I Did Not Want to Die

On October 26, 1942, Norwegian medical student Robert Savosnick (born in Trondheim in 1915) was arrested and, one month later, he was one of 532 Jews deported on the SS Donau. The next two and a half years of Savosnick's life were lost in an existence of torture, brutality and human degradation. He spent a year incarcerated in Auschwitz, and a further ten months clearing the ruins of the Warsaw Ghetto. Together with thousands of Jewish prisoners, Savosnick was taken on a death march, eventually arriving in Dachau. He was liberated in the subcamp of Allach in April 1945. Robert Savosnick returned to Norway and completed his medical studies, becoming a much-loved pediatrician in his hometown of Trondheim. Yet his experiences during the Holocaust remained so vivid that a smell, a sound, a German voice caused him to relive the nightmare. With the assistance of prize-winning Norwegian journalist Hans Melien, and with historical annotations, I Did Not Want to Die: From Norway to Auschwitz depicts his unique journey and records the experiences of Norwegian Jews during the Holocaust.