Stalingrad

Rating:
Summary: Death in Army Group South
Review: Pliever strips the 6th army experience beyond the academic "Stalingrad was the highwater mark for the German war efforts...". After the sound of "the full throated sound of an army in advance" is quiet, the heroes of the 6th army are reduced to their essence. A grenadier, frozen & unfed is no longer a grenadier, he is a farmer from Westphalia & a father of five who will probably never see his farm or family again. There are so many other examples of "personality reduction" where the Nazi ideology in the crucible of Stalingrad is found wanting and most of those caught on the wrong side revert to selfish motivations @ various speeds. While the reader will feel sympathy for those caught in "der Kessel" they will do well to remember that if the outcome would have been different they would not feel so sympathetic as the Westphalian farmer would probably be extolling the joys of National Socialism, not bemoaning his fate.

Rating:
Summary: Death in Army Group South
Review: This book is a piece of communist propaganda gone right. The annihilation of the Sixth Army is told, from the Soviet encirclement to the capitulation. The novel starts full-on and never lets up; from beginning to end the army is defeated, spent, everyone is starving, freezing, wading through corpses. The only movement of the storyline is the retreat of the hapless shells of soldiers, away from the victorious Red Army.

This Germanic heaviness is troweled on so thickly, via actual events from Wehrmacht prisoners Plievier interviewed, that even Americans can feel the whole Nazi edifice tottering with Sixth Army's fall. Plievier (whose name sounds like a derivative of the Russian word for "shoot") succeeds in putting over the full horror of battle. He was a communist, and his depiction of Russian troops is eyewash. In reality, as the introduction reminds us, the Soviets were as ruthless as the invading Nazis, and were rarely very chivalrous to their German prisoners. But the informed reader can make allowances for this. If nothing else, this is a remarkable job of reportage of the German experience at Stalingrad. It's the next worst thing to being there...

Rating:
Summary: The horror; the horror
Review: This book is a piece of communist propaganda gone right. The annihilation of the Sixth Army is told, from the Soviet encirclement to the capitulation. The novel starts full-on and never lets up; from beginning to end the army is defeated, spent, everyone is starving, freezing, wading through corpses. The only movement of the storyline is the retreat of the hapless shells of soldiers, away from the victorious Red Army.

This Germanic heaviness is troweled on so thickly, via actual events from Wehrmacht prisoners Plievier interviewed, that even Americans can feel the whole Nazi edifice tottering with Sixth Army's fall. Plievier (whose name sounds like a derivative of the Russian word for "shoot") succeeds in putting over the full horror of battle. He was a communist, and his depiction of Russian troops is eyewash. In reality, as the introduction reminds us, the Soviets were as ruthless as the invading Nazis, and were rarely very chivalrous to their German prisoners. But the informed reader can make allowances for this. If nothing else, this is a remarkable job of reportage of the German experience at Stalingrad. It's the next worst thing to being there...

Rating:
Summary: A brutal and terrifying novel
Review: Written by a German Communist, who defected to the Soviet Union prior to World War II this hard to find book is a gripper. The book tells the story of the greatest battle in the history of the world, the Battle of Stalingrad, where hundred of thousands of men perished in a cauldron of lead, fire and shrapnel. It is a story of the utter defeat of Paulus 6th Army where close to 500,000 people perished. Throughout this book we find the dehumanizing and degrading effect of war on men.

It is expertly written, weaving in the stories of hero's and villains, the courageous and the cowardly. The story opens and closes with the two German grave diggers Gnotke and Gimpf who epitomize the whole story. Gnotke who shows humanity by taking care of the helpless Gimpf and Gimpf who struggles with his inner demons for his slaughter of innocent civilians. In between, we find a divergent cast of characters who find themselves in circumstances that defied imagination.

This is not for the faint of heart. It is not a pleasant read; nightmarish would be a better description, but it is a story you won't want to miss. As I was reviewing my copy of this magnificent book to write this review, I found a list of essay questions I wrote to use if I were ever in a position to teach a literature class. These questions give some insight into the intriguing story that Thayer tells:
· What is the author's view of suicide? Is it ever justified?
· What is the soldier's role in obeying orders? When is a commander justified in disobeying orders?
· How is humanity preserved in battle?
· Trace the author's view of Nazis, specially in the life of Wedderkolp.
· How does the role of the two chaplains portrayed? How does this go with the author's communistic background?

The story of Stalingrad is a reminder that war, even conventional war, is a horrible thing. For all of it's stark reality, Stalingrad proves to be one of the best antiwar novel every written; it simply is a masterpiece. As I mentioned previously, this it is a hard to find book. My copies (I wore one out by reading it again and again) were found in used bookstores. You will have to look hard to find this book, but it will be well worth the effort.

Rating:
Summary: A brutal and terrifying novel
Review: Written by a German Communist, who defected to the Soviet Union prior to World War II this hard to find book is a gripper. The book tells the story of the greatest battle in the history of the world, the Battle of Stalingrad, where hundred of thousands of men perished in a cauldron of lead, fire and shrapnel. It is a story of the utter defeat of Paulus 6th Army where close to 500,000 people perished. Throughout this book we find the dehumanizing and degrading effect of war on men.

It is expertly written, weaving in the stories of hero's and villains, the courageous and the cowardly. The story opens and closes with the two German grave diggers Gnotke and Gimpf who epitomize the whole story. Gnotke who shows humanity by taking care of the helpless Gimpf and Gimpf who struggles with his inner demons for his slaughter of innocent civilians. In between, we find a divergent cast of characters who find themselves in circumstances that defied imagination.

This is not for the faint of heart. It is not a pleasant read; nightmarish would be a better description, but it is a story you won't want to miss. As I was reviewing my copy of this magnificent book to write this review, I found a list of essay questions I wrote to use if I were ever in a position to teach a literature class. These questions give some insight into the intriguing story that Thayer tells:
·What is the author's view of suicide? Is it ever justified?
·What is the soldier's role in obeying orders? When is a commander justified in disobeying orders?
·How is humanity preserved in battle?
·Trace the author's view of Nazis, specially in the life of Wedderkolp.
·How does the role of the two chaplains portrayed? How does this go with the author's communistic background?

The story of Stalingrad is a reminder that war, even conventional war, is a horrible thing. For all of it's stark reality, Stalingrad proves to be one of the best antiwar novel every written; it simply is a masterpiece. As I mentioned previously, this it is a hard to find book. My copies (I wore one out by reading it again and again) were found in used bookstores. You will have to look hard to find this book, but it will be well worth the effort.