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

Author: Erwin Bartmann, Derik Hammond, Derik Hammond

Narrator: James Anderson Foster

Unabridged: 8 hr 49 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 04/11/2017

Synopsis

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.

About Erwin Bartmann

Erwin Bartmann was born on 12 December 1923 in Schlochau, a town close to the then Polish border. Today the town, now called Czluchow, lies within Poland. Erwin was the youngest of four brothers two of whom died in infancy during a period of hyperinflation that brought great financial hardship to his family. In the hope of finding a better life, they moved to the Friedrichshain district of Berlin in 1927. In 1941, Erwin enlisted voluntarily in the 1st Waffen SS Division Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler and fought on the Eastern Front until seriously wounded during the failed German assault on Prokhorovka. After a period of recuperation, he served as a machine-gun instructor stationed in Alt Hartmansdorf, a village to the east of Berlin, and saw action once more when the Russians crossed the River Oder in April 1945. Erwin eventually fell into captivity several days after hostilities ended in May 1945 and spent time as a POW first in England, then in Scotland, until he was discharged from the Waffen SS in late December 1948. Unable to return in safety to his home in the Soviet controlled sector of Berlin, Erwin decided to remain in Edinburgh and took up a position as a baker, the trade he had learned after leaving school. He became a British citizen on 5 November 1955 and later married his Scottish sweetheart with whom he raised a son. Erwin died on 14 September 2012, three months before his eighty-ninth birthday.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Brett on September 29, 2021

I thought this was a decent first-hand account during WW2. This was an autobiography about an SS volunteer from his childhood, adolescence, and volunteering into the 1st SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte "SS Adolf Hitler". Erwin gave a lot of sentimental details about his start, his surrounding in ea......more

Goodreads review by Al on October 30, 2013

Not overly dependant on accounts of combat, I found this an honest and interesting story of a man's reflections on his service in the Leibstandarte. Reinforced by a lack of apologist and anti-nazi rhetoric, it maintains a style that made it an easy and enjoyable read.An absolute credit to Erwin Bart......more

Goodreads review by Fatih on April 13, 2018

"Birkaç metre ötede ise bir kadın ile üç genç kızın (Alman ailesi) cesetleri yatıyordu. Hepsi çıplaktı ve hepsinin mahrem yerleri kurşun veya süngülerle parçalanmıştı. .. ....fakat bu bizim zaferimiz değildi, vadedilen zafer değildi. O, can düşmanımız Bolşeviklere aitti. Keyif içerisinde; tecavüz, iş......more

Goodreads review by Jonathan on May 04, 2021

Not as honest it purports. Perhaps it is partly the impossiblity of writing a memoir 65 plus years after the events occurred but mostly I feel that Bartmann has given us far a too breezy account of his life in the SS. It reminds me a little of the skilful narrative woven by Albert Speer in Inside th......more

Goodreads review by Paco on January 19, 2018

Beautiful book with so much insight and truth being spoken. You get a very clear view on what the world was like in the 1930s under Der Tritte Reich. Many of books and movies are very biased Jewish propaganda, and this book gets you to see things from a different perspective to the very detail and f......more

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