Die Armee hinter Stacheldraht

Armee hinter Stacheldraht, Die, a war book by E. E. Dwinger, published in 1929. Sub-titled Sibirisches Tagebuch it is, like many war books of the 1930s, on the borderline between novel and autobiography. It tells of the author's wartime experiences in captivity after being wounded while serving as a dragoon cadet on the eastern front in 1915. It is a story of intense and partly unnecessary physical suffering in hospital, followed by years of hardship and deprivation, first in southern Russia, then in Siberia. The Russian revolution brings hope of return, but the camp is taken over by the White Russians and repatriation is frustrated. It ends as the author resolves to escape. The book was a best-seller. It is followed by two related novels, Zwischen Weiß und Rot and Wir rufen Deutschland.