Blood Red Snow

The Memoirs of a German Soldier on the Eastern Front

By: Günter K. Koschorrek

Narrated by: Nigel Patterson

Gunter Koschorrek wrote his illicit diary on any scraps of paper he could lay his hands on. As keeping a diary was strictly forbidden, he sewed the pages into the lining of his thick winter coat and deposited them with his mother on infrequent trips home on leave. The diary went missing, and it was when he was reunited with his daughter in America some 40 years later that it came to light and became Blood Red Snow.

The author was a keen recruit at initial training, and his excitement at the first encounter with the enemy in the Russian Steppe is obvious. The horror and confusion of fighting in the streets of Stalingrad are brought to life by his descriptions of the others in his unit; their differing manners and techniques for dealing with the squalor and death. He is also posted to Romania and Italy, assignments he remembers fondly compared to his time on the Eastern Front.

This book stands as a memorial to the huge numbers on both sides who did not survive and is, over five decades later, the fulfillment of a responsibility he feels to honor the memory of those who perished. Gunter K. Koschorrek was a machine-gunner on the Russian front in WWII. He lives in Germany, having retired from his job as managing director of a sales company.

©2002 Greenhill Books (P)2018 Tantor

Humanizing the average German soldier

In today's interpretation of history Germany is a nation that must bare the guilt of some murderous mad man who assumed power through means of sedition and went on to try and take over the world. We're sort of encouraged to look at the German citizenry of the time to be in favor of genocide, and imperialism, This book puts a plethora of human faces on the people we've been told were "the bad guys". It shows they were normal people who were turned into the cudgel of the actual bad guys. The author does describe meeting people who bore our archetypal image of a German soldier who is barbarous, but he describes meeting a lot of people who were just normal people dragged into a terrible war. He wasn't in the SS so maybe that's why he wasn't engaging in barbarous acts, but I did feel compassion for the author and his comrades on the front lines.

Exceptional

The very best of that kind of story.

It seems that I can never get enough understanding of why Germany started that war.

This writing gets into the head of a common soldier. Constantly fighting for the Fatherland without missing a beat.

Fighting against odds and conditions in Russia.
Just a common man with simple logic and not a die heart.

Never a dull moment and a very easy read.

I would rate it as the best. Yet I have read hundreds of these. Yet, there is so little written about Russian campaigne. Somehow, in this book you can feel how proud the Gremans can feel and just kept fighting on and on

I sort of resent, all these Germans saying we Americans were pussies.
My Uncle, flew in gliders, felt the German were well trained but brainless and very dependent on their officers. He felt the American GI's could think for themselves.

I like, Simon's viewpoint. I personally never liked the military and ended up being a medic. Saying, Sir, stuck in my throat. I guess that's why I so enjoyed giving General Mark Clark an enema.

Spacestation ARK

Russian Front

Its good to hear the other side of the story. Good narration, (few mispronounced words), but overall great story, interesting

powerful Book

great true story... the day to day diary and personal experience of a front line soldier.

Great

A different prospective on the war on the Eastern Front during WW2. showed the hardship of a soldier no matter his affiliation.