Customer Reviews

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

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"The Forgotten Soldier" is all the explanation you need on the horrors of war in general, and World War Two on the Eastern Front in particular. It is the story of Guy Sajer, a young Alsatian who volunteers for service in the Wermacht as a member of a supply unit. He ends the war having served as an infantryman with one of the Wermacht's (not the Waffen-SS's) elite Panzer divisions in some of the most ferocious battles of the war. I read this book when I was a teenager and wasn't able to leave behind its most vivid images: the men of his squad under intense artillery fire outside Belgorod, the living misery of existence in Memel, the seemingly endless and deadly Russian winters, his falling in love with a young Berliner. Years after reading it the first time with dropped jaw and tears, I picked it up again; I was amazed at its undiminished ability to jar my emotions and leave me mentally exhausted. I won't lie: this book is difficult to read simply because it encapsulates every morsel of TRUTH about one of the most horrible chapters of human history. That said, if you are a student of history or simply humanity, brace yourself for a harrowing journey into hell, and read it. To read this book is to understand humanity's duality: its magnificence and nobility in being able to rise above adverse conditions; and its depravity and ignobility in its massive capacity to inflict them. Quite possibly the greatest work of military non-fiction ever written.

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.

I have been reading and studying about WWII for 30 years, with the war in the east, between the Nazis and the Russians, my specialty. The vast majority of books I've read depict the overall battles, such as what army did this or what division or general did that and on what date. But a war as vast as that begun with Operation Barbarossa, involving millions of soldiers, you would think there would be more books written by the "common" soldier, those who actually dug the foxholes, saw their buddies killed, and survived through the incredible physical hardships. There are numerous books by the field marshals and the generals, but precious few by the men who actually fought it on the front lines and Guy Sajer does an absolutely unbelievable job of describing all he lived through, as seen through the eyes of the enlisted man. You can perhaps begin to imagine some of the true stories that have gone to the graves of these now old men, of a war that was often unmatched in terms of feriocity and barbarism on both sides. A spellbinding, riveting book! About the best war book I've ever read. Incredible action and hardships.

I first read The Forgotten Soldier when in high school--approximately the same age Sajer was when be entered the German army. I have read it numerous times since. It is the standard by which I judge all other war books. None have yet equalled it in my mind. More so than any other book I have read, it portrays the horror--physical, psychological, spiritual--of warfare for the ordinary combat soldier in vivid and real terms. Its vivid descriptions have stuck in my mind all these years, particularly the counter offensive at the battle of Belgorod. Also sticking in my mind is the account of when Sajer, deathly sick and lying at the bottom of a foxhole and wishing to die, promises his friend Hals that he will live, because his friend needs him. Powerful stuff! My father, by fortune of his emigration to the U.S. from Germany, missed serving in the Germany army during the war. I thank God that he was spared this fate. (It is unlikely I would be here.) That anyone can experience what Sajer did and still maintain his humanity is a testament to the human will. I was thrilled to see this book on the Amazon list, since I was afraid that I was one of only a few to experience the book. I wonder whether Sajer's friend Wollers was his real name or a psuedonym. This is not a common German name. I would be interested in knowing whether any of my relatives might have fought on the Russian front. Bravo to Amazon for bringing this masterpiece to a larger audience. Now if they could only make a movie of this book of the quality found in Private Ryan.

As a lover of history, I've read many books on WWII, but I've never read anything as brutally honest and compelling as The Forgotten Soldier. Sajer lived through the horror of the Eastern Front, and even more, he had the gift to tell us about it. It's not a series of war stories, or a soldiers telling of his great exploits; it's a decent into hell with a young, innocent man as the guide and his words will move anyone who has a heart. When he tells you of the terrible Russian winters, you will fill the chill in your bones. When he talks of hiding in a hole while artillery shells churn the ground all around, you will get a glimpse of how the rabbit must feel just as the wolf takes it from its hole. Sajer doesn't tell you just about the hopes and fears of men in war. He takes you to a level where men were afraid to hope, afraid to dream, even afraid to pray lest God take from them the nothing they had left.

To quote from the book, "My companions sat huddled on their ragged pallets without talking...they were dreaming in the heavy silence...dreaming of the deliverance which must be near at hand... they were dreaming, staring from their dark sockets with mad, transparent eyes, and it was understood that no one would speak. They were dreaming, and so that the war wouldn't catch them at it, they tried to hide it."

"I was still alive, and was afraid somebody might notice. I had given everything else I had: my feelings, my anguish, my sorrow, my fear. I had also forgotten Paula, and, so that I wouldn't still seem too rich, I had forgotten that I was too young. ...I still had a spark of live, which I kept hidden. One must no longer ask anything of anybody. Even if God heard our prayers, whatever we received would be consumed....I was afraid to ask too much, afraid that the least desire might seem like a demand."

In his book he says, "Only the victors have stories to tell. We, the vanquished, were all cowards and weaklings, whose memories, fears, and enthusiasms should not be remembered."

Then he proves this assertion wrong by telling one of the greatest war stories of all time. A must read!

The best "ground" WWII book I have ever read. I'll never forget this book as long as I live.
You'll discover a whole new world if this is your first German/Russian WWII book.

Awsome - the one word I use to describe this book.

Debates exist whether this book is non-fiction or fiction mainly due to the inaccuracies regarding specific details, some minor such as uniform markings. However, after researching this topic I came across a letter to the Editor of "Military Review", printed in the March-April 1997 edition, by a Douglas E. Nash. Nash eventually located Sajer and brought up some critical points that skeptics thought up regarding Sajer's inaccurracies. Sajer basically replied that what he wrote was concerned with what he experienced first-hand, and that he did not intend to write a tatical, encyclopedia-type war book.

After learning about this, my anxiety was gone - since I was concerned that the graphic, lucid, and gripping battle descriptions in this book may be all imaginary. But they are all true. It is amazing that anyone could survive a major battle on the Eastern Front after reading what Sajer and his fellow soldiers encountered. A must read.

Guy Sajer is alive and well and living in Paris. He is a well known newspaper cartoonist and has never tried to hide his identity- nor has he tried to promote it (why should he, he is well known in his own country). He has illustrated a number of books and comic books on military themes- and has a personal interest in U-boats. Folks that work in Paris military bookshops know him fairly well. On the other hand, Sajer does not like to talk much about the Forgotten Soldier. He seems to like having an aura of mystery about him. Responding to claims he does not exist- he thinks this is very funny. But again, why should he even care about trying to prove he is real if the book sells so well, and he is very easy to find if you use half an ounce of brain power? A while ago a US Military Historian wrote an essay claiming the book was fake. In my opinion this essay was very poorly researched. Many of the reasons cited can easily be attributed to the fact that the book was written in French for a French audience. Hence FRENCH military terms (like PM for machine pistol) were used. Again, why would anyone but a diehard enthusiast worry about such details? Certainly not the book publishers who really do not care to re-do a book which keeps selling just fine as is. Other small details have been cited to prove Sajer is a fake: GD title on wring sleeve- well, figure how easy this is to screw up in translation, or have a 'know-it-all-editor' see that all the SS armbands are on one sleeve, so he changes it. I do not think Sajer has ever even read the English translation. It is sloppy scholarship to use details in a translation of a book to claim the book is a fake! You must go to the original French version and cite the text as written by the author. As to the non-existence of some of the names used in the book, and the use of certain famous other units (such as a famous Stuka squadron). How many other war books use altered names for whatever reason? So what? This is no big deal. Keep in mind that this book was written in France during a time when it was NOT a good idea to let people know you served with the Germans- and definitely NOT a good idea to let them know you served in an elite German unit- and a NO NO if you were in an SS unit. Think about this- it is rather important to keep this in mind. Why write a book that may well get you into trouble, under your own name, when it is very easy to take a fake pen name

The Forgotten Soldier, by Guy Sajer, is and remains one of the finest autobiographies to come out of the Second World War. More than any other similar work, it relates the author's experiences as a young private in the German Army who served on the Russian Front from 1942 to 1945. In a recent letter to me, the author, commenting on recent criticism that his book is fictional, admitted to making mistakes on small details, dates, and locations, but told me he wrote about what he personally experienced while fighting as a member of the elite Grossdeutschland Division. He wrote me that "In the Blackness of the Russian Winter, you could have told me that we were in China, and I would have believed you." Although he changed names to protect his friends, both living and dead, he says that he wrote the truth as he remembered it. Readers can, with confidence, delve into the dark underbelly of World War Two, written from the perspective of its most ubiquitous victim - the common foot soldier. For more details on Guy Sajer, look for an article I wrote in the upcoming Fall 1997 Issue of Army History magazine, the official publication of the U.S. Army's Center of Military History

Often, in books on WWII, a central character will rise above the odds and, with one heroic sweep of the hand, slay the enemy and carry the day. Throw that nonsense out the window with "The Forgotten Soldier". This book brought home the reality of war unlike any book I have ever read. It was completely read by myself in 5 days, at work, before work and wherever possible. When describing the brutal reality of the Eastern Front is somewhat like passing by a fatal accident, you know you shouldn't slow down to gawk but you do anyway. This book will make anyone fear war. If you read about WWII, and have not read this book, then your circle is definitely incomplete.