Night, "The accounts of the Underground movements of Europe follow a familiar and fantastic pattern of superhuman cleverness and endurance, and as time passes, truth and fiction become even more mingled into a misty haze of adventure. But working secretly, and sometimes helplessly against the new, would-be Masters of the World was no glamorous adventure. It was deadly dangerous and sordid and full of hard work. It also was a life full of warm humanity, of humor and failure. In a way, this is a story of failure, but it is the kind of failure that lays the foundation of true success, and in the end, we see that through this and a thousand other such failures, one of the most amazing victories in the history of the human race was brought about." Kaare A. Bolgen died in 2005 at the age of 97.