Narrative Non-fiction2025 · 720 pp
Wanda
Anders Heger
When she was 21 years old, Wanda Heger and her family were interned in Germany. There they ended up in a castle not far from the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. On her own initiative, with no other motivation than a vague desire to help, and without having any clear idea of what a concentration camp was, Wanda equipped herself with some Norwegian jars of boiled potatoes and went up to the camp gate, knocked on it and asked for the jars to be given to the prisoners.
This in itself unheard of act became the starting point for a long and dramatic series of events that culminated in one of the most fascinating operations of the Second World War: the White Buses, which saved over 15,000 prisoners in the final phase of the war. It also involves a very special, and initially unthinkable, love story.
Wanda's story has historical, political and interpersonal aspects that extend directly into the Nazi top leadership, the Norwegian, Swedish and Danish governments, the International Red Cross and a wide range of individual actors at the international level. For Wanda and Bjørn Heger (the author's parents) and the civilian internees in Berlin, it was nevertheless the contact on the ground level, that is, the illegal and very dangerous collaboration with the prisoners, that was the focus.
Wanda tells the story of The White Buses, but also puts Wanda's own life in a larger perspective with the underlying question: «what guides the choices we make, even when there is no external pressure or stimulus to do the right thing?» This story highlights a woman's life from the twentieth century that in many ways deserves attention, not least in a time when female protagonists are important.
"A wonderfully well-written and diverse family story about German nobility, rabid Nazis, prisoners of war and war heroes."
"Exceptional in both scope and content – with an absolutely impressive source material."
DAGBLADET, six/six stars
".. a well-crafted story packed with anecdotes and analysis, well-written ...a beautiful and captivating portrait ...With its playful and stylish prose, Anders Heger's book is one of the best non-fiction books this fall."
VG, six/six stars
"Wanda is a story of extraordinary courage, and if the book has a masterpiece in it, it must be that the author neither glorifies her nor the family she belonged to, but on the contrary highlights the painful path from the wrong to the right side of history."
ADRESSEAVISEN, five/six stars
"Wanda offers rare, intimate depictions of the inner workings of the millennium, and provides a unique insight into a rigid, irrational system that was already teetering in its own sheer unreasonableness. Sometimes, when Heger is at his very best, his one-liners – and his mother’s – are so good, so effective, that it’s jarring. ...You’ll wipe away tears, get bored, laugh, lose your breath, and above all: Understand more. It functions almost like historical, interpersonal software that everyone should update themselves with. Read it!"
BOK 365, five/six stars
