I Was There

Rating:
Summary: I Was There
Review: This book took too long to read and it was confusing.

Rating:
Summary: I Was There
Review: This book was a excallent book about what happened or what teenagers did during WWII.It's about the author himself, Hans Peter Richter.Him and his friends, Heniz and gunther join the Hitler youth movement. Hans and Heinz are enthusiastic, but Gunther participates in it only because of pressure on him and his family. Every German youth has a part in Hitler's third Reich. So the youths have to go around soliticing money for the poor, collecting scrap iron,tormenting Jews, taking premilitary training, shouting"Heil Hitler" when Hitler appears himself and fially, ultanately, serving in the German armed forces.Hans and his friends share the same experince.

Rating:
Summary: interesting but leaves many holes not filled
Review: This, in many ways, is a strange sort of tale. On the one hand we do get a pretty good viewpoint of what it was like to serve in the Hilter youth. There are supporting characters like Heinz and Otto and there is a story and a very powerful one at that.
However there is also a lot of confusion in the book. Since the story is extracted from memories, presumably from an adult Hans Peter Richter retelling the story, the story is very fragmented. There is almost a stream of memories that don't quite connect to each other. You really have to pay attention and are often left with many questions mainly about how we got from point A to point B.
Up until the end, the book leaves the reader with many questions left unanswered. I found myself desiring to learn what happened to these people (those that lived) and how what were their lives after the war. Unfortunately, we never find out in this book. It's incomplete and many questions remain. Despite all that there is much to learn in this book and Germany is a lesson that should never be forgotten. Highly recommended reading for that reason alone!