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We Die Alone: A WWII Epic of Escape and Endurance
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Review
"Jan Baalstrud encountered some of the most harrowing adventures yet recorded about the survivors of the Second World War . . . A mere outline of Jan's adventures cannot possibly suggest the emotional impact that Mr. Howarth creates by his sharp selection of revealing details and his terse skill in telling a plain, unvarnished tale. We Die Alone fills one with humber admiration for the stubborn courage of a man who refused to die under circumstances that would have killed ninety-nine men out of a hundred and with almost equal admiration for the many men and women who never hesitated to help him as best they could, knowing full well that death was the mildest punishment they could expect for their heroic 'crime.'" --The New York Times "One of the great escape stories of our time." --Chicago Sun-Times "Almost unbelievable. We Die Alone is a spine chiller. It may well become a legend." --Boston Post March 2, 2010Op-Ed ColumnistBy DAVID BROOKSThe United States, a nation of 300 million, won nine gold medals this year in the Winter Olympics. Norway, a nation of 4.7 million, also won nine. This was no anomaly. Over the years, Norwegians have won more gold medals in Winter Games, and more Winter Olympics medals over all, than people from any other nation.There must be many reasons for Norway’s excellence, but some of them are probably embedded in the story of Jan Baalsrud.In 1943, Baalsrud was a young instrument maker who was asked to sneak back into Norway to help the anti-Nazi resistance.His mission, described in the book “We Die Alone” by David Howarth, was betrayed. His boat was shelled by German troops. Baalsrud dove into the ice-covered waters and swam, with bullets flying around him, toward an island off the Norwegian coast. The rest of his party was killed on the spot, or captured and eventually executed, but Baalsrud made it to the beach and started climbing an icy mountain. He was chased by Nazis, and he killed one officer.He was hunted by about 50 Germans and left a trail in the deep snow. He’d lost one boot and sock, and he was bleeding from where his big toe had been shot off. He scrambled across the island and swam successively across the icy sound to two other islands. On the second, he lay dying of cold and exhaustion on the beach.Two girls found and led him to their home. And this is the core of the story. During the next months, dozens of Norwegians helped Baalsrud get across to Sweden. Flouting any sense of rational cost-benefit analysis, families and whole villages risked their lives to help one gravely ill man, who happened to drop into their midst.Baalsrud was clothed and fed and rowed to another island. He showed up at other houses and was taken in. He began walking across the mountain ranges on that island in the general direction of the mainland, hikes of 24, 13 and 28 hours without break.A 72-year-old man rowed him the final 10 miles to the mainland, past German positions, and gave him skis. Up in the mountains, he skied through severe winter storms. One night, he started an avalanche. He fell at least 300 feet, smashed his skis and suffered a severe concussion. His body was buried in snow, but his head was sticking out. He lost sense of time and self-possession. He was blind, the snow having scorched the retinas of his eyes.He wandered aimlessly for four days, plagued by hallucinations. At one point he thought he had found a trail, but he was only following his own footsteps in a small circle.Finally, he stumbled upon a cottage. A man named Marius Gronvold took him in. He treated Baalsrud’s frostbite and hid him in a remote shed across a lake to recover.He was alone for a week (a storm made it impossible for anyone to reach him). Gangrene invaded his legs. He stabbed them to drain the pus and blood. His eyesight recovered, but the pain was excruciating and he was starving.Baalsrud could no longer walk, so Gronvold and friends built a sled. They carried the sled and him up a 3,000-foot mountain in the middle of a winter storm and across a frozen plateau to where another party was supposed to meet them. The other men weren’t there, and Gronvold was compelled to leave Baalsrud in a hole in the ice under a boulder.The other party missed the rendezvous because of a blizzard, and by the time they got there, days later, the tracks were covered and they could find no sign of him. A week later, Gronvold went up to retrieve Baalsrud’s body and was astonished to find him barely alive. Baalsrud spent the next 20 days in a sleeping bag immobilized in the snow, sporadically supplied by Gronvold and others.Over the next weeks, groups of men tried to drag him to Sweden but were driven back, and they had to shelter him again in holes in the ice. Baalsrud cut off his remaining toes with a penknife to save his feet. Tired of risking more Norwegian lives, he also attempted suicide.Finally, he was awoken by the sound of snorting reindeer. A group of Laps had arrived, and under German fire, they dragged him to Sweden.This astonishing story could only take place in a country where people are skilled on skis and in winter conditions. But there also is an interesting form of social capital on display. It’s a mixture of softness and hardness. Baalsrud was kept alive thanks to a serial outpouring of love and nurturing. At the same time, he and his rescuers displayed an unbelievable level of hardheaded toughness and resilience. That’s a cultural cocktail bound to produce achievement in many spheres.
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From the Inside Flap
March 2, 2010 Op-Ed Columnist By DAVID BROOKS The United States, a nation of 300 million, won nine gold medals this year in the Winter Olympics. Norway, a nation of 4.7 million, also won nine. This was no anomaly. Over the years, Norwegians have won more gold medals in Winter Games, and more Winter Olympics medals over all, than people from any other nation. There must be many reasons for Norway's excellence, but some of them are probably embedded in the story of Jan Baalsrud. In 1943, Baalsrud was a young instrument maker who was asked to sneak back into Norway to help the anti-Nazi resistance. His mission, described in the book "We Die Alone" by David Howarth, was betrayed. His boat was shelled by German troops. Baalsrud dove into the ice-covered waters and swam, with bullets flying around him, toward an island off the Norwegian coast. The rest of his party was killed on the spot, or captured and eventually executed, but Baalsrud made it to the beach and started climbing an icy mountain. He was chased by Nazis, and he killed one officer. He was hunted by about 50 Germans and left a trail in the deep snow. He'd lost one boot and sock, and he was bleeding from where his big toe had been shot off. He scrambled across the island and swam successively across the icy sound to two other islands. On the second, he lay dying of cold and exhaustion on the beach. Two girls found and led him to their home. And this is the core of the story. During the next months, dozens of Norwegians helped Baalsrud get across to Sweden. Flouting any sense of rational cost-benefit analysis, families and whole villages risked their lives to help one gravely ill man, who happened to drop into their midst. Baalsrud was clothed and fed and rowed to another island. He showed up at other houses and was taken in. He began walking across the mountain ranges on that island in the general direction of the mainland, hikes of 24, 13 and 28 hours without break. A 72-year-old man rowed him the final 10 miles to the mainland, past German positions, and gave him skis. Up in the mountains, he skied through severe winter storms. One night, he started an avalanche. He fell at least 300 feet, smashed his skis and suffered a severe concussion. His body was buried in snow, but his head was sticking out. He lost sense of time and self-possession. He was blind, the snow having scorched the retinas of his eyes. He wandered aimlessly for four days, plagued by hallucinations. At one point he thought he had found a trail, but he was only following his own footsteps in a small circle. Finally, he stumbled upon a cottage. A man named Marius Gronvold took him in. He treated Baalsrud's frostbite and hid him in a remote shed across a lake to recover. He was alone for a week (a storm made it impossible for anyone to reach him). Gangrene invaded his legs. He stabbed them to drain the pus and blood. His eyesight recovered, but the pain was excruciating and he was starving. Baalsrud could no longer walk, so Gronvold and friends built a sled. They carried the sled and him up a 3,000-foot mountain in the middle of a winter storm and across a frozen plateau to where another party was supposed to meet them. The other men weren't there, and Gronvold was compelled to leave Baalsrud in a hole in the ice under a boulder. The other party missed the rendezvous because of a blizzard, and by the time they got there, days later, the tracks were covered and they could find no sign of him. A week later, Gronvold went up to retrieve Baalsrud's body and was astonished to find him barely alive. Baalsrud spent the next 20 days in a sleeping bag immobilized in the snow, sporadically supplied by Gronvold and others. Over the next weeks, groups of men tried to drag him to Sweden but were driven back, and they had to shelter him again in holes in the ice. Baalsrud cut off his remaining toes with a penknife to save his feet. Tired of risking more Norwegian lives, he also attempted suicide. Finally, he was awoken by the sound of snorting reindeer. A group of Laps had arrived, and under German fire, they dragged him to Sweden. This astonishing story could only take place in a country where people are skilled on skis and in winter conditions. But there also is an interesting form of social capital on display. It's a mixture of softness and hardness. Baalsrud was kept alive thanks to a serial outpouring of love and nurturing. At the same time, he and his rescuers displayed an unbelievable level of hardheaded toughness and resilience. That's a cultural cocktail bound to produce achievement in many spheres.
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Product details
Paperback: 232 pages
Publisher: Lyons Press; First PB Edition edition (June 1, 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1599210630
ISBN-13: 978-1599210636
Product Dimensions:
6 x 0.6 x 9 inches
Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review:
4.4 out of 5 stars
504 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
#410,111 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
This book was excellent and well written. Great descriptions that took me to the places described in Norway. Horrendous survival story. Like none I have ever heard of. It was hard to put down. Anyone who picks it up will love reading it and living through some of the experiences with the heroes and others involved. The Norwegion people who worked to save this man were amazing and so heroic and determined. The young man's name escapes me at the moment, but to me any other person would have given up hope. He did not and survived to tell the tale. This was one of the best true story books I have read in a while.
I loved this book.It's about Jan Baalsrud, a Norwegian. He begins WWII as a courier between Stockholm and Oslo, gets caught by the Swedes, imprisoned, and then manages to make his way to England and join a group of other Norwegians being trained to return to their country and fight the Nazis. That's where the book begins, with Jan and the other men on his mission approaching the Norwegian coast. Their plan is to hide their sabotage gear, train local groups to resist the Nazis, and then attack a German airfield that's wrecking havoc on convoys between England and the Soviet Union. But their plans fall apart pretty quickly, and Jan soon finds himself alone in the snow with nothing but his clothing, his pistol, and one boot. What follows is how he survives and eventually makes it back to Sweden, with a lot of help along the way.I was initially interested in this book because of its title. I like titles with the words like "death" or "die" or "dead" in them. But the title isn't entirely accurate: Jan doesn't die (comes close several times). And the people who do die don't die alone--there's usually at least a gestapo agent around.But enough about the title. Jan is brave and resourceful and he can ski like something else. But then events leave him gradually more and more at the mercy of others, and the tough commando becomes vulnerable. Howarth did a wonderful job of finding an amazing story, researching it thoroughly, and then writing it in a way that uses good principles of storytelling so that this true story reads like a novel.We Die Alone is one of those books I recommend for just about everyone. Readers that enjoy Unbroken or The Long Walk may be especially interested in adding this to their to-read list.
There are so many other reviews that I won't even bother discussing the main events in this book. Suffice it to say that it is among the most incredible tales of survival that you will ever read, fiction or non-fiction. Jack London would have been afraid to submit such an outlandish tale to his publishers.That said, a few thoughts:1. I found the actions of the local Norwegian "Resistance Movement" almost more interesting than the actual tale. To be caught helping Baalsrud was an act the occupying Nazis would have punished severely, both the actual person that did it, his family and maybe even the whole village. And yet the local villagers were, for the most part, not intimidated. The bigger concern seemed to be that if too many people found out about the rescue effort, their attempts to help would be noticed by the Nazi occupiers and raise suspicions.2. Even more amazing, people in the next village were recruited based just on a request from a respected member of the first village. All this, without the use of a telephone, which was probably tapped by the Germans. Imagine your reaction if someone you don't know showed up at your door and said that so-and-so from the next town over wants you to climb a mountain in a blizzard and rescue someone...nevermind that the Germans will kill you and your family if you get caught...just do it.3. Baalsrud spends several weeks in a snow cave on the Norwegian "Outback", sometimes completely buried, with very limited supplies of food, fresh water, blankets or medical supplies. I am not sure I believe this is even possible, but yet the author seems to have done a credible job of researching the story. There are multiple sources for research material, and a credible looking timeline. Either Baalsrud is capable of hibernating, or memories have been corrupted in the ten years between the events and the story being told. I would believe either scenario.4. As many have pointed out, the editing and proofreading on this book were horrible. These sorts of errors ruin my reading experience, and most times I would abandon reading a book with this level of problems. In this instance, the story was captivating enough that I powered through the mistakes. The story was better than the proofreading was bad.5. The Kindle edition did not have a map-something sorely needed. Even Google-maps seemed unable to rise to the task for some of the locations mentioned in the story. An old Atlas that I hadn't used in years, showing topography and little hamlets of Norway, greatly enhanced the story.So find a good map, ignore the grammar and writing style, and start reading. You might have to suspend disbelief at some of the details, but no doubt the major points of the story are true. If nothing else, the tale of Jan Baalsrud and the Norwegian villagers will reaffirm your faith in the human will and spirit.Finally, since the characters in the story seemed to run on brandy, pour yourself a glass and toast these men and women...preferably on a cold, windy winter evening.
I had watched the movie about Jan Baalsrud's escape, but I wanted to know more about the details. This was the first book I found, so I immediately downloaded it to my Kindle. Afterwards, I found another book, "Defiant Courage" by Scott and Haug, that had a lot more detail. "We Die Alone" seemed fuzzy on some details and inconsistent on timelines, but it is a very quick read for those who just want the highlights.
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