Forgotten Soldier : The Classic WWII Autobiography (Brassey's Commemorative Series WWII)

Forgotten Soldier : The Classic WWII Autobiography (Brassey's Commemorative Series WWII) | Guy Sajer | This book will move the reader!

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Forgotten Soldier ...

	Forgotten Soldier : The Classic WWII Autobiography (Brassey's Commemorative Series WWII) Guy Sajer Brassey's (UK) Ltd, 1990 - 472 pages average customer review:based on 161 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

THE EASTERN FRONT CLASSIC

This is simply the best first-person account I have ever read of any war. I have seen some discussion on web sites doubting the veracity of Sajer's story, but I say that if this is not a true story, then Sajer is one of the greatest novelists ever. Sajer was a 16 year old French boy of part German blood when he joined the Wehrmacht. He endured the strict basic training in Poland, and soon he and his comrades find themselves in Russia as part of a supply convoy. It is the dead of winter and they are pushing toward the front lines. They hear later that Stalingrad has fallen and Sajer begins to wonder what he's gotten himself into. What he's gotten himself into is the middle of the most destructive war of the 20th Century, and there's no way out. He and his kamerads endure epic hardships: blizzards, air attacks, lice, a fanatic enemy, partisans, and the Nazi police state. Sajer leaves home a boy, but returns almost unrecognizable to his own family. If you have any interest whatsoever in World War II or human endurance, and want a different point of view (though he fought in the German Army, he was apolitical), I highly, highly, highly recommend this book.

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This book will move the reader!

A spectacular book! It saddens me deeply that words do not exist to convey the depth of comprehension, of such experiences and sorrow, which this human tragedy demands.

I have finally a little compassion for the Germans

When I visited Germany in the 80's, I could not shake from my mind the monstrosities their minds created. I saw them as dour, rather unfriendly people. A visit to Dauchau did little to diminish those feelings. There were people I met there that I did like, friendly people who I had a hard time believing could ever be involved in the mass murder of millions. It wasn't really fair of me to lump most Germans into that category. This book has made me think twice. Even though it is easy to think that the Germans had it coming, they were human beings, and the good ones suffered along with the bad. Forgotten Soldier is well written, and I'm curious about when it was written, because Sajer has a very good memory if it was written years after the events. I really am amazed that anyone could have survived those horrible winters and the constant attacks by the Soviets. At times I was spellbound by the action and could not put the book down. I hope Sajer realizes that what he was fighting for was pure evil, even though he should have realized it before he volunteered to fight for the Nazis.

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Forgotten Soldier

Excellent book. Offers the reader a window to life at the eastern front during WWII. Written by a young German soldier of French decent. At times I found myself puzzled as to how the author could remember such details of his experiences, while at other times details are omitted. However, whether all the experiences are legitimate or not, the book is worth reading because it does offer an insight to life on a front in which very few books have been written.

Compelling, but novel-like

I'm now reading it for the second time, and while it's interesting, it reads too much like a fictitious novel to really make an impact. I'm sure a lot of what Sajer writes went on, but there is absolutely no way that anyone under fire and as tired and sick as he was can remember all those peripheral details. He even descirbes personal, intricate details for other people when he wasn't in the room with them. He took obvious poetic license. A book that had more of a personal impact for me was Soldat. It seemed much more credible.

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