• Adventures in My Youth

  • A German Soldier on the Eastern Front 1941-45
  • By: Armin Scheiderbauer
  • Narrated by: James A. Gillies
  • Length: 11 hrs and 27 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (752 ratings)

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Adventures in My Youth  By  cover art

Adventures in My Youth

By: Armin Scheiderbauer
Narrated by: James A. Gillies
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Publisher's summary

The author could be described as a veteran in every sense of the word, even though he was only age 21 when the war ended. Armin Scheiderbauer served as an infantry officer with the 252nd Infantry Division, German army, and saw four years of bitter combat on the Eastern Front, being wounded six times.

This is an outstanding personal memoir, written with great thoughtfulness and honesty. Scheiderbauer joined his unit during the winter of 1941-42 and, during the following years, saw fierce combat in many of the largest battles on the Eastern Front. His experiences of the 1943-45 period are particularly noteworthy, including his recollections of the massive Soviet offensives of summer 1944 and January 1945. Participating in the bitter battles in East Prussia, he was captured by the Soviets and not released until 1947.

Adventures in My Youth is a unique memoir - the author originally wrote it only for his daughter. It has never been published in any language until now.

©2003 Helion and Company (P)2017 Tantor

What listeners say about Adventures in My Youth

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  • Overall
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    5 out of 5 stars

Heartfelt, vivid and sober story

An absolute pleasure, quite eloquently written and performed. Other biographies can learn much from this one.

Compelling story of a pious youth brought up by war. Starkly vivid view of the life in and around the frontline, from the perspective of a junior infantry officer. Subject of crimes was directly dwelled upon at great length, perhaps by the nature of very active frontline career. My impression is that the author was honest throughout, especially considering the fact that this manuscript was not intended to be published.

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17 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Fantastic

Best ww2 autobiography I’ve listened to. And I’ve read/listened to a lot! Very recommended.

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13 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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An excellent accout of a young man's experience

A well written story with expertly done narration. There are some disturbing accounts towards the later part of the story.

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7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Different than other war time books ...

After reading a few WWII books, I can sincerely say that this is not a book on blood and gore. This story is more about the author’s overall war time experience from training to melee, injury to recuperation, and correspondence to loved ones back home. In that regard, the story can get quite tedious and repetitive at times. Yet, you still get to experience life in the Wehrmacht and its trials and tribulations through the war years.

It is remarkable that a young 17year old could live through a harrowing experience such as the brutal Eastern Front and yet survive to tell the story years later. Many friends mentioned within the book, including his brother, sadly do not make it to the end of the war. As with all German WWII books I have read, the horrors of the Nazi regime remain absent throughout the pages. Apart from the author’s father who falls foul of the religious edicts of the regime, there is very little else on the Nazi philosophy.

Still, I enjoyed the book. It is different than other WWII books I have read and still yields enormous information. Recommended for the history buff.

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7 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Not what I expected

Base this review on your own expectations. I was hoping for a German perspective that along with the story, had references of how the author felt during is time in the war. What were they told about how the war was going. Why were they motivated to fight? What was the propaganda? What were the thoughts after the war? How did others feel about ‘losing’ the war.
The is more of a daily diary with little detail about battles he fought, objectives of the battles, the things he witnessed etc.

My context is “D-Day - Through German Eyes” which is a series of interviews conducted in 1955 and gave a lot of perspective on how they felt when fighting the allies and how they felt in 1955 ten years after the war.

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5 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Story of an amnesic nazi soldier

It is always shocking to hear these German WWII soldiers, involved in the East of Europe where tens of million of people were murdered, mostly unarmed civilians, telling you their own story without mentioning any shameful or embarrassing memories. Not even a word about the extermination camps that these German soldiers were absolutely aware of. It is easy to say you did not know. Even in Nuremberg the big shots said they did not know and were not guilty. The most unbelievable part is that after being taken as a prisoner by the Soviet army, he complains about the quality of the food. It is a bit like someone came to your place raped and killed your children in front of you and then complains about how brutal the police was when they arrested him, and later complains about the food quality in jail.
However it is better than nothing to read this book, but it shows how the censure or self-censure was in post-war Germany, letting you wander about how many nazis were still running the place.

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5 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

World war 2 from a different view

It was really interesting to hear and learn from a different perspective. I was so used to reading books about the Holocaust that I never really stopped to think what it was like from the German soldier’s point of view. It was overall a great story - a little slow in some parts - but very good. I would recommend this to anybody who is interested in WW2.

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4 people found this helpful

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    2 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Not many insights

This is a rather dry diary of a soldiers experience. No insights or emotions are presented, and perhaps the only one given is the complete lack of thought put into agreeing to go to the killing fields, and how few are willing to share the real horrors of human nature in their memoirs, actions one might regret, or feelings of which the writer would be ashamed.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Speed Reader

This is a great book. Howver, the narrator talked so fast that sentences ran together and I had difficulty keeping up and understanding the storyline. It was very diffiicult to follow without serious concentration.

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3 people found this helpful

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    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Is it over yet?

So bad I kept checking to see how many hours were left in the book. Let’s just say that I did not care to have read to me the contents of every officer’s manual word for word. You can get the same results from someone reading the telephone book to you. Disappointed is putting mildly. Returned the book.

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3 people found this helpful