Status
Available
Call number
Publication
Washington, D.C. : Potomac, 2000, c1967.
Description
When Guy Sajer joins the infantry full of ideals in the summer of 1942, the German army is enjoying unparalleled success in Russia. However, he quickly finds that for the foot soldier the glory of military success hides a much harsher reality of hunger, fatigue, and constant deprivation. Posted to the elite Grosse Deutschland division, with its sadistic instructors who shoot down those who fail to make the grade, he enters a violent and remorseless world where all youthful hope is gradually ground down, and all that matters is the brute will to survive. As the biting cold of the Russian winter sets in, and the tide begins to turn against the Germans, life becomes an endless round of pounding artillery attacks and vicious combat against a relentless and merciless Red Army. Sajer's perspective as a German foot soldier makes The Forgotten Soldier a unique war memoir, the book that the Christian Science Monitor said "may well be the book about World War II which has been so long awaited." A work of stunning force, this is an unforgettable reminder of the horrors of war.… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member Polaris-
Where to start? This book has affected me greatly. I did expect to be shocked, and did expect to read an account of some appalling experiences of a soldier fighting in the heart of an horrendously bloody and grisly conflict. But nothing could really prepare the reader for the overwhelming
Guy Sajer was a very young Alsatian (barely seventeen I think), of mixed Franco-German parentage, who finds himself in training with the German army during the autumn of 1942. The memoir does not make it clear if he is conscripted or volunteers. The zenith of the Nazi Reich has already passed - unbeknownst to its combatants and civilian populations. After his training in the Fatherland, Sajer is attached to a transport logistics unit supporting the combat troops at the Eastern Front. All too soon he is witness to the horrors of the fighting that follows the fallout from the Wehrmacht's defeat at Stalingrad and the first retreat from the Don.
Writing several years after the event, Sajer pulls no punches with his descriptions of the deprivations of combat, and the depravity. Early in his account though, he makes it clear how inadequate his words will always be in expressing the "cumulative nightmare...an uncommunicable terror":
"It is a mistake to use intense words without carefully weighing and measuring them, or they will have already been used when one needs them later. It's a mistake, for instance, to use the word 'frightful' to describe a few broken-up companions mixed into the ground: but it's a mistake which might be forgiven.
I should perhaps end my account here, because my powers are inadequate for what I have to tell."
(This on page 90 of a 560 page book.)
As the war progresses, and following a brief respite of sorts during leave in Berlin (where he witnesses a terrifying daytime Allied air raid), Sajer and his comrades are 'volunteered' into the elite Grosse Deutschland division as infantry. Back at the front, he is thrown right into the abyss again, in time for the chaotic blood-soaked retreat from Ukraine. At times in this memoir Sajer comes out with some truly shocking comments - "Throughout the war, one of the biggest mistakes was to treat German soldiers even worse than prisoners, instead of allowing us to rape and steal - crimes which we were condemned for in the end anyway." - for example. And this from a Frenchman not indoctrinated with Nazi bile prior to the conquest of France in 1940. A second period of leave - later in the memoir - is cancelled before he can even reach his destination, the whole train transport being reversed - back depressingly to the front. Anyone who has served as a conscript will recognise the achingly despondent sense that there is when home leave has to end, but to not even get there in the first place? - only to be sent back into the hell you had just escaped from...
There is a constant sense of fear that pervades everywhere.
"I know in my bones what our watchword 'Courage' means - from days and nights of resigned desperation, and from the insurmountable fear which one continues to accept, even though one's brain has ceased to function normally."
There is no mention at all of the ongoing Holocaust against the civilians of Europe, and no mention of Jews, and barely any of the racial Hitlerism at all. (There is though one very sinister glimpse of that horror, and what had thus far been 'dealt with' by the authorities, on the first page, (September '42) when en route to the front from basic training, via Poland, Sajer and co. pass through the Warsaw ghetto:"Our detatchment goes sightseeing in the city, including the famous ghetto - or rather, what's left of it. We return to the station in small groups. We are all smiling. The Poles smile back, especially the girls."
There is a surreal moral code of sorts that exists in his mind - the 'rules' of combat according to the Wehrmacht. When it comes to encounters with the Partisans, he is certain - "Also, partisans were not eligible for the consideration due to a man in uniform. The laws of war condemned them to death automatically, without trial." This coming after a description of how some Red Army POWs were killed mercilessly in a way too graphic to describe here.
The disastrous retreat continues as it becomes clear that all is lost.
"Faced with the Russian hurricane, we ran whenever we could...We no longer fought for Hitler, or for National Socialism, or for the Third Reich - or even for our fiancées or mothers or families trapped in bomb-ravaged towns. We fought from simple fear, which was our motivating power. The idea of death, even when we accepted it, made us howl with powerless rage."
Even when writing many years later Sajer seems to pour most of his anger out still on the Partisans. He doesn't ever seem to accept that Germany had invaded the continent, and that people without an army fighting for them, had the right to fight back - by whichever means available. The moral argument he attempts against the 'underhand' techniques of the guerillas is completely flawed. Nevertheless, his memoir, even if factually inaccurate in places as some have suggested, is an important document of witness. I struggled with the utter nightmare of it all, but am glad that I read The Forgotten Soldier. I'm sure I won't forget it.
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relentlessness of it all. This is a reading experience that should not be at all taken lightly.Guy Sajer was a very young Alsatian (barely seventeen I think), of mixed Franco-German parentage, who finds himself in training with the German army during the autumn of 1942. The memoir does not make it clear if he is conscripted or volunteers. The zenith of the Nazi Reich has already passed - unbeknownst to its combatants and civilian populations. After his training in the Fatherland, Sajer is attached to a transport logistics unit supporting the combat troops at the Eastern Front. All too soon he is witness to the horrors of the fighting that follows the fallout from the Wehrmacht's defeat at Stalingrad and the first retreat from the Don.
Writing several years after the event, Sajer pulls no punches with his descriptions of the deprivations of combat, and the depravity. Early in his account though, he makes it clear how inadequate his words will always be in expressing the "cumulative nightmare...an uncommunicable terror":
"It is a mistake to use intense words without carefully weighing and measuring them, or they will have already been used when one needs them later. It's a mistake, for instance, to use the word 'frightful' to describe a few broken-up companions mixed into the ground: but it's a mistake which might be forgiven.
I should perhaps end my account here, because my powers are inadequate for what I have to tell."
(This on page 90 of a 560 page book.)
As the war progresses, and following a brief respite of sorts during leave in Berlin (where he witnesses a terrifying daytime Allied air raid), Sajer and his comrades are 'volunteered' into the elite Grosse Deutschland division as infantry. Back at the front, he is thrown right into the abyss again, in time for the chaotic blood-soaked retreat from Ukraine. At times in this memoir Sajer comes out with some truly shocking comments - "Throughout the war, one of the biggest mistakes was to treat German soldiers even worse than prisoners, instead of allowing us to rape and steal - crimes which we were condemned for in the end anyway." - for example. And this from a Frenchman not indoctrinated with Nazi bile prior to the conquest of France in 1940. A second period of leave - later in the memoir - is cancelled before he can even reach his destination, the whole train transport being reversed - back depressingly to the front. Anyone who has served as a conscript will recognise the achingly despondent sense that there is when home leave has to end, but to not even get there in the first place? - only to be sent back into the hell you had just escaped from...
There is a constant sense of fear that pervades everywhere.
"I know in my bones what our watchword 'Courage' means - from days and nights of resigned desperation, and from the insurmountable fear which one continues to accept, even though one's brain has ceased to function normally."
There is no mention at all of the ongoing Holocaust against the civilians of Europe, and no mention of Jews, and barely any of the racial Hitlerism at all. (There is though one very sinister glimpse of that horror, and what had thus far been 'dealt with' by the authorities, on the first page, (September '42) when en route to the front from basic training, via Poland, Sajer and co. pass through the Warsaw ghetto:"Our detatchment goes sightseeing in the city, including the famous ghetto - or rather, what's left of it. We return to the station in small groups. We are all smiling. The Poles smile back, especially the girls."
There is a surreal moral code of sorts that exists in his mind - the 'rules' of combat according to the Wehrmacht. When it comes to encounters with the Partisans, he is certain - "Also, partisans were not eligible for the consideration due to a man in uniform. The laws of war condemned them to death automatically, without trial." This coming after a description of how some Red Army POWs were killed mercilessly in a way too graphic to describe here.
The disastrous retreat continues as it becomes clear that all is lost.
"Faced with the Russian hurricane, we ran whenever we could...We no longer fought for Hitler, or for National Socialism, or for the Third Reich - or even for our fiancées or mothers or families trapped in bomb-ravaged towns. We fought from simple fear, which was our motivating power. The idea of death, even when we accepted it, made us howl with powerless rage."
Even when writing many years later Sajer seems to pour most of his anger out still on the Partisans. He doesn't ever seem to accept that Germany had invaded the continent, and that people without an army fighting for them, had the right to fight back - by whichever means available. The moral argument he attempts against the 'underhand' techniques of the guerillas is completely flawed. Nevertheless, his memoir, even if factually inaccurate in places as some have suggested, is an important document of witness. I struggled with the utter nightmare of it all, but am glad that I read The Forgotten Soldier. I'm sure I won't forget it.
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LibraryThing member HadriantheBlind
Haunting memoir of the horrors of war, particularly of the Eastern Front.
Much controversy has been made over some factual inaccuracies. That's fine. But I have to grant the author some leeway. He was young and confused, barely able to keep track of where he was. If he makes some mistakes, I don't
Much controversy has been made over some factual inaccuracies. That's fine. But I have to grant the author some leeway. He was young and confused, barely able to keep track of where he was. If he makes some mistakes, I don't
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mind. It's the totality of the horror that he conveys, which makes the book worthwhile. Show Less
LibraryThing member jveezer
This book was the first "war story" I read that ruined the glamour and boyish admiration for war, guns, and all things explosive. Until this book, what I read was simply hero worship that did not relay what really goes on...the horror. I was glad to have the veil torn from in front of my eyes by
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this book as a boy and enjoyed the reminder as an adult. This should be required reading for all recruits as a counterpoint to the "video game-izaton" of war. Show Less
LibraryThing member jcovington
Perhaps the single most depressing war story ever told. Still, a real thing of beauty. There has been some debate as to whether all of this tale is Guy Sajer's (there is some speculation that an anonymous individual provided him the details for the second PanzerGrenadier part of the story),
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nonetheless, this book is pure gold and a must read. Show Less
LibraryThing member mah048
A very personal account of WWII from the point of view of a foot soldier. The fact that he happens to be on the German side of the war makes little difference; its not about ideologies or political context. Its just a harrowing tale of an conscript trying to stay alive and stay warm.
I don't
A compelling read for historians or soldiers.
I don't
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believe words can really convey a true understanding of the horror of combat, but this book comes as close as anything I've read.A compelling read for historians or soldiers.
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LibraryThing member DavidBurrows
Not sure from memory if this is a true account. It's a tremendous read and an eye opener to the brutality of the Eastern Front. The main character is only partly German having a French parent so he doesn't quite get accepted by the others. Well worth reading!! Some very memorable scenes.
LibraryThing member watson_1
When I read about this review in a 2010 WSJ article, I could sense that it was going to be a terrible story. How could the a story about the German-Russian war be anything but tragic? It lived up to what I was expecting. The author just accounts the facts of his time in the war. He does not get
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into the politics or the overall strategy. It is just his story-- and, I got the sense that he loved in fellow soldiers and never questioned his role. He told his story well. But, you can see what happens when two brutal dictatorships go to war. It is awful. Whenever the German frontline troups would barely escape with their lives, they would only be met with uncaring MP's or back office soldiers who would offer no rest or sympathy. I guess when fighting an unjust war, your frontline soldiers must be forced into action. I liked how this book complemented Murphy's "To Hell and Back." Of course, Murphy's army was moving forward the whole time and Sajer's backward. However, the sheer brutality of the eastern front versus the western front offers a stark contrast. Show Less
LibraryThing member Taurus454
Excellent account of warfare in the German Army. Unfortunately, the story was considered to be a true account but has come under criticism for its authenticity. Even if you consider the work fiction it is still an incredible wartime tale. Must read for military historian.
LibraryThing member redsox0407
This is the absolute best war time memoirs I have every read. Outstanding detail of how and what a soldier feels and has deal with, when caught in the misery of extreme battle. It is an amazing story during an incredible time. Guy Sajer tells his story so well, you can see and feel his
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astonishment, pain, and anguish. Sooo Good! Show Less
LibraryThing member DinadansFriend
For any student of WWII there is a danger of losing sight of the size of the catastrophe and it's huge effect on the world. Guy Sajer was born in Alsace which at that time was a section of France. But after 1940 the Germans reclaimed the territory. Due to his ancestry, young Guy was then liable to
The war finally ended but Guy was now an inhabitant of an angry France, and had to somehow fit into a society that condemned his actions. A lot of people didn't see his situation as unfortunate and were punitive in response to his record. This book should remind people that on the personal level one hundred million tragedies got played out from 1934 to 1945. I've read this book at least twice.
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be drafted into the German army and shipped off to the Eastern Front. In the Wehrmacht, he had been looked down on as a half-breed. He survived. That was a considerable accomplishment.The war finally ended but Guy was now an inhabitant of an angry France, and had to somehow fit into a society that condemned his actions. A lot of people didn't see his situation as unfortunate and were punitive in response to his record. This book should remind people that on the personal level one hundred million tragedies got played out from 1934 to 1945. I've read this book at least twice.
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LibraryThing member Novak
A mind provoking account of a German Soldier in WW2. A handful of smart criminals inspire a gullable nation. War starts and it becomes unstoppable. Millions of innocernt people all over the world die horrible deaths and the survivors have ruined lives .. .. .. .. For nothing.
You are a very strange
You are a very strange
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breed, you Earthlings. Show Less
LibraryThing member Stbalbach
The Forgotten Soldier is a stunning book, which is to say one leaves leave it feeling traumatized after a long nightmare. Sajer leaves no bones unturned in describing the horrors of war. Of course it's visceral, mutilated corpses. But it runs deeper, Sajer's voice has an innocence and normality in
The writing is dense with detail and incident. It's easy to question if he remembered everything so clearly and with novelistic description but it's not too important because it rings true. My favorite part was as he wondered around the steppes of western Ukraine with no front line and troops randomly encountered one another in the dark and snow. The lonely outpost of a single tank buried in the earth surrounded by the open plains.
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contrast to the insanity of the situation. We tend to think of the Germans as "supermen" but Sajer is just a normal person stressed to the utmost degree. No wonder Germany collapsed it's soldiers were abused and when they complained hung up from a tree. This part of the story is not often told.The writing is dense with detail and incident. It's easy to question if he remembered everything so clearly and with novelistic description but it's not too important because it rings true. My favorite part was as he wondered around the steppes of western Ukraine with no front line and troops randomly encountered one another in the dark and snow. The lonely outpost of a single tank buried in the earth surrounded by the open plains.
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LibraryThing member MJWebb
Another holiday read. Interesting from a factual point of view but lacks something. I liked it but found it too easy to put down. Hence the three stars.
LibraryThing member kslade
Long but well-written "memoir" of a French-German boy drafted into the German army during the big war. Very bloody at times. There is a question whether it's actually non-fiction or fiction but it is still a good long read. The author had to have had battle experience, in my opinion.
LibraryThing member graeme.bell3
Very good. However not four stars, nearer 3.5. Sajer could have slowed the pace a little bit. He never gets back to Paula at all and he accepts, at face value, some huge German lies.
Subjects
Awards
Prix des Deux Magots (1968)
Notable Books List (1971)
Language
Original language
French
Original publication date
1965
Physical description
661 p.; 23 inches
ISBN
1574882864 / 9781574882865