The Forgotten Soldier by Guy Sajer

World War II - Multimedia WWII Books
#41

I still haven’t read it yet but I was able to snatch a copy by paying a shitload of money - for a German paperback version.

Could it have been because Das Reich, regardless of its composition, was responsible for the massacre of an an entire Alsatian village? And had Mr. Sajer identified himself as being any part of it (even a lowly “panzergrenadier”) any sympathy he might have hoped to garner for himself and his colleagues would have evaporated faster than snow on an isba’s clay stove.

Err, I guess you’re referring to Oradour-sur-Glane which is located in the Limousin region, not in the Alsace.
But right, two-thirds of the men trialed for Oradour were Alsatians.

#42

Years ago I read a book in a way similar to the “Forgotten Soldier”
The Name of the book was: “The Black March” by Peter Neumann. Based on facts, he joined the SS, performed at a Lebensborn place, and various other war times activities.

Anybody else read that book?

#43

Hmmm, never heard of that book, couldn’t find the German version either.

“Performing at a Lebensborn place” does sound like a pleasant job to me though.:wink:

#44

Herr Flamethrowerguy,

I checked Amazon.com and they show a number of copies of the Black March.
Mostly used but also new ones. Prices vary widely from US$2 to $ 85+. Good Luck!

#45

I finally got to read “The Forgotten Soldier”, it was an o.k. read but does definitely not justify the hype. I’ve read dozens of personal accounts of WW2 vets with similar or more intensity.

#46

This is a very good book. I could hardly put it down once I started reading it. As an American, I was interested in reading about the war from those who were on the other side.

#47

The first time I read this book I was 13. I was just starting to gain interest in military history as well. I was just awestruck with the way Guy described his experiences in the German army. In a way his writing almost made you feel as though you were right there with him. I have a couple of copies of this book, and am currently reading it, for…oh…I don’t know…about the…50th time… Excellent read, and I give it a 5 star rating! And if you have not read it, you really should.

#48

I read it last summer. And I agree; the book is definitely worth reading.

Ludwik Kowalski (see Wikipedia)

#49

Hi everyone,

just to point out this great book. I read quite a few of them but this one is by far the best because it packs first hands emotional punch. The book really builds up like a epic movie… say Gone with the wind… or … Titanic… and ends with sorrow of Prussia.

Anyway, at one point after barely surviving Cossack onslaught and after having survived full year of relentless everyday massacres in the east, Guy writes about speech by new unit commander hauptman Weiserdau (who afterwards unfortunately got killed by partisan mine):
"We are trying, taking due account of the attitudes of society, to change the face of the world, hoping to revive the ancient virtues buried under the layers of filth bequeathed to us by our forebears. We can expect no reward for this effort. We are loathed everywhere: if we should lose tomorrow those of us still alive after so much suffering will be judged without justice. We shall be accused of an infinity of murder, as if everywhere, and at all times, men at war did not behave in the same way. Those who have an interest in putting an end to our ideals will ridicule everything we believe in. We shall be spared nothing. Even the tombs of our heroes will be destroyed, only preserving-as a gesture of respect toward the dead-a few which contain figures of doubtful heroism, who were never fully committed to our cause. With our deaths, all the prodigies of heroism which our daily circumstances bring and the memory of our comrades, dead and alive, and our communion of spirits, our fears and our hopes, will vanish, and our history will never be told. Future generations will speak only of an idiotic, unqualified sacrifice. Whether you wanted it or not, you are now part of this undertaking, and nothing which follows can equal the efforts you have made, if you must sleep tomorrow under the quieter skies of the opposite camp. In that case, you will never be forgiven for having survived. You will either be rejected or preserved like a rare animal which has escaped a cataclysm. With other men, you will be as cats are to dogs and you will never have any real friends.
Do you wish such an end for yourselves? "

Needles to say after this I already got chills at this point…

#50

Threads merged…

#51

A good read as such, but the question of authentication haunts me. More research should be done by people who had been closer to this division. Maybe the book is ‘faction’.

#52

Fabulous book. Read it a long time ago. It was the best personal war experience narrative by a soldier on either side of the line I ever read. I’ve read both sides of the Guy Sajer controversy. I believe Sajer.

#53

As a US Viet Nam veteran these sentiments strike home. But this is not a new thing. A Roman Centurion, Marcus Flavinues, wrote the following around 2,000 years ago:“Make haste to reassure me, I beg you, and tell me that our fellow citizens understand us, support us and protect us as we ourselves are protecting the glory of the Empire. If it should be otherwise, if we should have to leave our bleached bones on these desert sands in vain, then beware of the anger of the Legions!

#54

An interesting website regarding this book, it seems the consensus is building that Sajer did serve in the East in some capacity; the comments in this thread regarding the potential that he actually changed what unit he served in, from Das Reich to Grossdeutschland, is pretty interesting…

http://members.shaw.ca/grossdeutschland/sajer.htm

#55

I was also very much impressed by his memoir, reading it a year ago, at the age of 80.

======================================
Ludwik Kowalski, author of a free on-line “Diary of a Former Communist: Thoughts, Feelings, Reality.”

http://csam.montclair.edu/~kowalski/life/intro.html 1946-2004.

#56

I can hardly support lauding the ideals and practices of the German aggressions in WW2.
The world would have gotten on quite well without all that misery.

#57

Notwithstanding the mistakes, and the clearly “factional” padding-out in places, I tend to believe that “The Forgotten Soldier” is a reasonably authentic memoir - but one informed by a more artistic temprament than that behind many veteran memoirs written by old soldiers of more prosaic frame of mind. As to the suggestion that Sajer may have been a member of a different unit on the Eastern Front - perhaps “Das Reich”, or another Waffen-SS outfit - it is certainly an interesting suggestion. It would certainly help to explain the armband business. I don’t know, however. I know that it is difficult to work out the timelines, given the rather limited, claustrophobic point of view of the protagonist (one of the convincing aspects of the book, actually), but a “Das Reich” timeline does not work as well for me as a “Grossdeutschland” timeline; a lot more fictionalising would seem required to make this work. Still, it is a little while since I read the book; I should look at it again with “Das Reich” timelines in mind. Best regards, JR.