Review: Goodbye Transylvania

[sniper1shot]

Title: Goodbye Transylvania
Author: Sigmund Heinz Landau
ISBN: 0 907969 13 5
Publisher: Breedon Books Publishing Company Ltd.
Stars: 4.5 (out of 5)

Well, I have heard of this title for a few years and when a copy became avail. I just had to buy it. I was NOT disappointed.
The book starts off with the author going back to Romania to see his parents and from there starts to remember his past. This incl. a brief history of how Transylvania came to be and how the various countries ruled the area.
The chapters go into the author joining the Waffen SS and fighting for a good portion of the war in Russia and the Eastern Front with jaunts in Holland and Italy. There are some very good and graphic battle descriptions. This incl. only a couple of Russian atrocity descriptions, but it also incl the authors frank admission to killing some Russian POW's after seeing these atrocities.
The last chapters cover the battle for Berlin (I felt I was there in the buildings, fighting) and the author being captured....his questioning and ultimate trek to captivity. The author then escapes and eventually makes his way to Austria and ultimately to Britain.
The only questions to this book was the authors admission to being an undercover police informant and being sent all over the place....but I guess anything is possible in war time.
I highly recommend this classic.

[kordts]

Sniper,
I loved this book, but I spent about 50 bucks on it, and sold it for 40. What a chimp! I should have kept it. One of the best books I have read about the war.

[sniper1shot]

$50....Wow. I knew they were expensive but not that high. Yes, I agree, I would of kept it.
Hard to find this title from what I have been told.

[Wiking5th]

Saw one on a book engine for $200!! Could not believe it! Lexxx helped me out with a publisher name. I would consider $50 for this well spent!

Thanks for the review Sniper.
Regards,
Wiking5th

[kordts]

If anyone is interested, the publisher still can get and sell copies for 28 English pounds. If I had any smarts I would buy several copies and sell them for 200 bucks.

[sniper1shot]

Please send me the publishers site. Looking for some other titles.

I don't have the $60(ish) in CDN funds for another book. HAHAHA

[kordts]

Here ya go!


Carole Vernon, Administration Manager
Breedon Books Publishing
3 The Parker Centre
Derby. DE21 4SZ
Tel: 01332 384235 Fax: 01332 292755
[email protected]
[email protected]
http://www.breedonbooks.co.uk

[sid guttridge]

Hi snipershot,

Did the author claim to be one of what Gottlob Berger considered the dissapointingly low number of volunteers from Transilvania, or was he one of the great majority conscripted after agreements with the Romanian and Hungarian governments in early 1943?

Cheers,

Sid.

[sniper1shot]

If I am not mistaken he said he volunteered. At first he served with a Flak unit, then went to Russia with another unit. While under an Arty Barrage he was next to some SS troops and thought they were "it" as soldiers. When Romania then called their soldiers back to serve with Romania he ended up making his way to a German recruiter and volunteered for the W-SS.
Quite a few of his friends did that and a few made their way to Hungarian units.......the authour kept stressing that they did not want to serve with Romanian units.

[kordts]

Mr Landau "enlisted" early in the war. I believe in 41. Like sniper sez, he was a Luftwaffe "helper" The Romanians recalled him, and he enlisted in the W-SS to avoid the Romanian army. It's a pretty fast moving read. He really hates the communists and Romanians, and it shows.

[sid guttridge]

Hi Snipershot & Kordts,

You raise another often forgotten point. Volksdeutsche didn't just volunteer for the Waffen-SS. Until the political decision to give the Waffen-SS effective conscription rights over Volksdeutsch communities in 1943, they could and did volunteer for other German services. However, volunteerism amongst Volksdeutsch communities was always weak and a great disappointment to its advocates.

Sounds an interesting and plausible book. I will try to get it through interlibrary loan.

Thanks for the tip.

Sid.

[Richard Hargreaves]

$2,200 on Amazon.

Even I won't pay that for a book.

There's no ILL of it in Britain either. Rats.

[sid guttridge]

Hi Halder,

Rats, indeed.

It is not even in the British Library catalogue. I guess it must be by a very minor US publisher.

Cheers,

Sid.

[Rohrbach]

Just wanted to say thanks to Kordts for posting the publisher's info. I also saw the $2000+ offering on Amazon and figured I'd never get a copy. BTW, looks like someone bought that copy. Anyways, going with Kordt's info, I contacted the publisher and a copy is on the way for $63 and change. Still steep but doable.

Can also confirm that Breedon Publishing is a British firm, not a US one.

Rohrbach

[Ljotrulf]

Landau lived in Derby and was a very friendly and open chap who did not shrink from discussing his wartime experiences as anyone reading his book will discover.
I bought my copy of the book several years ago for £4.95, then subsequently bought another copy for a friend at the same price. When I asked about another copy after Landau's death, Breedon Books told me that it was out of print and they had no intentions of re-publishing it as it was "a slow seller".
If there is enough demand for any book it will be re-published so the more requests the publisher receives, the more likely it is the re-appear at a reasonable price.