For me this was a shocking exposure of how the German soldiers were treated by the red army in the pow camps.
It is a story told by a soldier who was a pow and how this had an impact on their life.
At times harrowing but an important document from an eye witness.
Well worth the 5 stars and a read by all.

Amazon Customer, Richard Domoney-Saunders

As featured on WWII Today

WWII Today

Much has been written about the battle of Stalingrad with most accounts finishing as German troops surrendered themselves to Russian forces in early 1943. Adelbert Holl’s account begins in his last desperate hours before the surrender he and his comrades huddled together in their bunker preparing for an uncertain future...

Neil Barlow, GD Aufklärung

Most accounts of the WW2 battle for Stalingrad end with columns of German prisoners of war being marched away into Soviet captivity. This is the start point for this book however, presenting the author’s account of his seven year ordeal as a prisoner in Soviet camps. Adelbert Holl fought as an infantryman in the German 6th Army at Stalingrad during the battle for that city. He was taken prisoner when the Germans surrendered and spent the next seven years in Soviet Prisons camps, being repatriated to Germany in 1950. As he moves from camp to camp across the Soviet Union, an unsparing inside view of the prison system emerges. The author describes in authentic detail the daily life in the camps, the crowding, the dirt, the cold, the ever present threat of disease, the forced marches, the indifference or cruelty of the guards and the tensions between prisoners. Their captors treated their German prisoners as slave labourers, working them exhaustively, often in appalling conditions. By means of his story of captivity, the author has provided a rare insight into the neglected, often forgotten, aftermath of the German defeat in the East. This absorbing but gritty book is like no other war memoir that this reviewer has read and is recommended as a work on an often neglected aspect of WW2.

Stuart Asquith, Author

The Battle of Stalingrad is etched into the human consciousness with so many books and documentaries on the subject.

But there usually end with the battle but for tens of thousands of German soldiers captured by the Soviets in 1942, their nightmare was beginning in earnest. We seldom hear anything of their fate.

Which is why I can say Adelbert Holl’s story of his seven years in the Soviet prison camps is so important, a valuable historical document as well as a very engrossing story, one described with meticulous detail. Used as slave labour, the prisoners were treated with the utmost cruelty.

Credit must also be given to Tony le Tissier for his superb translation. Pen & Sword have published an important book here.

Destructive Music

This book is an utterly compelling account of the fortunes of war for the loser. It grips from the first page and must be read with the care and concentration it deserves. The danger was ever that the account of POW slavery in Russia over seven years of captivity could read as a long list of depravations. However the account is written with great insight into the human condition under incredible stresses so that friends become enemies and the most base behaviour becomes normal. That Adelbert Holl had the character and strength to rise above the conditions of hunger, fatigue and disappointment with those he once considered kamaraden is the real story. Recommended.

Michael McCarthy. Battlefield Guide

Michael McCarthy