At Leningrad's Gates

Another Great German Soldier's Memoir

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I think so. The story is very good and moves fairly quickly, but the narration is hard to listen to.

What was one of the most memorable moments of At Leningrad's Gates?

Lubbeck's recollection of life after the War.

What do you think the narrator could have done better?

Learn how to speak German. It drives me crazy when narrators read books about German soldiers and can't speak German. His constant mispronunciation of "Wehrmacht" (vermaaaaaaaaacht) and "Leutnant" (looot-nant) drove me absolutely crazy.

Any additional comments?

Overall, I think this is a great story. However, I was a bit uneasy when Lubbeck kept claiming he and his family weren't Nazis and had absolutely no knowledge of Nazi atrocities or even of any concentration camps. I can understand wanting to clear your name if you are truly innocent, but the repetition of these claims just didn't sit right with me...I don't know...I guess it just didn't sound sincere. Maybe that was the writing, maybe it was the narration. I wasn't there, so I can't say for certain, but I have ready many, many accounts of German soldiers and civilians. I find it hard to believe that a veteran of the entirety of the war on the East Front never once witnessed a war crime, when Lubbeck himself claims that they were fighting the barbaric (insinuating less than human) Red Army. I find it hard to believe that, living in Eastern Germany, he never even heard of a concentration camp until after the war. I've read other accounts of German families in the mid to late 1930s joking with their children that if they didn't behave, they'd be sent to a concentration camp, showing that they knew of the existence of these camps. Maybe they didn't know the extent of the horror that was going on inside, but they knew of the existence of the camps. Lubbeck knew of none.

Other than that, I think the story is well told. It went a bit quick for me, and didn't go into great detail, but it was interesting to hear the story of an artillery soldier that rose through the ranks, having served through the entirety of the War.

6 of 8 people found this review helpful

Interesting story

Worth a listen for insights into a regular German soldier in WWII on the Eastern front. Limited in scope so it is not cluttered with too much historical context. The narrator is a bit tiresome. Not every sentence needs to end on a dramatic inflection!

I do recommend this book.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Excellent Read, it Also Moves Fast

This book takes you from his recruitment through the years after the war in North America. He sites an inspiration from the diary of a Napoleonic foot soldier but Jacob Walter a short book I also recommend on audible. I have read many books on WW II, but this is detailed as it is from his own diary. What I found very compelling was his life after the war in East Germany. How the communists worked and how they persecuted his family, over and over. Lubbecks family were not Nazi's, which caused them problems during the war and they were certainly not communists. To read how families survived through all this Nazi persecution and Communist government theft, and insanity makes one appreciate life in the west today even though it is not perfect. It is a very brisk read, and I had to stop it several times to hear chapters again.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Kind of interesting

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

Yes, if they were interested in hearing about the German view of a typical soldier in WWII.

Would you be willing to try another book from William Lubbeck? Why or why not?

Probably not. He doesn't provide enough details for me.

Which character – as performed by Jonathan Cowley – was your favorite?

There was only one character--the guy who wrote the book.

Was At Leningrad's Gates worth the listening time?

Sort of. I listened till the end.

Any additional comments?

Not enough details. Too many "high level" observations. Like just saying "We fought Russia" instead of telling why and how.

3 of 4 people found this review helpful

Not much of a war story, but…

A terrific story about a man went to war. The understated courage, discipline and devotion of a true soldier, family man and citizen... both of the United States and his Fatherland Germany… This is well worth the listen. The epilogue alone with the quotation from Theodore Roosevelt should be required reading of all new citizens and immigrants. I did have a problem with the narrator. I’m certainly no expert on the German language, but having lived in Germany for 2 1/2 years, I found his pronunciation of certain German words - particularly military terms - painfully and ludicrously British.

sugarcoated nazi story

I Absolutely disliked way the author sugarcoated nazi atrocities under the words everybody else did it but me, I didn't knew anything, I haven't seen nothing, for God sake! He was stationed in Leningrad! The most bloody siege in the human history! Please don't come to me telling stories that he wasn't aware of the atrocities that his comrades committed out there!

Pompous

While there are interesting parts, such as hearing from a German forward observer, and one who fought in the Battle of France, it gets old hearing him kiss the victors behinds the whole book. Every other word he wants to convince the reader how tolerant and progressive he is. His hindsight is 20/20 but he managed to convince himself his forethought was 20/20. He pays lip service to the acceptable common beliefs, then his actions tell a different story. He's always sure to let us know that at all times, he is the most upstanding and moral being to exist. He snubbed and brow beat Hitler's supporters as being "uneducated" idiots, despite being an average student from a farm in a village that sounds like Podunk. you He wears he and his family always hated the Nazis and he is the smartest person to ever exist. Then, surprise, he VOLUNTEERED to join the Wehrmacht. He swears he and his family were so politically correct, they never once fell for the propaganda or the nationalism. His actions contradict his excuses. You can really tell if Hitler would have won, he would be singing a very different tune. He's mostly concerned with what the general public deems acceptable. He was a Nazi then and now he's a liberal... Big surprise there.
In the book, he acknowledges that the Western allies were actually waging war against German civilians. at the end of the book, he says, in an attempt to please everyone, that the United States was fighting the Nazis, not the German people. That was probably the most ironic contradiction in the book.
Other than the Stockholm syndrome and the holier than thou attitude it had some nice tidbits, like how Krupp gave dud gas canister artillery shells to France for WWI reparations.

Any conscience after all these years?

Even though the testimony of these nazi soldiers is unique and precious, i am always shocked by how little understanding of their story came out years after. These guys mistreated Soviet civilians and soldiers as he admits himself, and you see him fighting until the bitter end, killing more people. I suppose he wanted to be an officer, what’s wrong with that? even for adolf Hitler... And the death camps of course he never heard of until after the war. He did not mention it but I wonder if he had German 14 or 16 years old boys to command in the last year or months of that WWII, and if that part at least bothered him, but he is just one more of these obedient gentleman who tells his own story that will not be useful for the future of humanity.

1 of 2 people found this review helpful

an ok book!

Would you try another book from William Lubbeck and/or Jonathan Cowley?

no

What could William Lubbeck have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

nothing

Did the narration match the pace of the story?

yes

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

absolutely not!

Any additional comments?

It always amazes me that all, absolutely all, books by german soldiers go out of their way to assure the audience that they, the writer, absolutely had no idea about the genocide being carried out by their government, and their comrades in the name of nazi ideology. How is it possible for a whole society not to see the horrors forced upon the world around them?!!

2 of 4 people found this review helpful

Illuminating

having mostly read about the allies it is a wonderful way to begin Research to the German side