I selected this book based on the premise. I was interested to read an account of the battles of the eastern front from the perspective of a German soldier. This book stood out to me more than another book based on the author. The perspective of a German soldier was what I am interested in.
This book begins in a military boot camp in Germany where we are introduced to the main players in this story. After a brief time training these German soldiers are sent to a motor vehicle unit for a time. At this time these German soldiers meet conflict with some non-military Russian citizens but manage to leave this quarrel in victory with the vehicles still in their possession.
This account leads from the soldiers' duty in a motor vehicle unit to sentry duty of small Russian villages to guard duty of a German prisoner of war camp to the front line. After time spent at the German P.O.W camp, several of the soldiers were frustrated with their role in the war and volunteered for front line duty. These soldiers fought their enemy and followed orders to bring power to their fatherland.
This book demonstrates what life was like for a German soldier fighting on the eastern front during World War II. It explained just how difficult on the mind and body war is. The author explores the psychological journey from young recruits to war hardened veterans. The mindset of a soldier at several stages during a combat experience are written about in this book and with the wealth of characters present the reader can relate to someone at one point or another.
The part of the past that this book explores the most is the motivations and feelings of German soldiers. This book is an account of the psychological impact of war, harsh environments, comradery and death on German soldiers during the time of the Second World War
Reading this book feels like reading a diary, in that the author is living these events shortly before he writes them down. His feelings and thoughts of the events surrounding him are apparent and are given a large place in throughout the book. The author's word choice provides great clarity to the mood of the soldiers he writes about. The language the author uses helps to clarify the time of the past from the perspective he represents.
This author has several comments to make about his view of World War II. One being that war is not glamorous. Because the author includes the actions and some of the thoughts held by the other members of the platoon, he can explore different perspectives on the subject at hand.
The author devotes several pages to the feeling that a soldier is fighting to be a hero, to be the savior of his homeland, and to be remembered. Benno Zieser, the author, felt this way for a time before he volunteered for front line duty. At the time of his front line duty, Zieser found that heroism was not necessarily something worth valuing to the point of death. The author was torn between the significance of dying for ones country and the fact that dead is dead.
The type of evidence produced for this book is merely an account of what this particular soldier in this particular platoon in this particular war saw and experienced. This style of story telling is an accurate way to depict the type of message the author is attempting to pass on. The author presents his feelings about certain events that take place and from those feelings he establishes his viewpoints about the subject.
This book affirmed what I thought about some of the aspects of war and enlightened me to several others. Understanding that war is harsh and grueling is a valuable lesson to learn and while it is easy to say that war is hard, it is a very different thing to know the hardships of war. This book paints a picture of what front line battle on Germany's eastern front was like in a few specific situations. I by no means know what this must have been like but I have a better idea that I once did. This book does well to explain that war is not a pleasant experience by any means, or for any causes.
I can only hope that the information from this book will provide me a foundation to build on when the class covers the information discussed in this book. This book made learning about World War II much more interesting than I had expected and I look forward to discussing it in class.
