Forgotten Soldier by Guy Sajer

Amazing for ALL
A reviewer, A reviewer, 03/07/2008

This must be one of the best written and accurate accounts of any war or historic event. His amemory for the events are extremely credible and can be verified by many other historians. His writting is spectacular and will keep you in your seat unil you are finished.

Also recommended: Why The Allies Won by Richard Overy

Amazing Book -- Highly Recommended
A reviewer, a book worm, 02/09/2008

This book is absolutely amazing. Not only does it offer an unfortunately rare insight of the war 'German point of view', but it does so in an engaging and sensitive way. Guy Sajer makes a superb narrator, relaying the events candidly, sensitively, and honestly. In reading this book, one may learn to cast aside the stereotype that all the Germans in this time were ruthless 'Nazis' -- in fact, a majority of them seemed to just be fighting because they were pressed into service, or just fighting for their country as everyone else did. This book has made me laugh and smile at the moments of friendship, cry because of the horrors and tragedies of war, and opened my mind to a whole new perspective. It is quite a simple read, but is hard to put down once you start reading though it is a memoir, it reads like a top-rate fiction novel. Don't pass on this great novel just because it isn't from a familiar, or popular, point of view. 'The Forgotten Soldier', though it might be hard to read because of the sheer horribleness of the war it depicts so heartrendingly, is definitely a must-read. [Also, get the illustrated edition if possible. The rare photographs included enhance the memoir greatly and offer more insight into the German side of WWII.]

Also recommended: Schindler's List

A reviewer
A reviewer, A reviewer, 11/05/2007

It’s like you’re in the foxhole with Guy Sajer. An incredibly honest, well written memoir of WWII on the eastern front while in the Germany army. The horrors of a seventeen year old’s time during the downside of German battles against Russia. A classic!

Recamended to all
A reviewer, A reviewer, 06/12/2007

Short sweet and to the point, BUY THIS BOOK and more importantly read it! This is a gripping account of Guy Sajor, a German soldier on the Eastern front. This is a must read!

Kidnapped and sent to the Eastern Front
Mary (meyati2004@yahoo.com), a history buff., 05/19/2007

I didn't realize that the Nazis inducted half-German teenagers to fight. This autobiography is pure prose, as Sajer tells about the war he fought from the fall of 1942 until 1945. He went through boot camp and began to learn German the hard way. He was in the wehrmact division of Gross Deutschland, where he was first in a supply company, and then in an infantry company. He tells about carrying supplies through the snowy wasteland of the Eastern front and later being a replacement for a combat unit. They'd be let out of a truck and follow a non-com. A trail would fork off and a green recruit would have to walk alone through the frozen snow to his machine gun post that was kilometers away. Reading this, a person can feel the cold biting into the feet and the crunch of frozen snow, while carrying heavy burdens. Sajer tells about fighting toward Minsk and the battles of Kursk. He tells about being given leave and on the way to the west, everyone at the depot or on the train was comandeered to counter a break through by the Russians. Nazi propaganda said that the occupied countries were terrified of the Soviets and were trainning forces to join the fight against the Soviets. Sajer ran into French speaking SS and thought that France had joined the fight. When he found out that they were Belgian SS vounteers, his heart sank. Sajer tells us what he felt about people, and caused me, the reader, to wonder about 'The veteran', an older Prussian soldier, who was almost 30 years old. So many times, Sajer was seperated from the veteran and his boot camp friends, Hal, Lensen, Neubach,because of leave or hospitalization, and Sajer would jump into a shelter or machine gun emplacement and find his friends there. We see men have breakdowns during artillery barrages, starve and survive, as their clothes and arms deteriorate. As they do this, they helped rescue German civilians, young and old, from the Soviet onslaught. Sajer shares the fear and reality of being trapped between a deep, wide icy river and the Soviet artillery and fighter planes. Sajer often was part of the rear guard that covered the retreat of others. Fortunately, Sajer and his unit ended up on the western front, and they were captured by the British. He felt betrayed by the French when the British turned him over to them. His recollection of going home shows the anguish he was in. He went near the house and stood on the main road for hours. His German mother walked past him, without recognizing him. When she returned and, as she passed him, he called to her. He was 19. The photos are wonderful.

Also recommended: Das Reich, Soldat, The Search for Major Plagge, The Battalion