The Forgotten Soldier

by Guy Sajer

Book Overview

The illustrated edition of the classic German WWII autobiography This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0080374379
• ISBN13: 9780080374376
• Release Date: April 1990
• Publisher: Potomac Books
• Length: 465 Pages
• Weight: 1.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Poignant and Powerful.

This is simply one of the most memorable and important books that I've ever encountered. I first read it in 1994 and it remains as vivid in my mind today as it did on the day ten years ago that I finished it. I have heard questions regarding its historical accuracy but can only say that his account of the nature of war can be supported by other German memoirs of the Eastern Front such as "The Black March." Was the GrossDeutschland Division in all the places that he claimed? Perhaps not, but I will say that, as the Eastern Front disintegrated, it was far from unusual for scratch companies to be formed regardless of where the units derived. Either way, it's a magnificent read. His desription of the Hitler Jugend before the battle of Belgorod is absolutely priceless with their banners reading "The World Belongs to Us." In chapter four, his romance with the Berlin girl Paula happens to be one of the most engaging and believable relationships I've ever run across in print. I've read it aloud to high school students and they loved it. The book should appeal to anybody who has experienced passion.

Rare literary talent

Guy Sajer makes you feel the brutal cold, fear, and despair that was the German soldier's lot on the Eastern Front, which was quite possibly the most brutal campaign in human history. But, at the same time, Sajer lets you share his simple joys, and the deep bonds which he forms with his circle of friends with whom he has faced hell on earth. In my opinion, Sajer's book is the best personal memoir to come out of the war. It is impossible to read it and not be moved. His stories of his training, his first combat, and of his dawning realization that the war was lost, are particularly vivid. The closing pages of the book will live in the reader's memory for a long while. This book is a true military classic, and I cannot recommend it too highly.