NIGHT AND FOG

by Arne Brun with Robby Robinson Lie ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 15, 1989

A raggedly moving account of the Nazis' Nacht und Nebel (night and fog) destruction camps by one of their rare survivors. Three years after the Nazis invaded Norway in 1940, Lie, just under 20, was invited to join the Resistance. Shortly after he aborted his first assignment--distributing anti-Reich leaflets--by dumping them in a trash can, he was arrested and spirited off to the world of the ""already dead"" in Germany. Forty years later, during an ocean crossing of his sailing cutter, he confronted the nightmares of the camps and his own guilt at surviving them when he shared his memories for the first time with Chris and Tone, his young crew. His book weaves together these two stories, cutting from his horrific ordeal in Natzweiler, Dautmergen, and Dachau--the meaningless rock-breaking, the capos' unchecked bullying, the sickness and emaciation that killed the three friends arrested with him, the inescapable stench of waste and death--to the self-imposed or-deal of his Atlantic crossing. The two stories often pull in opposite directions, but the climactic moment when Lie sails into Oscarsborg, repeating and correcting the landing of the invading armies, is magically affecting. Even readers who aren't persuaded that Lie's ""Lifeline"" in the camps was ""dreams of sailing"" will be moved by his survivor's testimony: ""Here I am. That's my revenge.

Pub Date: Jan. 15, 1989

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Norton

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1989

Categories: NONFICTION