WW II Gross Deutschland division German Soldier "THE FORGOTTEN SOLDIER"

Description: I COMBINE SHIPPING $1.50 per book. FREE SHIPPING for orders over $60. Send books to your check-out cart. E-Bay will automatically adjust shipping costs. PACKAGING & SHIPPING RULES: 1. Individual books Under $18.00 are shipped in padded poly envelopes. 2. Individual books Over $18.00 are shipped in a poly envelope inside a box. 3. Buy Three or more books and the order is shipped in a box.ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THIS LISTING:As a member the elite Gross Deutschland Division, a teenage German foot soldier sets off on an exciting adventure that turns to a desperate struggle for survival. This unique World War II memoir gives readers an eyewitness account of the savage war in Eastern Europe. An eloquent narrative, likened by critics to Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front. From a Book Review: I am giving this book a five star rating. Is it because I love the book? No! However, I think that this is an important book that covers many themes and situations in an absolutely stunning and eloquent way. The book tells the story of Guy Sajer (a pen name, not his real name). Sajer was born to a German mother and a French father and his story starts when he volunteers to serve in the Wehrmacht during World War 2. His initial posting is with the driver corps where his unit is engaged in providing supplies to the troops fighting the Russians on the Eastern Front, just about the time of Stalingrad. After seven months of cold and horrifying experiences - during which Sajer loses one German friend to a strafing plane - he and some of his buddies volunteer for the Motorized Infantry and he spends the rest of the war serving in the Gross Deustschland Division as it continuously retreats from Russia to Rumania, and from there to Prussia, and finally gets posted to the Western front where he and his surviving buddies surrender to the British Army in April of 1945. The main themes that this book explores include why soldiers fight; what is the difference for them between fighting soldiers, and fighting partisans, and which is more barbaric and nasty; which leaders are followed with love and which are not; and most interestingly, the dichotomy of being a German soldier while being only half German. Sajer writes a very powerful book and his prose is detailed and conveys his feelings and what he sees of his surroundings in a believable way. There has been some discussion since the book came out, that in addition to being a pseudonym, this story was more of a novelization of many people's experiences rather than the story of one soldier. Some of the problems that historians noted with the book included descriptions of uniform accouterments out of place and other minutia. I am not expert enough in such matters to say one way or the other. I found this book to be spellbinding and one where the author manages to convey the horrors of war and the camaraderie of the front line soldiers in an exceptional and very realistic sounding way.As the front crumbles around Sajer and his friends, he explores what makes people tick and how and why they behave as they do during war. Since it is told from his viewpoint, it is not surprising that he has warm feelings towards his fellow soldiers and tells their side in a more sympathetic way than he can of the Russians, Ukrainians, and Poles that he also encounters. The love between the buddies and how they try to help each other even when no one else around cares is a classical cause of why soldiers fight and why they fight so well when they fight for each other. The story of the Captain who leads them for a while and their extra exertions to follow his orders until he is killed will ring true to anyone who has been in the military and seen discrepancies between commanders. The stories of the differences between the front line troops and the hated MPs are common to every army - even though some of the events in this book are more brutal than elsewhere and so on.As the book proceeds, Sajer is struggling with his identity. Not only is he a Wehrmacht soldier who is constantly on the retreat and therefore must find a way to keep himself going, but he is also half-French and is constantly dealing with issues related to that. From his accented German, to the time when he is confronted by one of his own mates and made to feel that he is - and always will be - an outsider, to the time when he finally returns to France and his own parents do not want to know what he did during the war. Sajer has a wartime romance in Berlin and even though he and Paula write letters to each other for two years following their meeting and until the war ends, once it is over, he cuts all ties with his soldiering past and does not go to see her again, nor writes her again, and also cuts his ties with his closest buddies from his unit. This is very disturbing but illustrates the conflicts that he attempts to work through.I do wonder at some of the lucidity of his explanations and the details that he seems to remember of battle after battle and place after place as he marches for hundreds of miles on the Eastern Front. While the descriptions are breathtaking and sound good, could he possibly have remembered all of these scenes and locales? It is clear from his descriptions that he was not writing these kinds of stories home during the events, and was unable to keep a diary, so where do all those details come from? Ultimately, I decided that I did not care as the details made the story very believable and personal and made this book one of the great pieces of literature to cover this subject.Sajer calls the book The Forgotten Soldier because of his own situation, but also because he was keenly aware when he wrote it that there were no celebrations of the German soldiers who fought in the war. Everyone wanted to forget World War 2 and what took place then; And certainly a half-French, half-German soldier wanted to forget this more than most.

Price: 9 USD

Location: Livonia, Michigan

End Time: 2024-11-05T14:04:37.000Z

Shipping Cost: 5.4 USD