Past Times.

Well I assume that I am to continue writing on this piece that I chose so I will go into a little more detail of how I came to read this for the first time.
During my time in Middle School I became an avid enthusiast for anything related to WWII. My interest being sparked by my Middle School history teacher, Mr. Corkett, who introduced me to war-gaming, a model based reenactment of historical and even fictitious battles. Corkett was a WWII historian who studied extensively on the event. He had been involved in the war-gaming of WWII for over 20 years, and with his teaching also formed a War-game club where students could join to play these reenactments and learn about the war in one form or another. Now to most this was a game, but I gained a very strong interest in the actual history of WWII and spent much of my time studying what I consider the most fascinating time in human history. The book I received as Christmas gift from my parents about two years after I started in the club. At first I skimmed over various parts just for kicks thinking that is was just another boring interpretation of the war. But looking more and more into Sajer’s autobiography I found myself reading not just for the story but also for the historical facts that were hidden within the text. I found that the knowledge I had acquired in my years of studying was being put in context in an actual story that someone had lived. I found myself seeing the war differently than I had before, not as an array of tactical/strategic maneuvers being implemented in a timeline across the European map, but instead as the brutal, destructive thing that war is.

Guy Sajer's The Forgotten Soldier

I am not 100% sure exactly what I was suppose to write on other than it has to something literary. So I chose my favorite book, a autobiography by a German soldier Guy Sajer. The story is his recounts of his time as part of the German Army from 1942 to the end of the war. Stationed on the Eastern Front he describes his brutal time battling with the Soviet’s in vivid accuracy in what I would consider the most realistic account of war ever written. Being a avid WWII fan and historian this book brought me to understand much of what the soldiers on both sides had to endure and the miserable conditions that fighting on the Eastern Front brought to those involved.

There is much controversy as to whether this account is fully accurate and trustworthy. A site dedicated to discussing this issue follows. http://members.shaw.ca/grossdeutschland/sajer.htm For me I do feel that overall it is a very realistic account, though it of course can not be fully accurate and most likely has a few things that were thrown in, however that doesn’t take away from the work as a whole, and the masterful comprehension of the bloodiest time in human history.