The Forgotten Soldier - L. Emmet (Translator), Guy Sajer

...that history is written by the winners, and for this reason many events of the past take on the spin and propaganda that suits those doing the writing. You could say that history is rewritten by the winners. With this in mind it is easy to forget that in the case of wars, in this instance the Second World War, the actual battles are fought largely by normal, everyday people, with only a uniform to distinguish the two sides. Much is made these days ...
...themes should be examined for the sake of prosperity, but it is also refreshing to come across an account of a normal, balanced soldier, doing his duty and just trying to survive, like the majority of the millions of combatants that were engulfed in the conflict. The Forgotten Soldier is an account of Guy Sajer, half French, half German recruited into the German Army and sent to fight on the Russian Front in the summer of 1942.

Sajer ... more

It is a fact that history is written by the winners, and for this reason many events of the past take on the spin and propaganda that suits those doing the writing. You could say that history is rewritten by the winners. With this in mind it is easy to forget that in the case of wars, in this instance the Second World War, the actual battles are fought largely by normal, everyday people, with only a uniform to distinguish the two sides. Much is made these days of the politics of the Nazi regime and the horrors that it created, and it is right that these themes should be examined for the sake of prosperity, but it is also refreshing to come across an account of a normal, balanced soldier, doing his duty and just trying to survive, like the majority of the millions of combatants that were engulfed in the conflict. The Forgotten Soldier is an account of Guy Sajer, half French, half German recruited into the German Army and sent to fight on the Russian Front in the summer of 1942.

Sajer was one of thousands of recruits brought to the Russian Front to keep the momentum of Hitler's dream of beating the Soviets and obtaining the vast resources, particularly oil fields, that this would bring him. In his first year he was a truck driver running supplies and men to the front but in a relatively safe position. As autumn turns into winter the real hardships begin to show themselves, not the Russian army which at this point is falling back but the cold. This is his first taste of the hell of 'total war" that is to be his next two years. In the spring of 1943, Sajer and his friend volunteer for the Gross Deutschland division, a sort of German equivalent of a guards unit, encouraged to do so mainly out of comradeship, but also drawn by the status and better treatment that this elite unit promises. All is about to turn sour for the starry eyed young infantryman.

With the fall of Stalingrad the Russian counter offensive gains momentum and from that point on the over stretched and under supplied German units are pushed ever further back and Sajers story becomes one of survival rather than duty. All wars are terrible but what comes home in Sajers account is the environment of "total war" not experienced by allied troops on the western front. The Russian bullets are just one danger to the troops there, but just as much a threat are the temperatures which reach minus forty and a point that is brought home by Sajers description of stones on the road exploding through the sheer cold, and his account of Russian tanks crossing the river Don, frozen so thick with ice that it could bear the weight of armoured units. Hunger became a killer as the supply line dwindled and disease and exhaustion were also a constant threat. The one thing that seemed to get people through these conditions and threats is the comradeship of the soldiers, by their own admission they are not fighting with any great cause in mind, they are just trying to protect themselves and their friends and make it through alive. The book has some harrowing moments, but Sajer doesn't revel in his deeds, like any soldier he does what he has to and leaves the heroic deeds to others.

Amongst the descriptions of battle are some moments of a more human nature, his leave in berlin where he met and became close to a young girl, and these make the more extreme situations that he is forced to face even more harrowing as you never forget that he is just a young lad trying to get through it all. The effects of the war on civilians is also portrayed as the time he spent in Berlin reveals their own version of the Blitz spirit, reminding us again that war affects the ordinary and innocent people the most.

In his own words there came "a day when i should have died, and after that nothing seemed very important. So i have stayed as i am, without regret, separated from the normal human condition", however despite this harrowing and torturous experience he remained a rational and humane person. Whilst many of his fellows lost their human qualities to survive like animals, it is Sajers humanity that gets him through. This is a campaign that saw the worst and most extreme side to the war. Unlike in the west the German and Russian leaders viewed each other as less than human and because of this issued orders that contravened not only the rules of war but morality itself. After a retreat from the Russian front which saw the tattered remains of his unit walk back to Germany, he is captured by the British and to the prisoners hilarity are driven to a holding camp, the irony being that in capture they receive better treatment than that supplied by their own army.

The Russian Front is a subject that is largely forgotten by western writers, Anthony Beevor's factual account of Stalingrad is a fantastic insight into the tactics and strategies of the campaign, but for a human account of the time and place this book is unbeatable. It is a view of the ordinary combatant, his thoughts and actions and provides a fantastic portrayal of the ordinary soldier.
 

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