Letter From German Soldier Karl - 1941

In this letter Karl, a Germon soldier, writes to his family to update them on what he has been doing during his time away from home in the German military. He explains to them that he has been marching from the capitol of Prussia all the way to the capitol of White Russia and compares this trip to a holiday stating that it has been a joyful trip in a beautiful environment. Karl also insults the Russian roads, economy, and houses stating that German roads are made of Gold in comparison and that he’d rather live in a chicken coop than a Russian house.

As this letter was written quite early on in WWII it is obvious that this soldier has not witnessed the horrors of war yet. Karl’s attitude towards the war summarizes many other young soldiers' attitude to war during this period. Many soldiers both German and not saw war as a fun experience perhaps as a side effect from the influence of propaganda. German soldiers would also have been more eager to go back to war again as Germany had been completely humiliated after the WWI and their early victories would have also influenced this mindset that we see from Karl of war being easy and fun. However, it would not take long for them to realize that this was not the case (Karl 1941).