The Forgotten Soldier, by Guy Sajer

Why would I want to read the memoirs of a WWII German soldier? A number of years ago I listened to a podcast series about the eastern front and was (still am) amazed to learn that about 80% of all German soldier casualties for the entire war were in the east. This is not a history I learned about in school. I ran across some reviews of this memoir while looking for more material. Sajer was an Alsatian captured in France during the German occupation. Half German, he was enlisted in the German army and sent east. He fought in most of the major battles after Stalingrad. The remarkable thing about the memoir is that it gives the reader the feel of the day to day life of the soldiers - short on military tactics/battle overviews and long on the interpersonal relationships of the soldiers, the withering physical hardship of survival and routine of daily life as a solider in the Wehrmacht. If one were to believe Sajer (and it's hard not to), the soldiers knew nothing of what was going on back home - he and his surviving friends didn't even learn that the American and British forces were in Europe (let alone Germany) until the war was nearly over. The tragedy, horror and sadness Sajer describes is beyond words. And the fact that he was a German soldier counts little, if any, against the emotive force of his tale. A truly remarkable read.