Shadows of Slaughterhouse Five: Recollections and Reflections of the Ex-POWs of Schlachthof Fnf, Dresden, Germany

Ervin E Jr Szpek,Frank J Idzikowski

ISBN 10: 1440105677 / ISBN 13: 9781440105678

Published by iUniverse December 2008, 2008

About this Item

used trade paperback edition. lightly shelfworn, corners perhaps slightly bumped. pages and binding are clean, straight and tight. there are no marks to the text or other serious flaws.

Seller Inventory # 1532718

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Shadows of Slaughterhouse Five: Recollections and Reflections of the Ex-POWs of Schlachthof Fnf, Dresden, Germany
• Publisher: iUniverse December 2008
• Publication Date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1440105677
• ISBN 13: 9781440105678
• Binding: Trade Paperback
• Condition: VG
• Seller catalogs:
  • HIST WW II

About this title

Synopsis

Shadows of Slaughterhouse Five chronicles the story of 150 American POWs captured in the Battle of the Bulge and eventually caught up in one of the greatest tragedies of World War II - the firebombing of Dresden. This collection includes oral histories, previously unpublished memoirs, and letters from home and from the front that together tell their compelling story in their own words. From simple hometown beginnings through the awakenings of military life in basic training, from assignment on the supposed "quiet zone" in Belgium to the unexpected Battle of the Bulge, from forced march and entrainment to eventual assignment on work details in Dresden - the "Florence of the Elbe," to the inferno of Dresden on February 13-14, 1945, and the gruesome work details to follow, the individual and collective recollections and reflections of these 150 young men, the men housed in the famed Slaughterhouse Five, reveal a very personal side of war and the struggle for survival. Yet repatriation did not bring closure to this chapter of their young lives for like shadows their memories would forever be part of them.Today more than sixty years after the firebombing of Dresden, the statue of a steer wishing health and happiness to the citizens of Dresden still stands at the entrance to the public slaughterhouse, a silent witness to the maelstrom that descended upon Dresden and this group of 150 American POWs housed within. Now after more than 60 years of silence for most of these men, Kurt Vonnegut's fellow POWs tell their story of Slaughterhouse Five, in their words as they saw it - dog face young soldiers assured that the war was soon to be over!

About the Author

Ervin E. Szpek, Jr., Chair of Survivors of Stalag IV-B Chicago Chapter, Frank J. Idzikowski, Senior Adjudicator, Veteran's Administration (Seattle) and Military Historian, Heidi M. Szpek, Ph. D., Associate Professor, Central Washington University, are the children and son-in-law of Former Slaughterhouse POW Ervin Szpek, Sr.