num_pages: 256
description: Barnes &amp; Noble Discover Great New WritersLeo Litwak's The Medic is an authentic and candid memoir of the last days of World War II in Europe, movingly described through the eyes of a very young soldier. It includes horror stories of war, but from a most human and vulnerable a young student serving in the medical corps, patching up the wounded, sadly witnessing the dying, and futilely grasping at chance brief encounters to calm a weary soul, old before its time.His role in the 20th century's greatest drama was a small one; and his memories, precisely because they are true to scale, underscore the day-to-day struggles of soldiers who could sense victory in their grasp but needed to keep themselves alive to see it, bringing the war home to us in a powerful way. A generation comes of age, grapples with values and mortality, and only sometimes survives to tell the story.Litwak's lively and compassionate sharing of his stories brings the reader right to his side on the battlefield, on leave in Paris, and through his extraordinary journey as he encounters a recently liberated slave labor camp.Depictions of friends and comrades-in-arms are all vividly brought to life, as we are given glimpses of the last days of the Reich in a small corner of Germany. The Medic is an honest and powerful rendering of a moment that reflected both the best -- and the worst -- of what encompasses and motivates the human spirit.
language: English
title: The Medic: Life and Death in the Last Days of World War II
titlecomplete: The Medic: Life and Death in the Last Days of World War II
genres: Biography, War, Memoir, Nonfiction, American History, Autobiography, Military Fiction, History, World War II
ratings_count: 131
publisher: Thorndike Pr