Add some information about the original work in "Zero Years of German Publishing"

Consuelo 2022-10-06 06:33:31

The historical context of the novel is unclear, the narrator stays close to his German protagonist, and is full of racist platitudes when describing other characters the protagonist encounters, especially the Soviets and Siberian minorities. They, "at least most of them are children, with a childish cruelty and helpfulness", and in the novel they are "thin, with sunken eyes, and poor, looking mean and suspicious, as if they were You can survive thanks to the broken rope on the gallows." A Soviet nurse in a POW camp was the only woman among them, and she "neither empathized with any German prisoner nor had the emotional ups and downs of a normal human being," in contrast to several Germans who, even in deep Difficulties, they can also maintain "culture" and humanity, especially the former officers are the most outstanding.

It wasn't until a few years ago that a Bavarian broadcast journalist discovered the prototype of the "Lieutenant Forrell". He synthesized many solid clues to prove that the story told in the novel never happened. At the time of the story, there were no POW camps in the eastern end of Siberia at all, and the so-called "real" Clemens Forrell had left the Soviet POW camp and returned to Munich as early as 1947, so it was impossible to travel 3 year.

This raises the question, whose story is this book telling? It is not just because of the novel, but the authenticity of similar works about war and prisoners of war. suspicious.

In the process of unfolding the narrative, Bauer not only relies on the description of the witness of the times, Cornelius Rost (the prototype of Forrell), but also his own rich experience is the source of his creation. Bauer joined the Wehrmacht in 1940 and also fought in the war against the Soviet Union. His publisher at the time, Reinhard Peeper, had long expressed interest in publishing a book about his experience. This coincides with Bauer's ambition, he has been paying attention to the war and began to collect information diligently. "There have been countless great, uplifting, terrifying and terrifying things from the first day we crossed the border to today," he wrote in a letter to the publisher. It's a war, a battle fought by our soldiers. … The scenery of the Soviet Union is varied, beautiful, agile, and shocking. It is the Soviets who are terrifying, and their 22-year rule has left more traces than they did in the war. Worse yet. I didn't know at the time why this goal was worth pursuing, but everywhere it could be seen that the lack of soul, simplification, homogenization, and all the devaluation of life's value had reached the point where it couldn't be added. It must be faced I'm sick and hated by all of this... I'm doomed to go to war and I have no complaints about it. I'd love to go through this all over again, it's hard work, but I've grown in the end. The danger is not too great to be impossible The level of commitment. I am sure that I will benefit from it all.”

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