Und ich war da

“Und ich war da” or “And I was there” is a novel by Martin Beyer, available only in German. Comment se fait-il que l’un résiste alors que l’autre devient un suiveur? C’est la question que l’auteur se pose tout au long de ce livre. Une interrogation qui ne peut laisser personne indifférent.

In the course of his life, August Unterseher had many opportunities to oppose the Nazi regime. But he did not take any of them. This is the story of a man who sinks into the darkness of his time: first in the Hitler Youth, then as a soldier in the Wehrmacht during the Russian campaign. He was simply there, neither for nor against what was happening before his eyes. Raised from a young age on his father’s farm to work tirelessly and without thinking, he developed the sad habit of doing whatever he was told.

Later, back home as a war cripple, he enlists as an aid to the executioner of the Nazi henchmen. Every day since, he has asked himself: “How did I get here?

A man without qualities who, at the end of his life following too many nightmares, tries to understand why everything happened the way it did, why he survived where others fell, why he became an executioner where others died for their ideals.