Scherer, Wolfgang (Hrsg.) Enthüllung

Aufzeichnungen und Fotos des Nachrichtensoldaten Georg Zimmermann aus dem Kriege gegen Frankreich 1940 und die Sowjetunion 1941/45

Experience the war from the perspective of a soldier who not only lived through it, but believed in its righteousness and measured himself against it. Georg Zimmermann, born in England in 1909 and socialised politically and militarily in the SA after his family moved to Cologne, went to war in 1939 at the age of almost 30 as a committed soldier. His notes from 1939 to 1945 provide unfiltered, contemporary insights into the perceived reality of war. Zimmermann describes his journey through the French campaign in 1940 and the years of fighting on the Eastern Front from 1941 to 1944 initially carried by enthusiasm, increasingly marked by hardship, losses and retreats. As a highly decorated lieutenant in an intelligence unit, he was interned by the British in Styria in May 1945. The honest, unedited notes combine personal experiences with the fate of comrades and civilians, giving this report its special historical significance. Interstitial texts provide context, while numerous photographs and maps trace the author's journey and facilitate orientation.