Nice short book about the guilt and feelings of the opposition during and after the Second World War. Its less than 200 pages long so good to read in an afternoon.

I have read a number of books about the holocaust and have wondered how the German soldiers were corrupted into facilitating it. This story is about a German soldier recounting to his grandson in a letter after his death the story of his war. I found it interesting, though slow paced. It details some horrific experiences but also shows that many of the soldiers, although they witnessed atrocities, they were ignorant of the 'bigger picture' of the holocaust. Also that many felt shame when they know of it. It was an interesting read.

I found this quite interesting to start with, and well written. But it began to flag for me because there was nothing new and nothing original in the telling. I thought it would be another All Quiet on the Western Front, but this one just didn't match up I'm afraid.

I certainly learned a lot from this book. In parts it isn’t an easy read but it is well written and thought provoking.

An ARC copy via netgalley
(published in the UK in May)
In this novel a British grandson annotates the moving letter of explanation by his German grandfather, describing a key incident from his participation in the retreat from the East. The chaos and dehumanization of a terrible campaign are movingly told. Less effective (at least for me) was the philosophical debates on the nature of German guilt vs shame. For me, less telling/ exploration/ reiteration of the point would have been more effective, but still, recommended if you enjoy thoughtful historical fiction. Similar in tone to The Reader.

"It’s sometimes said that the war in the East, its cruelty, the genocide, was like hell or like the apocalypse. I’ve felt those things. But really all they mean is that it exceeded our power of comparison." ⭐⭐⭐⭐

I really am at a bit of a loss as to how to describe this book and so I want to state now that I enjoyed it and found it a fascinating take on WW2.

There is enough meat in this novel to make one believe that it could actually be biographical and I found its plain speaking to be refreshing and it really did leave me wondering what stories "the enemy" could truly tell, given the chance to do so. So many of the novels, (auto)biographies and true stories about what purportedly went on during WW2 are sanitised before or even for publication that they lose the ring of truth. However, this fiction has, for me at least, a true ring. Whether that is my naivety or just my expectation, I cannot say for sure but it is a novel that I am happy to recommend.

Prior to reading this book I recently took a trip to Krakow and Auschwitz, and have been reading a few tales of holocaust survivors; whilst these stories are barbaric in parts, I've also been somewhat intrigued to understand such a mindset of people carrying out such acts. Having also read 'Ordinary Men' by Christopher R Browning, where he gives an insight into the psychology of German soldiers, with actual excerpts of statements and recounts from them, in contrast 'We Germans' is a piece of historical fiction, yet which I feel can also help us to gain an insight into the conditions some of the German soldiers experienced and too their psychological mindset during this time. The text is written mainly in part as a letter from the grandfather, Meissner, to his grandson who has asked of his time during the war. Through his grandfather's eyes - and his letter - we are told of how he came about serving in the German army, when he really wanted to be a pharmacist and how his role and views changed over the course of the war. The main events are told as the war is coming towards the end and the Germans are aware that they are losing. Meissner describes his relationships with others also serving, and how their own political views sometimes created a divide between them. The character of Meissner also reflects morally at times on his own behaviour and acts of violence, and why people such as himself committed such acts during these times. Through his cogitation also comes an element of guilt and we learn how some of these things stayed with him throughout his life. His tale is interspersed with comments from his grandson, who gives his own background to the life of his grandfather, remembering times from younger days when the family visited his grandfather and grandmother in Germany, and relating this to also his Scottish roots. I found this an interesting read, which as already mentioned gives an insight of such events from the point of view of a German soldier serving, not promoting in anyway what he and his colleagues did to be morally right, but reflecting how and why these acts were carried out in such a political climate. If you have an interest in such events during the war I would recommend this book to help with understanding and seeing events from the German side. My thanks go out to netgalley and John Murray Press for the opportunity to read and review an ARC of this.

Not a book I would usually read, and I found the subject matter challenging at times as it covered some deep territory. However, I read it in one sitting and enjoyed it. I found it well written, with believable characters.

Thank you to NetGalley and to the publisher for a copy of this book

A young British man asks his German grandfather about his experiences in the war and gets no clear answers, but after the grandfather's death, a long letter is found addressed to his grandson which tells him the answers to his questions.

The grandfather was an ordinary foot soldier on the Eastern front, suffering not only the horrors of war but of decisions made by higher ups. He carries guilt for some things he had to do under orders and details out all the unpleasantness of what his life had become.

This is fiction and I have no way of knowing how close to factual experiences of German soldiers in WW2 it is or isn't, but it reads with plausibility and I was definitely gripped by the story. I generally avoid WW2 stories, but this was different because of the inside perspective of the side that lost, unlike the usual British and American films that glorify a horrendous state of affairs.

Most interesting was the very human side of the story as a group of soldiers get separated from their unit with no officer and have to make decisions for their own survival as well as considering accountability for their role in the war when eventually they get home, if they do.

Foraging for food, encountering others involved in the war on both their own side and the Russians brings a series of adventures. Near the end it gets rather intense with action, but there is also philosophising of an ordinary man who happened to be born at a time and place that would require he fight for the Nazi army and see his side lose, when all he really wanted was to go home and raise a family.

Very well written.

An interesting and thoughtful book, which I enjoyed reading, even though it was a difficult read at times.

I struggled with this book I'm afraid and just couldn't get into it. I l quickly tired of it as it didn't move fast enough for me and gave up on it

This is an interesting, but ultimately unsuccessful, attempt to capture a whole series of feelings and emotions connected with the warfare on the Eastern Front in WW2. The premise is straightforward: a posthumously read letter to his grandson from a Wehrmacht artillery man who had served in the fighting in Poland and Russia that followed Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union.

There are minor weaknesses and irritations relating to the implausibility of the amazing level of detail of a handful of incidents retold by the former soldier, but - for this reader at least - the failure to distil the sheer scale, total devastation and wanton destruction associated with the Nazi Untermensch philosophy was its chief failing. There are limited excursions to ponder guilt, remorse and criminality, but the overwhelming impression is of something that floats too easily over subject matter that deserves more nuanced analysis. Whilst it must be remembered that it is a novel rather than a work of historical scholarship, its conceit is that ‘it explores questions about guilt, shame and responsibility’. Against this ambition it sadly falls short.

We always read,watch and have been told about our very brave and heroic are British army are,which I totally agree.
This novel shows a different side from a German's point of view which I love and find intriguing.
There is not enough books regarding their time in WW11 and that's a shame.
After the grandson asked his grandfather's role in the war,he couldn't tell him at the time but after he died he found a lengthy letter about his time as a day to day events that went on.
Such a compelling and heartfelt book.

We Germans is a fiction book that reads like a non-fiction, although this doesn't make it any less accessible or interesting. Set out as a letter from a grandfather to his grandson, in it he depicts the time he spend on the Eastern Front as a German soldier. This is an unusual approach to World War II fiction, as most focus on the Allies in the age old platitude that 'history is written by the victors'. What emerges is a thoughtful and revealing account of how the initial buoyancy of victory was crushed by the humiliating and undignified scramble of retreat in the stark lines of defeat.

There is a lot to take in here as you don't get the events alone, you get a certain amount of context and philosophy as one old man attempts to come to terms with the role he played in the war machine that killed millions of people. It's carefully written and it is challenging, forcing the reader to acknowledge uncomfortable truths and unfamiliar viewpoints. The pointless deaths of the young German soldiers, cannon fodder as defeat came crashing down on them, are no less tragic than the lives of the British or the French or the Russians. There is no attempt to cushion the violence and the horror, with some scenes being uncomfortably graphic even as others are more like an internal monologue.

Within this horror and revulsion however, Starritt manages to bring some complex and challenging issues to the forefront of your attention, taking what is often seen as a black and white issue and introduces variables and nuances that are easy to ignore with the benefit of hindsight. Rather than focusing entirely on the collective shame, although that does get a mention, this instead brings to life the individual cog within the wheels of warfare and tries to come to terms with the smaller evils he committed. There is a blunt honesty in how actions and reactions are depicted here; the act of 'living off the land' for example and how the soldiers 'foraging' was really stealing from those who needed it most. Whilst writing of this, there is a straight forward acknowledgement of how their actions caused the starvation of a people, with millions of deaths from this alone.

But it also captures the stark reality of being a soldier on those Eastern lines; the hunger, the exhaustion, the slow degradation of morale until dying a valiant death was all the officers could preach. Obviously the Holocaust gets a mention, after all you cannot write about this period without it playing some part, but there is a recognition here that the majority of the soldiers, particularly those on the front lines, were not only uninvolved in those atrocities but had no real awareness of them. Wrapped within this is a shrewd analysis of national guilt and individual shame, even as he questions just how much he might have known if he had looked more closely.

This is a complex and yet stark piece of writing that brings history to life in a way that isn't often seen. It isn't an apologist account, trying to smooth over the atrocities of the time, but it does look at things from a different angle. Throughout this you have an old man exploring the sense of realisation that he was fighting for something that was fundamentally, unequivocally wrong. Exploring his realisation even as a young soldier that the side he was fighting for did not deserve to win this war. It ends suddenly however, and I think more could have been brought to the tale if his time in a prison of war camp was explored in the same kind of detail as those last few days on a front that had become synonymous with hell. Even without this however, this is a brutally real exploration of history from an unusual and thought provoking perspective.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my free review copy of this novel.

This is a difficult book to read. It is all about guilt. Written by the grandson of a German who fought in the Second World War and with a narrative of the grandfather's experiences in the latter days of the war (many of them horrendous), the overwhelming feeling is of horror that such things could have happened. The soldiers seemed to have lost most of their humanity and were able to see and do unspeakable things.
Did the grandfather come to terms with what he had seen and done? And do we find out?
A hard-hitting book, but uncomfortable reading at times.

WWII from a conscripted German soldiers point of view. I found the book really interesting. German grandfather’s letter to his English grandson. I did struggle with parts of the book but enjoyed reading this

I struggled with this book I'm afraid and just couldn't get into it. I liked the premise but quickly tired of it as it didn't move fast enough for me.

An excellent insight to the visceral nature of war, the macabre humour and random good fortune. Descriptive in the detail of combat and hardship I could smell and taste the environment being inhabited.
I enjoyed the twin aspects of modern life and the harsh realities of war. Told with good humour, humility and a sharp honesty no punches are pulled in respect of how war impacts the human psyche.
A recommended rwad for anyone interested in a different perspective of WWII

We Germans is (loosely) a letter from a grandfather to his grandson about his time served in the war.

I love historical fiction and have read a fair few based during WWII, but none from a German point of view in the Eastern Front.

A devastatingly beautiful read which leaves you questioning all your thoughts and opinions of German soldiers.

To start off with, I didn't like that I was questioning my opinion of German soldiers - aren't they all Nazis who murdered Jews? But, i love that it did make me question everything. Who knew they were given enough food for a week and sent on their way? Having to dig up people gardens to find hidden food just to survive starvation and fight for their country.

I highly recommend this book to anyone to enjoys WWII historical fiction - it will certainly make you think about the Germans soldiers in way you never have before.

Stark but beautifully written, this is an excellent read. It was very interesting to read the German perspective on the Eastern front having read many British and French perspectives on the Western front and British narratives on the Far East. The horror and brutality of the war comes through with detail on the atrocities committed by both sides and the loss of personality and humanity that quickly become casualties of war.

Despite the darkness of the narrator’s experiences the author manages to bring light and hope to this vivid and moving book. This is done with a delicate touch without detracting from the solemnity of the story he is telling. The view of his grandson adds an interesting dimension enhancing our insight into the narrator.
This is a book well worth reading which I would strongly recommend.