Memoir, Guy Sajer: The Forgotten Soldier

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A. Citation Sajer, Guy. The Forgotten Soldier. 1st ed. Dulles, VA: Harper & Row, 1967. Print. B. Summary of Memoir History is most often written by the winners, the ones who aren’t defeated. This gives favoritism towards those who win, and it seems people forget the people who lost, the ones who suffered not only loses but also humiliation. The memoir The Forgotten Soldier tells a story of a soldier, which in many points of view, was fighting on the wrong side. Guy Sajer is a Nazi soldier in World War Two, half- German and half- French, one of many who fought for Hitler and the inspirational New World Order. Guy starts out as driver and guard of supplies for those at the front. His first experience of hardships as a soldier is when he gets an understanding of Russian winters. Bone chilling temperatures of forty below zero, guard duty and other simple tasks asked of him become…show more content…
But often we had no choice, and became heroes with glory, who were somehow able to conjure up a strength superior to the enemy’s. We no longer fought for Hitler or for National Socialism, or for the Third Reich—or even for our fiancées or mothers or families trapped in bomb ravaged towns. We fought from simple fear, which was our motivation power. The idea of death, even when accepted it, made us howl with powerless rage. We fought for reasons which are perhaps shameful, but are, in the end stronger than any doctrine. We fought for ourselves, so that we wouldn’t die in holes filled with mud and snow; we fought like rats, which do not hesitate to spring with all their teeth bared when they are cornered by a man infinitely larger than they are.”(316) (316) - “I shall never forget the names of Hals, or Lindberg, or Pferham, or Wollers. Their memory lives within me. There is another man whom I must forget. He was called Guy Sajer.” (465) D. Essential
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