Franz Schneider

My interest in World War II has been largely confined to the victims rather than the perpetrators. Nonetheless, when I heard about this book I knew I had to read it. The German soldiers who penned these letters fell somewhere between victim and victimizer -- ordinary men who fought for their country, right or wrong, and then were basically betrayed and left in the lurch hundreds of miles from home.

A wide range of people were depicted in this slim book. I was fascinated to learn of their pre-war occupations. There was one university professor, a gardener who remarked favorably on the quality of the soil at Stalingrad, and a pianist who warned his wife that he would probably never play again, since several of his fingers had been amputated due to frostbite.

There was also a range of attitudes and concerns in this collection. One of the poignant letters, imho, was one where this guy had apparently had a long-standing extramarital affair which his wife was aware of. He wrote that he loved his wife and his mistress both, but he wanted his wife to know he loved her more, and offered as proof the fact that, for what he knew would be his final letter home, he had written only to HER. Nevertheless, he asked his wife to pass on a message of love and farewell to his mistress. I wonder if she did.

I'd love to own a copy of this book. Once the Amazon.com price drops below $90 perhaps I'll buy one.

You might try reading this alongside Last Letters from the Shoah.… (meer)

I was in my teens when I first read this anthology of letters from the last German troops left alive at the end of the Siege of Stalingrad. This work is striking for two main reasons. First, these are not so much letters about war, as they are letters from a cross-section of individual humans caught up in war. Second, the viewpoint is from that of the German soldiers. At the time I read this, there were almost no depictions of members of the Wehrmacht that made them seem human. "German" was pretty much synonymous with "evil Nazi monster," particularly as portrayed in the mass media of the time. These last missives from men who knew they were about to die are poignant and riveting.

It must be noted that there is some potential controversy as to the authenticity of these letters. As of the writing of this review, I have not seen any authoritative evidence, but have only read a couple of mentions of "forgery" via Amazon.com user reviews. If these are indeed works of fiction, they are still poignant, sad, and thought provoking. If they are authentic, they are also tragic.… (meer)