Book Review: I Somehow Survived, Ed. Klaus Förg

This is an English translation of a recent book originally published in Germany, which collects the testimonies of five Bavarian survivors of WWII. All were over 90 at the time their tales were collected, the oldest being 106! Four are military personnel, whilst the fifth is a Norwegian woman, who - depsite her socialist father being forced into hiding, and her mother winding up in a camp - married a young German in the Kriegsmarine.

In the foreward Roger Moorhouse notes that this is part of a trend of recent years of allowing the voices of Germans into the pool of English language recollections, and as such a useful balance to years of largely one-sided history. I would qualify that a bit by saying that, whereas whilst most postwar German testimonies came from the bigwigs, or their friends and families - from Albert Speer's famous 'struggle with the truth' to the memoirs of people like Doenitz or von Ribbentrop, the latter's son writing his father's memoir - there have indeed, more recently, been concerted efforts to hear the voices of the 'everyman' (and woman) participants.*

My favourite of these is the first and longest, in which Georg Weiss recounts his arduous and colourful Ostfront service. Other stories include the long peregrinations of Sepp  Heinrichsberger, who, serving in France, winds up a POW in America, before undergoing a postwar oddysey in his quest to get home. Franz Blattenberger, an artilleryman, has a similar tale about his lengthy flight to ultimate postwar freedom, in which a keynote is the randomness and luck of survival. And Siegfried Schugman was a frustrated Luftwaffe man, who never got his wings, but wound up glad of it.

All in all, an interesting and very easy read. I read the entire thing in just one day, and that whilst also doing numerous other things. There are no truly mind-blowing or even very shocking revelations, to be truthful. Especially not if you've read a lot on WWII, as I have. But it is always refreshing to hear the German side of the story. The recollections seem pretty open and candid, and the supporting photos help reassure one. But - and no disrespect to the researchers or contributors - this is verbal or anecdotal history, and must therefore be treated with a certain amount of caution and circumspection.

Still, fascinating stuff.

* In respect of the latter, Tim Heath's several books on women's experiences in the Third Reich spring to mind.

Book Review: With Hitler In The West, Heinrich Hoffman

Fascinating reprint of contemporary Third Reich blitzkrieg/Führer propaganda.

NB - Except for the cover picture, above, pretty much all the images - of the publication, that is - illustrating this review are actually from the original German version (they were easier to find online!). The Pen & Sword edition is in English.

As anyone who visits this blog will quickly find out, I'm somewhat obsessed with WWII. And particularly with the German side of things. This Pen & Sword title is basically a modestly sized reprint of a piece of early WWII German propaganda, similar in feel, right down to the snappily bombastic captions, to the materials from German magazines of the time such as 'Signal', which shared the same morale-boosting purpose.

Happy Hun: victorious 'Landser' march and sing.

Left, a prototypical Hoffman propaganda photo,

of a handsome beret-wearing tank commander.

At right, a French tanker surrenders. 

The photos are by Henirich Hoffman, and there's an intro by Keitel, one of Hitler's more fawning generals. Being propaganda, it's not an objective record. But if you know that, you can bear it in mind as you read and study the pictures. It really is fascinating for showing how positive the Germans obviously felt at this stage. And no wonder, after the eighteen day campaign in Poland, and similarly quick work in Norway and the Low-Countries.

Hitler chats with his troops as he tours the conquered territories.

Visiting WWI battlefield memorials,

a reminder of Hitler's former service,

and the roots of WWII in WWI.

Hitler in Paris; at right, visiting Napoleon's tomb.

Aside from the focus on the victorious German forces, and Hitler himself, France is the centrepiece of this presentation. And the Gallic capitulation proved to be yet another remarkably quick affair. This time against the potentially much stiffer opposition of the French army - then the largest army in western Europe - and their English allies. Interestingly the images and accompanying texts relating to French and British troops and materiél, whilst crowing over the huge graveyards of the latter, aren't as overtly jingoistic as one might have anticipated.

The back cover of an original paperback edition,

showing Allied prisoners.

Various shots, including the devastation wrought upon the French forces.

Hitler presides over the French surrender, Compeigne.

As the title makes clear, this is also about Hitler as commander in chief. So there are lots of pics of 'der Führer', including him visiting WWI battlefields and monuments, and signing the French capitulation in the famous railway carriage at Compeigne, reversing the roles of the 1918 humiliation which had played such a large part in both Hitler's personal and Germany's national myth of the 'stab in the back', which held that Germany was betrayed from within, rather than defeated from without.

The Wehrmacht in action.

Big guns!

The historical value of such a reprint is, I think, pretty strong, and quite obvious. Although given the nature of the Nazi regime it's also a vexed issue. And it's perhaps a little surprising that Pen & Sword didn't choose to add anything to the book explaining the context of it's production, and the intents for its function. For those of us fascinated by this era, in part at least, as an aspect of our mini-military hobbies, it's a visual goldmine.

All in all, a welcome and fascinating addition to the WWII obsessive's collection.

The cover of an original paperback edition.

Heinrich Hoffman.

Hoffman's Munich studio (where Hitler first met Eva Braun).