Fur Volk and Fuhrer: The Memoir of a Veteran of the 1st SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler

Erwin Bartmann

Apr 2017 · Tantor Media Inc · Narrated by James Anderson Foster

About this audiobook

Like many Germans, Berlin schoolboy Erwin Bartmann fell under the spell of the Zeitgeist cultivated by the Nazis. Convinced he was growing up in the best country in the world, he dreamt of joining the Leibstandarte, Hitler's elite Waffen SS unit. Tall, blond, blue-eyed, and just seventeen-years-old, Erwin fulfilled his dream on Mayday 1941, when he gave up his apprenticeship at the Glaser bakery in Memeler Strasse and walked into the Lichterfelde barracks in Berlin as a raw, volunteer recruit. On arrival at the Eastern Front in late summer 1941, Erwin was assigned to a frontline communications squad attached to 4.Kompanie and soon discovered that survival was a matter of luck-or the protection of a guardian angel. Good fortune finally deserted Erwin on 11 July 1943 when shrapnel sizzled through his lung during the epic Battle of Kursk-Prokhorovka. Following a period of recovery, and promotion to Unterscharführer, Erwin took up a post as machine-gun instructor with the Ausbildung und Ersatz Bataillon. From the war on the southern sector of the Eastern Front to a bomb-shattered Berlin populated largely by old men and demoralized lonely women, this candid eyewitness account offers a unique and sometimes surprising perspective on the life of a young Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler volunteer.

Ratings and reviews

a very excellent book a very well written perspective of the other side that is so ostracized anybody who is a true historian at heart or a student of true history at some point in their history and some repeatedly unfortunately commit and do unthinkable a great book enjoy

Great book. Actually liked it better than Guy Sajers The Forgotten Soldier,.. It's more comprehensive

educate yourself by getting a firsthand account of a man who was there

About the author

In 1941, Erwin Bartmann enlisted voluntarily in the 1st Waffen SS Division Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler and fought on the Eastern Front until seriously wounded. After a period of recuperation, he served as a machine-gun instructor stationed in Alt Hartmansdorf, a village to the east of Berlin.

James Anderson Foster has narrated audiobooks for a variety of publishers, across nearly all genres-both fiction and nonfiction. In 2015, he was a finalist in three categories for the Society of Voice Arts and Sciences Voice Arts Awards (Mystery, Science Fiction, and Fantasy).