Youth and War Diary of a German Soldier
An eyewitness account of childhood, youth and wartime experiences under National Socialism

This audiobook is narrated by an AI Voice.
An exceptionally honest and valuable eyewitness account from the perspective of an ordinary soldier and noncommissioned officer. Egon Loechle describes his time in the Reich Labor Service, the campaigns in Poland and France, and the often mundane, at times tragicomic realities of wartime life—without any glorification of heroism.

Many years later, drawing on his detailed diary, he compiled his recollections. He recounts a childhood shaped by frequent moves and changing caregivers in the Allgäu towns of Obermaiselstein, Fischen, and Altstädten, as well as in Weißenburg in Bavaria. He writes of pranks and adventures, but also of strict discipline and hardship. At the same time, his account reveals how young people under National Socialism were systematically taught obedience, a sense of duty, and military thinking.

The narrative takes the reader to Lindau, Munich, Lenggries, Unterjoch, and Bad Tölz, as well as to the battlefields of Poland and France. It tells of comradeship, wartime experiences, and events that remained with Egon Loechle throughout his life. In later years, he spoke about them in schools—as a warning and in the hope that such events might never be repeated.