JasonKoivu

A memoir of a German during WWII. Siegfried Knappe started as an exuberant youth, having done well in school and with all the promise of the world opening before him. Then the war came. He excelled as a soldier, though placed in an outdated, pre-mechanized unit, and soon rose through the ranks, seeing action on nearly all fronts. His story rises and falls along with his country. He was there at pivotal moments. He was in the thick of it. He was the fly on the wall. He was the every man in a German uniform.

One finds oneself rooting for Knappe. Enemy or not, he was human with a family whom he loved. And it helps that he was not a Nazi, just another patriotic German eager to see his country bounce back to prominence and prosperity.

Read Soldat to see what it was like on "the other side." Read it because from whichever side you approach it, war is hell. Without having to endure that hell, what better way to witness the horrible reminder than through the words of one who did?