The Forgotten Soldier

Originally published in French in 1965 as Le Soldat Oublié, The Forgotten Soldier is the memoir of a teenage German soldier’s experiences on the Eastern Front during World War II. A young half-French, half-German boy who joined the Wermacht in 1942, Sajer’s recount provides a distinctive opportunity to view the horrors of World War II through the perspective of a German infantry soldier. Though the book’s accuracy has been questioned by some historians, The Forgotten Soldier’s value in vividly capturing a young German soldier’s personal emotional recollections of a chaotic period in German military history make it an important and captivating read.