My rating:
add to my books
Loading...
Blood Red Snow: The Memoirs of a German Soldier on the Eastern Front
For the German soldier fighting under Hitler, keeping a diary was strictly forbidden. So Gunther Koschorrek, a fresh young recruit, wrote his notes on whatever scraps of paper he could find and sewed the pages into the lining of his winter coat. Left with his mother on his rare trips home, this illicit diary eventually was losts experience, that makes up the memoir that is...more
Paperback, 288 pages
Published
October 30th 2005
by MBI Publishing Company
There is a good chance some of your friends read this book. Sign in to see!
sign in »
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
This book is currently not featured on any Listopia lists.
Add this book to your favorite list »
Community Reviews
(showing
1-30
of
84)
What I learned from this book is that war is the most insane activity in which humans engage. What I learned from this book is that I'd never want my son to be a soldier. What I learned from this book is that we must read about the past and we must write about the past in order to live a better future. This book is heavy reading, but nowhere near as heavy as writing and living must have been. The soldier was an 18 year recruit when the book begins but how he must have aged before the war was ou...more
Herr Koschorrek was, I believe, from Silesia (currently western Poland) and became a machine gunner in the 24th Panzer Division, which was the 1 Kavellerie Division of the Prussian Wehrkreis I. The division was still mounted during the invasion of Poland, but exchanged horses for tanks in later campaigns. Gunther joined the division as a replacement while the division was fighting inside Stalingrad. He marched across the steppe and eventually joined in the bewildering, urban, close combat. J...more
Bleak, unrelenting misery. As a former graduate student who studied memory and oral history, I am a bit dubious about some of the feelings that Koschorrek says he had while on the front (such as his pity for killing Russian soldiers...could it be that he now feels that way and didn't at the time?). That is a silly criticism, though. This is a powerful book that reads quickly.
Another German soldier's memoirs on his experience on the eastern front. Not the best book on the eastern front. I would recommend to anyone interested in WWII or specifically the German side of war with Russia. The one thing unique is the author's experience as Heavy Machine Gun (HMG) gunner throughout the war.
I have read many memoirs from soldiers during the war. I enjoyed "Blood Red Snow" a great deal. There seemed to be no apologies, no politics. JUST a soldier on the front line and his experiences. There are spelling errors scattered throughout the book, but I disagree with some reviewers that the author should have gotten a ghost writer to help him out. The style flowed, and I found that the book went by rather quickly.
A good read for someone interested in the war that chang...more
A good read for someone interested in the war that chang...more
Well written first person account.
A German soldier with repeated tours on the Eastern front. The fighting between Germany and Russia was some of the most brutal in history and this account is that of a soldier; devoid of much of the politics that often accompany the WW2 genre.
Good personal account of the fighting on the eastern front from a German perspective. In the same style as "Forgotten Soldier", but not quite as good.
Katey
marked it as to-read
Svetlana Karlin
added it
Thomas
marked it as to-read
Ben
marked it as to-read
Russell
marked it as to-read
Jan Charvát
added it
Diana
marked it as to-read
Amy Gwynn
marked it as to-read
Bob
added it
There are no discussion topics on this book yet.
Be the first to start one »
