Thomas F. (hardtack) - , reviewed on 9/26/2011 + 2567 more book reviews

After recently reading "Panzer Commander," I was apprehensive about reading another German soldier's "We really hated Hitler and didn't know anything about the concentration camps" memoir.

However, I was pleasantly surprised with "Soldat." This is a well written memoir from a German officer that covers his days from graduation from the gymnasium to his release from a Russian POW camp 13 years later.

Starting out as a recruit in an artillery training camp until the days when he "commanded" a decimated division in the defense of Berlin, Siegfried Knappe tells of his experiences growing up in Nazi Germany: his hopes, loves, training, combat experiences, the men he served and fought with, and his gradual disillusionment with the war.

I finished the book in three days, as the 413 pages seem to fly by as I learned what it really meant to be German soldier in the initial, heady years of victory and the ghastly, hopeless years of defeat.

Back to all reviews by this member
Back to all reviews of this book
Back to Book Reviews
Back to Book Details