Soldat

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Hans
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Soldat

Post by Hans »

I have just started to read: "Soldat", by Sigfried Knappe & Ted Brusaw. I thought it was a good read for the first fifty pages or so. Then I became suspicious as he was placing himself in situations that were certainly important, particularly at the end of the war, and describes things somewhat differently to other well known authors who were also there. eg. General Weidling according to Knappe found out about his death sentence whilst at Fuehrer HQ. Yet other sources state that Weidling was informed of the sentence whilst at 56 PzK HQ and deliberately went to the bunker to demand an explanation. Just one example, amongst many so far. What do others think about this book? I am assuming of course that some one else has read it. I've stopped reading it until I get some opinion.

- Hans
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sniper1shot
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Post by sniper1shot »

Read the book quite sometime ago and thought it was a well written memoir.
Nothing jumped out at me as suspicious. Finish the book. It is good.

The way things are going these days, we are going to be challenging every single memoir that hits the shelves.
Only he is lost who gives himself up as lost.
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Spandau
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Post by Spandau »

Ave Hans,

while I did not notice Knappe's errors, I would be reluctant to condemn him as a fraud considering the amount of prestige "Soldat" seems to hold. I don't know of anyone challenging it, and I have heard of many others being challenged..

As a side note, often in the recollection of events, I find some of the hardest things to get right is the exact order in which things happened.

I can't say whether or not Soldat is true, I read it and didn't notice anything wrong like I did in "Forgotten Soldier." My final say is; Read it, it is quite interesting and a good read (IMHO).

Vale,

-Spandau
If you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will gaze into you.
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Hans
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Post by Hans »

G'day S & S,

I've gone back to "Soldat" and find it a compelling read despite my original misgivings. Who knows who is right and who is wrong. Knappes' story re his experiences ring true, [although I still have trouble with his experiences in the Fuehrer Bunker]. Funnily enough I also picked up Guy Sajers' The Forgotten Soldier at the same time and quite frankly it leaves me nervous to say the least.

My greatest windfall this week though has been "Mit dem XIII Armeekorps in Polen" written in 1940. The pictures especially show just ordinary men [boys], nothing very military about them. Just amazes me that they achieved so much [leaving politics out of it].

- Hans
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Spandau
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Post by Spandau »

Ave sniper1shot,

incidentally, did you ever review "The Forgotten Soldier?" I would be curious to see it if you did. Since you are the great book authority on feldgrau, I am curious to see what side you take.
Personally, "The Forgotten Soldier" rings true to me and the 'mistakes' are vrey believable as memory lapses or miscommunication to me. Besides, I look at who is on which side of the debate, and I will go with Rudi and certain others.

I guess this message should have gone elsewhere in the foum, but here it is.

Vale,

-Spandau
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Post by sniper1shot »

Since you are the great book authority on feldgrau
Thanks. I think?

I read Forgotten Soldier quite a few years ago. When I first read it, only a few minor details jumped out at me as "wrong". I have not read it again.
I do not research a book in minute detail as some of our other forum members do. When I first read it I firmly believed the memoir.....however those that research a memoir have brought up some good points as to its authenticity.
That being said, I believe that Guy Sajer probably did serve. I also believe that the editor of the book failed to do a good research job. Soldiers do forget a lot of things.....and in/after a war I can only imagine that a soldier would forget a certain day let alone a time of an event.
Other things like which sleeve a cuff title is on are harder to forget as that is a uniform that a soldier wears everyday.
If MY memory serves me correctly, which it rarely does, was the cuff title only mentioned once in the book? Could that not of been a typo? It is these little things that catch a readers eye but don't necessarily ruin the book.
It would be a readers own call to whether they believe it or not.
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Spandau
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Post by Spandau »

sniper1shot wrote: If MY memory serves me correctly, which it rarely does, was the cuff title only mentioned once in the book? Could that not of been a typo? It is these little things that catch a readers eye but don't necessarily ruin the book.
It would be a readers own call to whether they believe it or not.
Ave sniper1shot,

I believe he only mentioned it once. I only remembering geing bothered by that once, and I can hardly imagine that coming up twice.

Vale,

-Spandau
If you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will gaze into you.
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Leutnant Grimgerde
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Post by Leutnant Grimgerde »

Heh. My apologies for bumping an older topic, but I had just recently finished reading Knappe's Soldat myself. If there's anything that I think Soldat would be great for, it would be as required reading for a class on WWII, given that Soldat would do a really great job at giving students generally unfamiliar with the subject a comprehensive scope of the war (a lot of important events are touched on: Czechoslovakia, France, Barbarossa, Stalingrad, Italy, Berlin...), from the German perspective no less. Besides that, it's a fairly easy read.
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Tom Houlihan
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Post by Tom Houlihan »

Let's keep this thread on Knappe. There is a long enough thread on Sajer's book, so put comments about his work there.
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