I’ve been utterly fascinated by WW2 since high school, and specifically the eastern front. Despite the millions and millions of casualties it’s amazing there aren’t more first hand accounts. I think it mostly has to do with Germans being shamed post 1945, and Stalin sending everyone honest on his side to the gulags. I have a few books I’…
I’ve been utterly fascinated by WW2 since high school, and specifically the eastern front. Despite the millions and millions of casualties it’s amazing there aren’t more first hand accounts. I think it mostly has to do with Germans being shamed post 1945, and Stalin sending everyone honest on his side to the gulags. I have a few books I’ve compiled (unread so far) but if anyone has a list by all means post it here.
Edit: Here’s what I have:
Blood Red Snow - the memoirs of a German soldier on the Eastern Front
By Gunter Koschorrek
Soldat - Reflections of a German soldier, 1936-1949
Siegfried Knappe
Sniper on the Eastern Front: the Memoirs of Sepp Allerberger
Albrecht Wacker
Panzer Commander: the Memoirs of Colonel Hans von Luck
Through the Maelstrom: A Red Army Soldier’s War on the Eastern Front, 1942-1945
Boris Gobachevsky
I am amazed at the lack of material from the soviet side. After all, war is written by the victors.
A limited bibliography of memoirs by ethnic German citizens of the USSR that survived deportation and special settlement.
Bachman, Berta, trans. Duin, Edgar, Memories of Kazakhstan: A Report on the Life Experience of a German Woman in Russia. Lincoln, NE: American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, 1983.
Bender, Ida, trans. Laurel Anderson, Carl Anderson and William Wiest, The Dark Abyss of Exile: The Story of Survival. Fargo, ND: Germans from Russia Heritage Collection, North Dakota State University Libraries, 2000.
Daes, Nelly, ed., trans. Nancy Bernhardt Holland, Gone without a Trace: German-Russian Women in Exile. Lincoln, NE: American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, 2001.
Toews, John B., ed., Journeys: Mennonite Stories of Faith and Survival in Stalin's Russia. Winnipeg, MAN: Kindred Productions, 1998.
I’ve been utterly fascinated by WW2 since high school, and specifically the eastern front. Despite the millions and millions of casualties it’s amazing there aren’t more first hand accounts. I think it mostly has to do with Germans being shamed post 1945, and Stalin sending everyone honest on his side to the gulags. I have a few books I’ve compiled (unread so far) but if anyone has a list by all means post it here.
Edit: Here’s what I have:
Blood Red Snow - the memoirs of a German soldier on the Eastern Front
By Gunter Koschorrek
Soldat - Reflections of a German soldier, 1936-1949
Siegfried Knappe
Sniper on the Eastern Front: the Memoirs of Sepp Allerberger
Albrecht Wacker
Panzer Commander: the Memoirs of Colonel Hans von Luck
Through the Maelstrom: A Red Army Soldier’s War on the Eastern Front, 1942-1945
Boris Gobachevsky
I am amazed at the lack of material from the soviet side. After all, war is written by the victors.
A limited bibliography of memoirs by ethnic German citizens of the USSR that survived deportation and special settlement.
Bachman, Berta, trans. Duin, Edgar, Memories of Kazakhstan: A Report on the Life Experience of a German Woman in Russia. Lincoln, NE: American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, 1983.
Bender, Ida, trans. Laurel Anderson, Carl Anderson and William Wiest, The Dark Abyss of Exile: The Story of Survival. Fargo, ND: Germans from Russia Heritage Collection, North Dakota State University Libraries, 2000.
Daes, Nelly, ed., trans. Nancy Bernhardt Holland, Gone without a Trace: German-Russian Women in Exile. Lincoln, NE: American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, 2001.
Toews, John B., ed., Journeys: Mennonite Stories of Faith and Survival in Stalin's Russia. Winnipeg, MAN: Kindred Productions, 1998.
Bloodlands
Gulag Archipelago
Red Famine
Gulag
Iron Curtain
White Pill
The Anti Humans
Excellent list but I was specifically referring to first hand accounts, so Gulag Archipelago yes but not Applebaum or Snyder for example.
Solzhenitsyn in general is an excellent author, although he came into the war late.