Monday, October 16, 2006

War is hell: five books

James J. Cramer, host of CNBC's "Mad Money" and the markets commentator of TheStreet.com, recently named five books under the theme "War is Hell."

The only one still in print:
But Not for the Fuehrer by Helmut Jung, with Mike Nesbitt

Helmet Jung's self-published memoir is the most shocking of the quintet of books covered here. A private in the Seventh Panzer division caught up in the retreat from Russia, Jung was no Nazi. These soldiers hate Hitler. But fighting for survival apparently can include the thirst to commit atrocities. Jung provides reasons for this hunger: Captured German soldiers have been viciously tortured by Russian women soldiers. The Germans take a terrible vengeance, but cruel as it was, Jung says, he and his comrades all "felt better" afterward. As brutally honest a picture of war on the Eastern Front as we have had.
Click here to see the other four titles.

--Marshal Zeringue