A very well written book by a professor of history on his recollections of World War II's final months.
This book is interesting since does not fall into pure history, memoir, nor fiction as a literary category. It transcends several genres much like several of the more renowned Vietnam war works do. It is a hybrid which he calls "feigned history."
Manuel did not see front line combat duty so his reflections are from a rear echelon intelligence officer who has time to mock the tragic deaths of others and philosophize on the self serving rationalizations of the Germans. His summations are still fairly accurate although one does need to know a little about WWII history to appreciate this short work (135 pp.). This book was published in 2000 but will probably be forgotten which is too bad since it's quite good. The author is a Boston Jew and his account weaves in his own feelings about the holocaust. Manuel has a bias against Christians. He writes thus about a German Catholic officer which may be fabulous since Catholic clergy were often sent to concentration camps late in the war: "I really could not endure it any longer. My conscience plagued me day and night. I sought refuge in a confessional box and asked the chaplain about my responsibility. 'O father, shall I continue to send these boys to their death when I know that it is futile? I do not believe anymore'. And the priest refined my duty. 'My son, doesn't you remember the rules? Just obey. You are not responsible. It is not for you to determine. It is for you to obey and in turn be obeyed and so turn the wheels of obedience that there may be order and light and darkness and a world. Responsibility rests with your superior and his superiors and so on through channels until the highest. Go, my child, with an ashy heart and fire your weapon in clear conscience, for in the eyes of the judge you are blameless'. And so it was. I had my honor, my conscience, my obedience, and my salvation. Now my duty is done."
This may have happened as the German officer stated but not likely. As the war came to a close everyone came to see it as every man for himself. If the futility of men as cannon fodder was an issue then the war was by then lost. If the pangs of guilt were afflicting this officer's conscience then the winnable war was a thing of the past. In any case, this seems to be included as it showed the purported moral superiority of the Nazis as coming from a religiosity close to something attributed to pseudo Catholicism. But in reality, Hitler had no affinity with the Roman church since it never endorsed the idea of a Fuhrer over and above the Pope.
A book jotting down all the rumors that swirled around the German staff officers once they saw the Americans would easily destroy the German Axis forces. ( )