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Summary: War is surreal. War is natural selection for the meek.
Review: A lot of people have questioned whether this book is fiction or nonfiction. Probably Sajer did fill in a few details with his imagination, but most of the events of this book ring true. Sajer's book reminds me more of Kurt Vonnegut's "Slaughterhouse 5", which was marketed as a science-fiction novel, but (apart from the aliens from outer space) was actually based on Vonnegut's real-life experiences in WWII. It was one of many books of that era in which American soldiers in WWII were for the first time portrayed not as all-powerful heroes, but as suffering human beings trying their best to survive a horrendous ordeal. Sajer's book explains the reality of the Biblical prohecy "the meek shall inherit the earth". Virtually all the survivors at the end of his story were the soldiers who were the best at keeping their heads down and staying alive and out of trouble; none of the best warriors in his group seem to have survived. In modern warfare, if you have the warrior's willpower to fight for your country, the chances of surviving are pretty small (unless you're just incredibly lucky, like Ernst Junger in "Storm of Steel"). The devastating ability of organized warfare to eradicate large numbers of warriors from the gene pool must surely be responsible for the continuous cycles of the rise and fall of warrior nations in human history. And so it goes.
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Summary: The most memorable book I have ever read!!!
Review: "The Forgotten Soldier" will haunt you forever once you have read it! This is by far the most memorable book I have ever read...and I read *a lot* of books. I first read Sajer's incredibly intense book when I was a senior in high school and literally there has not been a month in those 27 years that I haven't thought of this book at least once. I have read it 6 times now (there is no other book I have read more than twice). Also there is no other book but " The Forgotten Soldier" that I have had as interesting, excited and long conversations with others about. Everyone I have recommended this book to who has read it was steered by the memory of it. It's difficult to get other women to read it, but most men I have recommended it to simply could not put it down. I guarantee you will have a hard time stopping your reading of this book once you start, so plan for that and don't start reading late in the day. Oh, how I wish I knew what really happened to Guy Sajer after the war and how fellow French people treated him after this book came out about his serving in the Reich's army. Simply stated...IMO this is the most fascinating book ever written!
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Summary: best ww11 account i've read - devastating
Review: Belgorod, Don, Dnieper, Memel - what else is there to say? A movie must be made of this book NOW! Make Saving Pte. Ryan look like Walt Disney.
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Summary: He wanted a war. He got it.
Review: Reading the Sajer's book one can come to a conclusion that he came to Russia with the only one purpose: to survive there. His book, though a dreary description of his endless sufferings, nevertheless reveals a motivation of German soldiers on the Eastern front. Sajer, though raised in France, is a product of a totalitarian state. His world is black and white. On one side is "sweet and sensitive" Germany. On the other end is a faceless mass of "Bolsheviks". He toured the famous (?!) Warsaw Ghetto where people died of hunger on the streets, saw a mass execution of Russian POWs being blown out by a grenade. Now he knows what he is going to fight for. In his sufferings, he blames the Russian weather, Russian army, hostile population etc. He never asked himself: Why I am here? What I am doing here? For him his feld is a god and above all his beloved Fuhrer whom he cited occasionally. Ignited by the tales about Russian cruelty, he is ready to approve and perpetuate any crime. On one occasion, the only thing that stopped him from shooting civilians: his officer did not give an order. Their bravery is a bravery of a criminal being pushed against the wall. Their comradeship is a comradeship of a gang united by the common goal: to avoid the justice. He might not realize but otherwise witnessed that his army waged a war not only against the Russian Army but also against Russian people at large. Russians responded in kind. That was why the Eastern front saw the most brutal and fierce fighting that is beyond a comprehension of a Western reader for the Western front never saw such kind of a war. While for him survival means to get out of Russia, for Russians it had meaning that is more tangible: to stay alive in their own home. His description of the battlefield is quite realistic which confirms what I have learned from Russian sources: efficiency of Russian artillery, their determination in an attack. After all, Sajer has nothing to complain. He was born to die as his division's motto says. He got out of Russia alive. My grandfather, a Sr. Lieutenant of Russian infantry was born to live so he hoped, was killed in Stalingrad. Sajer is a little screw of the horrendous machine of destruction. Should he ever be remembered? Who is really forgotten are Russian soldiers who saved the world from the types like Sajer.
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Summary: Great to see Sajer appreciated at last
Review: I first read Sajer when his book appeared in the Brassey's series a few years ago and found it overwhelming. I couldn't understand why it was not better known, and am delighted now to read all these appreciative comments. What it shares with 'All Quiet on the Western Front' is its peculiar combination of emotional openness and restraint -- it doesn't revel in the blood and guts but neither does it flinch from describing what things were like, and what their impact was on a young man. That makes it at times almost too painful to read, and the cumulative effect uniquely powerful. You think nothing could surpass the crossing of the Dnieper, but Memel does. On the question of historical accuracy -- he's bound to be wrong on details, but nothing I have read on the Eastern front leads me to question the overall picture he gives. Read any of the more recent literature, esp. on the Courland pocket or the siege of Breslau. This is a great book, and its relative obscurity is a mystery.
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Summary: The Phattest WW2 Bio ever
Review: Lavigne says not, but i say it is simply the best book on the market as of right now. This book is a must read for all you wwII freaks out there. Makes All Quiet on the Western Front look like a book that makes the German side of the story look weak.
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Summary: More that just another War memoir. A must read.
Review: At 16 and a half Sajer shows up on the Russian front in late 1942. After several months at the front Sajer "volunteers" to join the elite Gross Deutschland Division and spends the rest of the war figthing on the front lines. More than his descriptions of combat and horrific living conditions his personal reflections and emotions make this book both gripping and heart wrenching. By far and away this is absolutely the most interesting biography I have read.
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Summary: A good story, but...
Review: This book wasn't exactly what I thought it was going to be--a detailed account of a soldier's participation in the battle of Stalingrad. So, maybe that was my fault. The book reads a lot like "All Quiet on the Western Front", and Sajer does a good job, IMO, of describing the daily life of a "grunt". His accounts square with others that I have read and consider authentic. But if you're looking for operational information about the Eastern front, I'd look elsewhere.
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Summary: Excellent perspective of a soldier on the Eastern Front.
Review: This is an example of the horror of war from the perspective of a German soldier on the Eastern Front. His day to day life is exemplified by his attention to detail. I am also from the show-me state and a self-educated individual on the life and times of the Germans who fought there. I would also like to caveat this statement by stating that all soldiers in the German Army in WWII had a "Soldat Buch" which is a book presented to the soldier upon his graduation from his respective school. Further, one must remember that, unlike the American Army, the German Army did not lend itself to testing it's soldiers, thereby, creating a caste system where the smart went into military intelligence and the not so smart went into the infantry. Unless you went into the officer corps, minus battlefield commissions, education for the most part was not in the equation. This 20 year old's perspective was resolute and yes some of the minute details may have been forgotten or misrepresented, however, having spent 24 years as an Infantryman, I will submit that I've read books on Vietnam who's authors have misrepresented locations and/or weapon nomenclatures. All and All this book is fantastic reading for not only the novice military historian, but also the seasoned veterans. Must read.
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Summary: An incredible read!
Review: Despite the dark and horrible background against which this narrative is set, it is an incredibly well-written and rich piece. Sajer's memory in delivering this story is fascinatingly precise yet he readily admits when he is unable to recall certain details. Besides Sajer himself, you will love characters like the Veteran and Hals. And, although their time in Memel was no carnival, I think their experiences in crossing the Dnieper were by far the most terrifying. READ THIS BOOK.
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