The Forgotten Soldier

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Forgotten Soldier is presented as an autobiographical account by a veteran under the pseudonym Guy Sajer of World War II as experienced on Germany's Eastern front.

The historical accuracy of Sajer's autobiographical work has been questioned, with proponents on both sides.

[edit] Controversy

The accuracy, and even provenance, of the book has been under attack for many years. Some details in the book are cited as incorrect (such as reference to subunits of the Großdeutschland Division that never existed) while other details that some claim to be inaccurate are simply not verifiable (while the names of some officers don't appear on official rolls in the Bundesarchiv, these records are not complete). Some have described the inaccuracies as poor memory or as possibly due to mistranslations from the original French text, to English (or from French to German to English). Some leading historians have even gone so far as to argue that the book is a work of fiction. See the references below for summaries of the opposition to the notion that the book is factual.

Some commentators have suggested that given the controversy surrounding the historical accuracy of the book, The Forgotten Soldier shouldn't be taken as an historical book of the Großdeutschland but rather a book about Guy Sajer's experiences during WWII.