Customer Reviews

The Good Soldier: From Austrian Social Democracy to Communist Captivity with a Soldier of Panzer-Grenadier Division "Grossdeutschland"

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The stark realities of World War II need no embellishment, but do require explanation to be more than numbing accounts of dramatic events in an increasingly remote and unfamiliar era. In "The Good Soldier," Alfred Novotny focuses on the sometimes brutal, often sad, but always revealing events of his wartime experiences, wrapped meaningfully and engrossingly within the context of the rest of his life.

Growing up in a working class Austrian Socialist family during the depression era, at 14, Novotny learned something of the brighter side of life in his work as an apprentice server in an exclusive Vienna restaurant. Before long, Novotny found himself drafted into the German Labor Service and ultimately, the German Army's most elite division.

Novotny's images of military life and war are at once haunting and full of vitality. He describes the fiercely demanding training he received in the recruit depot of the "Grossdeutschland" Panzer-Grenadier Division during which two of his fellow trainees committed suicide. In his foxhole at the front, he is joined by a brand-new replacement who has barely uttered his name in greeting before he is immediately blown to pieces by a Soviet artillery shell. Sent home on leave after being wounded, the author is reunited with some old friends from the restaurant, one of whom has lost a hand in combat, another an arm, and another both legs. Novotny tastefully and humorously recounts the intense drive of the life force in fleeting moments of lovemaking that occur amidst the desperation and deprivation of war. That same will to survive despite bloodthirsty lice and other parasites (including the tapeworm he unknowingly hosted through two years of combat) carried him through years of hard labor amid the squalor, disease, and lethal environment of a Soviet prison camp after the war.

Those seeking a professionally rendered treatise on tactics or strategy will not find it here, although in my opinion, the Aberjona Press has recently produced some of the finest of that genre that are currently in print. However, what makes "The Good Soldier" unusually valuable is not only its depth of life-perspective and unusual personal detail, but its exceptional and perhaps unintentional portrayal of how an especially elite formation was forged and sustained from average draftees. This is not another story about daring airborne volunteers, or highly-motivated rangers, or carefully selected commandos. Neither is it the story of an average unit with typical experiences. All of those are interesting and useful, but none are as fascinating as this story about a young Viennese waiter becoming a good soldier in an exceptional and world-renowned military unit. This unique outcome was the result of a process that is little understood and often ignored. Yet is was exactly this process, and not the extremist politics or lunatic racism of the Third Reich, that made the Wehrmacht so formidable. As only a product of that process can, Fred Novotny honestly, forthrightly, and authentically provides an unsurpassed glimpse into that transformation that produced so many "good soldiers."

"The Good Soldier" is the memoirs of Austrian WWII soldier Fred Novotny. The book's introduction starts off with the proverbial Chinese curse "May you live in interesting times!" Novotny certainly had his share of "interesting times" and it is a tribute to his resilience and fundamental goodness of character that he manages to come out all right in the end with his dignity, humanity and sense of humor intact. This is a story of overcoming great adversary with a happy ending.

Unlike most WWII memoirs, which begin suddenly in 1939 and end abruptly in 1945, "The Good Soldier" spans practically Novotny's entire lifetime. It begins with his childhood in Socialist Vienna, and continues without respite through the Anschluss, his service in the German Labor Service (RAD) and as a machine gunner with the elite
"GrossDeutschland" armored infantry division, his postwar years in a Soviet prison camp, his return to freedom and eventual emigration to the USA, where he ultimately finds peace and personal success.

The book isn't full of "combat erotica" but there are enough anecdotes to get a good sense of what life in the Third Reich was like and how terrible war and the postwar peace could be. The RAD experiences in particular are very interesting, since there is little information published in English about this German paramilitary organization.
Novotny's descriptions of life as a "GrossDeutschland" soldier and the Soviet penal system are fascinating as well. The reader will doubtless be amazed at Novotny's good fortune through some pretty grim situations - as he was himself!

Although only 150-odd pages, "The Good Soldier" is packed with photos, drawings and editor's notes that help the reader get a real sense of Novotny's experiences in the context of the general sweep of WWII history.

It's a fast but satisfying read. I quite enjoyed "The Good Soldier" and would recommend it to anyone interested in personal accounts of the Second World War.

I am fortunate to know Fred...or so I thought. His soft Austrian accent adds so much to his saga. His ever present awkward gait that has been with him like so many memories I now understand. Always sincere, pensive and with an instrospective intensity he writes as he speaks.
It's not history retold from the 'other side's' perspective that redefines ones attitude. It's that one is reading what amounts to the diary of an Austrian German boy soldier in Hitler's army whose purpose was the exact opposite of every Allied soldier who told their story. Thousands of 'good soldiers' spent horrible periods of time in battle, in hospitals, as prisoners in war camps, or sadly prisoners of their own minds and memories. Novotny's only bitterness is aimed not at his military foes and blended with purposeful stealth into the late stage of his book.
The unabashed honesty of Fred's story is compelling and civilian as well as military. As a young waiter before being drafted he describes how he and several coworkers essentially steal some famous salami. They get found out, each slapped in the face and Novotny gets three weeks in the potato cellar. Like the rest of his story there is no faux remorse. He relates the salami saga because it says something about him; what that means he leaves to the reader.
In a 'dacha' in Russia they find an American Gramophone and one 78rpm record. Schockingly it happens to be one of his favorites, "Stormy Weather". This eventual American Austrian loved Harry James and Louis Armstrong.
Describing how that left leg was wounded he mentions that there were 8 other bullets hitting his equipment including his helmet he didn't get far enough into the hole he was digging. Many a 'hero'have conjured up details of great bravery. Fred says, "Someone was looking out after me." Honesty and heroism make strange bedfellows.
Speaking of strange bedfellows perhaps the most revealing tale in the book is Novotny's remembrance of his encounter with a young woman which he pleads as "another incident of love in war". It cannot be retold with any more seriousness or hilariousness than what you read in the book. This example of sheer determination in the face of seemingly insurmountable obstacles may be the best description of Fred's will and he did it almost all by himself.
Toward post war Germany he levels this paraphraed pointed observation: to those who fought your war you gave two free street car tickets to take us to officials, two 15 cent cigarette packages, find your own job, help yourself, and your mental problems are your own. A troubling and revealing view.

What Fred says is crystal clear and what he means is craftily expressed. It would be difficult for any reader to close this book with the same mindset with which it was opened.

The Good Soldier, by Alfred Novotny is a story of one man's resilience and undimished humanity in the face of incredible hardships - ending on cautionary advice for the reader.

I found his account refreshingly free of bowlderization of his youthful embrace of the promises of Nazi politics in Austria in the late 30's, which would prove to have horrific consequences. Despite this, his memoire is refreshingly candid and written with surprising humor, given the ordeals he suffered as a "good soldier"in WWII and the subsequent imprisonment by the Soviets for 2 1/2 years after the wars end.

His emigirant experiences in the US again reveal the resiliency that sustained his survival of war and prison, and led, I was happy to read, to success as a restauranteur in the American mid-west. It is however, the cautionary message in the very last pages of his book that set this survivor's tale apart for me. He warns the reader against being seduced by militaristic patriotic propaganda in our own times. He muses, "I still wonder how it all happened...this orgy of killing" and wonders if the world has learned from the experience, and answers his own question with a chilling "No."

Tough, when you are a boy and your fathers memory of the war was so painful for him that he could never tell you anything about it. If you are a kid of fourteen, all you want to hear is all the wonderful stuff, the heroism, the valiant, the gallant, the comraderie and, yes, the victory....then your dad goes on to another plain and you never really know...

Years later you meet Fred. He becomes your mentor, your friend, in many ways a substitute for the father who passed out of your life so soon....and, yes, he was a soldier, too.

A good one.

You, like so many others, urge him on to write a book about his experience of this part of history which shaped our world today. He does, eventually....with no experience in writing (Thank God). He lets the memory flow, sings his heart, with tears and joy, evokes pitures in your mind which your eyes never held, and connects with you....the energy and the feelings completely spin you into a coccoon in which you feel Freds experience. I has to be this way if someone writes so from the heart and therefore connects so completely and firmly with you...

Read this book. Through its nature it will enrich your life. It will give you a gentle lesson. Its truly a gift of the Universe. Read it and give it to your kids. So they dont have to find someone to ask, like me.

Even if you were never a soldier.

A very brief bio, but some amazing insights, and even a rare photo or two of a Knight's Cross winner whom the author served with. Does much to flesh out the divisional history with a "real" face. Better than Guy Sajer. Leaves the reader wanting more.

It is amazing how many good biographies of all the WW II armies have come out so long after the war; what a shame it was not possible to write books like this immediately after the war.

5 Stars

First, this book is published by Aberjona Press. I will be totally honest with you. I've never read a bad WWII book published by this business. I highly encourage amazon.com readers to read other books published by this firm. WWII is their bread and butter in the publishing business. So, I had high hopes for this book and it delivers.

The Good Soldier" is about memoirs of Germany Army WWII soldier Fred Novotny. The book's introduction starts off with the proverbial Chinese curse "May you live in interesting times!" (this reviewer hopes this does not happen to himself) Novotny certainly had his share of "interesting times". This is a story of overcoming great adversary with a happy ending.

Unlike most WWII stories, which begin in 1939 and end in 1945, "The Good Soldier" is across Novotny's entire lifetime. It begins with his childhood in Vienna, and continues without respite through the Anschluss, his service in the German Labor Service (RAD) and as a machine gunner with the elite "GrossDeutschland" armored infantry division, his postwar years in a Soviet prison camp, his return to freedom and eventual emigration to the USA, where he finds peace and success.

The book isn't full of "combat stories" but there are enough anecdotes to get a good sense of what life in the Third Reich was like and how terrible war and the postwar peace could be. The RAD experiences in particular are very interesting, since there is little information published in English about this German paramilitary organization.

Novotny's descriptions of life as a "GrossDeutschland" soldier and the Soviet penal system are fascinating as well. The reader will doubtless be amazed at Novotny's good fortune through some pretty grim situations - as he was himself!

When you read about any German soldier who survived the war they all credited their military training but cursed it a the same time. The German military training made their average soldier equal to US Marines or Army Rangers.

After the war Novoty's sent to work in a Soviet mine. He meets a woman and they have a brief encounter. The conditions in the mine are just as terrible as an prison. Novoty is released because the Soviets are trying to influence Austria political elections in the early cold war period.

The book is about 150-odd pages but is full of photos, drawings and notes that help the reader get a sense of the writer's experiences in the general sweep of WWII history.

I really enjoyed "The Good Soldier" and would recommend it to anyone interested in personal accounts of German soldiers in the Second World War. Indeed, I shall be re-reading it this week.

Enjoy.

There are probably few books in English that take the reader from everyday life in pre-WW II Austria, through the marching columns of the Third Reich's assault on Europe, the cruelty and deprivation of captivity in Stalin's Gulag, and finally to immigration and successful settlement in the United States. Alfred Novotny's readable and engaging biography takes the reader on a journey with an ordinary man who, like tens of millions of others, had their lives changed beyond recognition and endured profound traumas from 1939 to 1945.

Novotny's detailed description of his training with the Grossdeutschland Division and his stark, intense picture of battle on the Eastern Front make "The Good Soldier" a useful reference from a military-scholarship viewpoint. However, as a personal narrative, the book will also be a fascinating read for the general reader, because Novotny successfully blends into his narrative the story of his life from his working-class childhood home in politically unstable 1930s Vienna, and his early and hopeful employment in a famous Vienna hotel -- all of which was interrupted by the call to arms. ("The Good Soldier" will appeal to readers interested in English-language material about Austrians' experiences in the Wehrmacht.)

Millions of defeated German and German-allied soldiers were marched to Soviet prison camps in 1945; many never returned. Novotny's description of how they interacted with their captors and fellow prisoners from day to day -- in cruelty and, sometimes, with friendship -- illustrates this chapter of history without undue political polemic or judgement.

This book is as much about the love of friends and family as the calamities of nations at war. I would recommend it for the general reader of history; it would also fit well into a high-school honors or college course on twentieth-century history.

In `The Good Soldier', Alfred Novotny reminisces about his life. In a concise and highly readable way the author thinks back six decades to see what he remembers after a long and dynamic life most of which has been spent in a very successful career in the hospitality industry. The central feature of this book however is his service in the elite Grossdeutschland Division in WW II. For two and one-half years he fought on the Eastern Front and although he provides an understanding of the basic savagery of this environment, he sees no healthy need for the endless repetition of the lurid details of exposed entrails. In fact, Novotny provides us with a broad picture of his military service including his training and various non-combat events. Once the war ended Novotny's unit was handed to the Soviets for imprisonment. Here he faced another challenge to his survival as he was delivered into forced labor in a coal mine in the Caucasus.
By the end of the book Alfred Novotny has taught us not only what some German soldiers experienced but also how war affects all soldiers a lifetime later. He writes that the worst memories of the war, "leap to the forefront" of his mind "on occasions that are sometimes too many for my comfort, and too few for my conscience." In his succinctness, Novotny has said a great deal about a big topic.

Besides upgrading my knowledge of the WWII German "Landser" (the German equiv. of a GI) "The Good Soldier" gave me a better grasp of the pre-war life of Austrians and how simple it was for the Nazi regime to manipulate minds in the primitive media situation of the 1930's.

Alfred Novotny ably describes his, and presumably many German soldiers' relationship to the enemy, to leadership and courage.

There are some fantastic scenes like the one where the author enters a Ukranian hut with mud floor to find a gramophone with one of his favorite records: "Stormy Weather"! The details on equipment should be of particular interest to anyone into militaria and reenacting.

Like the author I am amazed by his incredibly good fortune. One must be deeply affected when a bullet penetrates one's steel helmet, tearing off the helmet's rim but doesn't cause even a scratch on your scalp and later brand-new replacements are literally blown apart in front of you, again leaving you completely unscathed...at least physically...

Although this book is basically on the platoon-level the author makes it clear in which ways his division, "Grossdeutschland", differed from others.

I found Novotny's recollections of the effect of Soviet front-line propagaganda units particularly valuable.

Novotny is equally convincing when he recounts his years as a slave-miner in Soviet Georgia. What does surprise me is that he is not turned into a hateful person by this experience.

It is nice to find not only photographs of the author and mentioned equipment but also well-reproduced documents like the author's badge certificates.