Great eastern front memoir:"Until the eyes shut"by Andreas Hartinger

[book lover]

Just finished reading a great eastern front memoir: "Until the eyes shut" by Andreas Hartinger.
Once you start reading you will not be able to put it down, well written ,non-political,a brutally honest and emotional touching account.
It is about a simple Austrian farm boy caught up it the world wind of the eastern front meat grinder.He fought for 2 years with the 3rd mountain division as a MG42 machine gunner.Excellent descriptions of the inner workings of a German machine gun squad.He describes the emotional bonds and comradeship that can only be formed in brutal close combat.The explicit trust in your fellow solider knowing he's got your back every time.
You also see what a human being can endure and still survive.After the war he was imprisoned in Russia until 1948.
My only criticism is that there is no hard cover version.

Available on amazon

https://www.amazon.com/Until-Eyes-Sh...hut&qid=157861 8683&sr=8-1

[Ron P]

Thanks for the post. Always looking for good memoirs.

[bigschuss]

Thanks for the review. Just bought it based on your feedback.

[tony james]

I also bought the book based on the review posted above by book lover and just finished it and agree with his review. Good reading.

[WalterB]

Thanks guys, I just purchased a paperback copy.

[bigschuss]

Coming back to this thread as I just finished Until the Eyes Shut and I wanted to post a review.

First, this book is not a first person account, though it is written in first person. It was written by the grandson of a landser named Hans Kahr. That grandson, Dr. Andreas Hartinger, is a professor in Germany and in the introduction he states that the book is a "literary attempt to analyze the wartime experiences" of his grandfather.

With a copyright date of 2019, I can only assume this is a fairly new work and that this "analysis" took place relatively recently. The books does not mention if Kahr is still alive or how his experiences were passed on to Dr. Hartinger, other than hearing some stories when he was a boy.


It does not read at all like the wartime memoirs of a 90 year old vet, but instead like a well written and well researched book by a historical researcher who takes the role of the first person.

Great detail. Great research. A page turner for sure. He nailed it. But the whole time I had that nagging question in the back of my mind of how much of what I was reading was Hartinger's and how much was Kahr's. IMHO, the work is mostly the author's creation built around the experiences of his grandfather. There is way too much detail for any vet to have remembered 75 years after the war. And the author occasionally lets information slip into the book that a Landser would simply not have known at the time.

It's a great read for sure. But more of a work of historical fiction on the same shelf as Sajer's The Forgotten Soldier than a true war memoir.