Customer Reviews

The Forgotten Soldier

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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.

It meant a lot to me when I first read the book "The Forgotten Soldier." I was thoroughly impressed. I found right away some mistakes, but that was mostly unimportant. What really mattered was the emotions it invoked. Feelings I had surpressed for more than 25 years, it all came back and a few times I had to put the book down. I just could not continue. All the emotions, all the fears, everything. How can anyone who was not there criticize anybody who was there and lived through it. I liked the book and will always say so. We were very proud of our "Aermelstreifen" (arm band) "Grossdeutschland," still are. A few others from my division are finally coming around to realization that Guy Sajer did not write a novel but what he felt. I served in the war with 17th Company, Panzer Grenadier Division "Grossdeutschland" as a Funker (radioman) for my sergeant, with the Infanterie-Geschutz Kompanie, 15 cm heavy infantry howitzers. It was an interesting life, to say the least. I have to say I liked it because that is where everything happened. Whenever I was up front, which was 29 days of the month, mostly all hell broke loose and when I was relieved by another fellow, nothing happened when he was there, when I came back, everything started all over again. This was all when I was a corporal. I now live in the United States, but I still keep in touch with my comrades from the "Grossdeutschland". In the Pamphlet "Army History" on page 18, a Hans Wegener hit it right on the head about Guy Sajer and I can only second everything that man said. Helmut Ortlepp

One of the essential preparations for modern warfare is to deny the humanity of one's enemy. This makes it much easier in psychological terms to both kill, and then to live with the knowledge that one has killed. And in the years following the end of WWII, the disclosure of the full extent of the Holocaust has done this in reverse. It's hard to imagine regular people committing such acts, and shades of gray are tossed out the window, so that the entire German military is equated with the Nazi party, and thus evil. For younger Americans, Nazis are cartoon villains invoked whenever a villain of unquestionable evil is required. And German soldiers in field gray are usually faceless automatons (see, for example, Saving Private Ryan, the Band of Brothers series, the Medal of Honor video game).

For anyone seeking an alternate perspective of the common German soldier, this book is an invaluable (if overlong) work. Sajer was a half-German, half-French teenager of conflicted identity who enlisted in the Wehrmacht in order to be part of something glorious (although he never really seems clear what that is). Like so many naive young men seduced by the idea of war and being a soldier, it doesn't take long for reality to intrude. Following a vigorous training, he becomes part of the Rollbahn supply corps. Hundreds of pages of sheer terror follow, as he and his friends are thrown into the maw of the Eastern front.

Most people have more than a passing knowledge of WWII know that the Eastern front was a big mistake on the part of the Germans. Between the insane winters, the overstretched supply lines, constant partisan harassment, and ultimately, the sheet number of Red Army troops, the Germans never had a chance. Knowing that on a strategic level is one thing, but hearing about what this meant to the average soldier on the ground is something else. And hearing it from someone who was there is even more compelling. You've never read about being cold like this. Cold that cracked the hands and caused sores so that men would urinate on each other's hands in order to provide brief relief. Hunger was the other major issue, and it's impossible to conceive of men living in such conditions surviving on the meager portions available.

Terror and misery is the major theme of the book, as the front collapses and Sajer spends most of the war retreating. He and his friends volunteer for the Gross Deutschland, a renown SS division, which doesn't appreciably improve their plight. Although they were previously running supplies to front line positions, they now find themselves manning positions in rearguard actions, constantly being strafed by Russian airplanes who began to control the sky, and often on the verge of being overrun by Russian tanks or infantry. As Sajer's unit falls back through the Ukraine and over the Baltic coast and into Prussia, the chaos is palpable and it seems remarkable that the German army managed to remain any semblance of order. And ultimately, it simply becomes a matter of racing to find some British or American troops to surrender to before the Russians catch up.

That's one of the several minor flaws of the book, the Russians are entirely portrayed as barely human savage hordes who would mindlessly throw themselves into battle, complete with war cries. Granted, the German soldier was probably indoctrinated to think of them that way, but Sajer only occasionally displays any empathy for them as fellow soldiers. Another minor problem is that the book is awfully long-winded. There's a lot of interesting detail, but the problem is that you have to sometimes slog through uninteresting detail to find it. There's also a saccharine love story that seems very hokey.

It should be noted that there have been claims made that the book is a fake, and that Sajer made the whole thing up. These claims focus on particular details and have been fairly convincingly rebutted in a vigorous debate that took place in publications like Army Journal, (copies of these exchanges can be found online fairly easily). It's worth noting that since the book's original French publication in 1967, no one has disputed its description of life for the German soldier on the Eastern front. Others have criticized the book on the grounds that it attempts to engender sympathy for an army that destroyed Europe and made the Holocaust possible, and that, essentially, "they got what they deserved." To a certain extent this is valid, since Sajer has said repeatedly that the book is a tribute to his fellow soldiers and to their bravery and suffering. But if one does feel sympathy for Sajer and his fellow soldiers, it at least means that the reader has a true sense of the horror of war and will keep this knowledge in mind when the next time their own country rushes to battle.

This is one of the most memorable books I have ever read; there are images in my mind of Sajer's ordeal I may never forget. I have read some military non-fiction, but The Forgotten Soldier seems to transcend the genre. Its not a military book as much as a documentary of one man's survival in a setting that is unimaginable to most of us.

Much has been said about the accuracy of this account, but I have read convincing work that it is largely true. Any memoir is nothing more than the authors recollection of events, so you could argue that any 100% accurate memoir is impossible. If Sajer filled in some bits and pieces to give it continuity and enforce his overall experience, I'm okay with that.

It sounds cliché, but this is the kind of book that really makes you appreciate what you have, and not sweat the small stuff. Sajer battles freezing temperatures (40 below) night after night, broken down equipment, lack of supplies, poor communication, severe illness, un-sympathizing commanders, and seeing his friends blown to bits in front of, and often right on him. Kind puts your frustration at that line at Starbucks into perspective.

I also appreciated the fact Sajer did not use the book to grandstand a political point of view. He doesn't soap box anti-war sentiments, or try to introduce any type of moral compass. Sajer is a simple guy, and doesn't pretend to be anything but. Its like Maslow's hierarchy of needs: he is so consumed with simply surviving, worrying about anything else seems preposterous.

If you want a first-hand account of a WWII soldier without all the military strategy, history, and editorializing, this book is an excellent choice. But if you have a weak stomach, you may want to pass.

I have been a WWII history and militaria enthusiast for years now, but I only recently purchased and read this poignant memoir. Take it from me, the detractors of this classic book are in the minority. The memoir of a French-born soldier in the German Wermacht who participated in the campaign which was arguably the most massive and costly in life in the history of mankind...will understandably have some controversy. Ignore the detractors. This book is considered valuable reading in military academies throughout the entire world, including the USA.

Having witnessed the horrific effects of warfare myself in the mountainous forests of Chechnya, I can personally testify that the scenes and feelings Sajer describes are those that only someone who has actually tasted the terror of war could recount.

Despite the grand setting, Sajer is a humble author, and recounts his own personal story and the stories of his brothers in arms beside him in the voice of an unassuming man, a soldier. This is what he saw and experienced, with no pretext of moralistic hindsight or apology for the naive, misguided idealism of his youth. Be warned: Not only are the horrors and gruesome realities of war made naked in this book, with no euphemistic attempts made to conceal them...but so too is the human condition that goes with surviving these horrors, namely the sheer terror and sense of impending doom that is a consistent theme throughout the book.

"Sajer", who enlisted under his mother's German name and used the name again to publish the book, recounts a vivid narrative which not only sears the stark reality of war into your mind, but is also ultimately a triumph of the invidual against the overwhelming forces of destruction which are trying to engulf him. This book stirred my own memories, and I was honestly brought to tears by the end of it.

If WWII memoirs like this one interest you, I highly recommend E.B. Sledge's "With the Old Breed", which is perhaps the best Pacific War memoir in publication.

This is a great non-fiction memoir of a German infantry soldier who in 1942 went to Russian to fight on the Eastern front and in 1943 became a member of the elite Gross Deutschland Division; meanwhile the Russian army who by now had reorganized and rearmed in astronomical numbers was pushing the German war machine out of Russian and back into Germany.

This book is packed with intense & vivid combat fights of the author and his "kamerads" violent retreat from 1942 to 1945. Both sides had little respect for prisoners of war which took the option of surrender out of most of the soldiers' minds, forcing them to fight to the end and as a consequence both sides paid a high price in human casualties. They were engaged throughout the harsh winter and dry summer terrain, moving the front line from one destroyed city or village to another, while being harassed by Russians planes and groups of partisans guerrillas or "terrorists" as he called them because of their tactics.

This book connects you and gives you such an inside view of the everyday suffering, bravery & misfortune of the author and his buddies that you find yourself feeling worried and sorry for these exhausted soldiers as they suffer hunger, fear, cold, and death, even though you don't agree with the cause they are fighting for.

If you like non-fiction military book with intense combat details you shouldn't pass this book.

Contrary to other comments that Guy Sajer's book is fictional, I believe it is the real story. Early in the book he states that he has not looked at any maps or any references as to how authentic the data seems, he is just writting about it as experienced. As a reader and collector of historically significant military artifacts, I can understand if his account does not quite jive with written facts. For a guy slogging it out on the ground, he will write as he remembered it, from his point of view, and just because some referece book doesn't say so, doesn't mean it didn't happen. Aside from that, the book is certainly one of the best and most gripping tales I have ever read. There isn't alot of info on the Eastern Front available, especially historic first person accounts. The book sheds light into the chaos of the Eastern Front, the single most devastating conflict in history. As a member of the Gross Deutschland, Sajer was as they put it, "Born to Die", and the book explains why. In the end it is a great story, whether fact or fiction, and it has revolutionized my view of the terrible chaos and struggle that took place across the steppes of Russia. Anybody reading this book will simply not forget it. We, don't realize what fear is.

After reading this book, I saw online somewhere that the story of Guy Sajer, the author, may have been embellished, even entirely made up, and then to add to that, that Sajer may not even be a real person!

Nonetheless, a veteran myself, (I finished the novel before being sent to Iraq) I was struck with the clarity of memory the author possessed. Most horrors of war are permanently etched in the minds of all soldiers, and yet so few talk about them or are unable to make others who have never seen combat understand them. The fear, the blood, the torn open and mutilated bodies, the cries of agony and the brutal realization that it's all so stupid and senseless is captured perfectly. Sajer, a Frenchman fighting with the Wehrmacht's Grossdeutchland Regiment, apparently because his mother(?)was German, goes off like many a bright eyed young man to fight. Of course no mention of Nazi party loyalties, just a bunch of young guys looking for adventure. Shortly, Sajer gets acquainted with the terrible atrocities of war, and manages to somehow keep his sanity, even as he loses his friends and drags himself through engagement after engagement with the Russians. It was hard for me to feel sympathy for a German soldier of WWII. I personally sympathized much more with the young German in Remarque's 'All Quiet on the Western Front.'There are some points which make me wonder about whether this "forgotten soldier" really experienced all of this firsthand, such as the many times Sajer seems able to recall Russian town names where he fought (which I found hard to believe), and just the incredible detail and vividity with which many of the battle scenes are retold. Especially with how exhausted, sickened, depressed, and weary he must've been. I suppose he may have written it down in a journal, but even then, I would think that many of his own details would've been embellished to make his situation and what he'd seen more believable even to him. Regardless, this is war at it's cruelest. And whether Sajer actually exists, or whether he truly experienced it all, it is a well written account about war in all its ugly and terrible brutality. No real history here, just war at its most raw and awful.

I first read Sajer's book when I was a cadet at West Point. It was required reading in our Military History course, and the point, of course, was to let us know how bad combat really could be. This book is arguably the "All Quiet on the Western Front" of WWII; it shows that the young men who fight wars are the tragic victims of their elders' political choices. Sure these young men were enthusiastic volunteers, but a teenager from the country (especially 50 years ago) has no idea what war is like, has no real idea of what he is getting into, and is unlikely to have any political convictions that are more than a reflection of his parents' or teachers' views. The message is that war is almost never worth its cost in human life, and war for the purpose of conquest never is. This book is not an apologia for the actions of Germany in WWII, and of course would be rightly shunned if it were. At the end, you feel sympathy for Sajer, not for his former country. By the way, I disagree with those reviewers who say there really was no difference in the relative conduct of the Russian, German, and American Armies; any serious student of WWII knows that the fighting was more vicious, and much more often without quarter on the Eastern Front. This is a great, realistic war story from a little known (to westerners) theater of WWII.

A very young man goes off to war as a German soldier, and is sent to the Russian Front in three horrific battles. This book celebrates the bond of men under the most brutal conditions. The book is so well written, that you become one with the emotions. I miss each of Sajer's friends who die, as if I had known them myself. Three days later, I still am full of emotion about his friend who died holding on to his arm, and who's face was torn apart by an attacking fighter plane. I feel with the author as he is separated from his friends forever in the Allied P.O.W. camp. The young man does survive, but even his mother no longer recognizes him as she passes right in front of him on the street. A powerful story about friendship with a non-glorified backdrop of the brutality of war at the Front.