Breakout At Stalingrad

Description: Captured by the Soviets after the Battle of Stalingrad in 1943, Heinrich Gerlach wrote a novel based on his experiences. In 1949, however, the KGB confiscated his 600-page manuscript. Gerlach returned to Germany in 1950, and, under hypnosis, recalled parts of his narrative. In 1957, it was published under the title The Forsaken Army and became a bestseller. In 2011 Carsten Gansel, an academic, made a sensational find in a Moscow archive: the original manuscript of Gerlach's novel. Breakthrough at Stalingrad differs sharply in tone from the novel published in 1957. Here, a coruscating emphasis on German war crimes and the author's feelings of guilt form a descant to his narrative of the battle and reflections on the pointlessness of war. Breakthrough at Stalingrad includes an appendix by Carsten Gansel, telling the story behind both the 1957 edition of the novel and discovery of its original version. After 70 years, a classic of 20th-century war literature can be enjoyed in its original version.

Review: 'Gerlach records the lives and feelings of soldiers of all ranks' Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. 'Anyone who wants an idea of what Stalingrad was really like should read this book' Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. 'This excellent book will shine a light on the horrors of the Eastern Front for a new generation of English-speaking readers ... An absolute gem of a book' Soldier magazine. 'All this material is so deftly handled and well constructed that it is astonishing that Breakout at Stalingrad is Gerlach's first attempt at fiction' The Sunday Times. 'Few novels contain such an extraordinary story behind their publication as this one ... A remarkable find' The Times. 'Gerlach was among the wounded [at Stalingrad] and his truly magnificent novel [...] is a devastating account of the appalling privations suffered by the German army, left to their fate by the German army, left to their fate by the foundering, over-stretched Fatherland. A masterpiece' Mail on Sunday. 'One of the greatest novels of the Second World War' The Times.





Author Biography: Heinrich Gerlach served as a lieutenant in the 14th Panzer Division at Stalingrad. Wounded and then captured by the Soviets, he wrote Breakthough at Stalingrad while being held in captivity in the USSR. He died in 1991.