The case of Sergeant Grischa

Blurb

The Case of Sergeant Grischa is a war novel by the German writer Arnold Zweig. Its original German title is Der Streit um den Sergeanten Grischa. It is part of Zweig's hexalogy Der große Krieg der weißen Männer. It was part of the so-called "war book boom" of the late 1920s, during which many veterans of the First World War turned their memories and experiences into semi-autobiographical novels. The first English edition was published in 1928.
The book is a satire, focusing on the way in which innocent men are sacrificed in war, one irony being that the authorities spend more time and energy on the niceties of Grischa's case than they do on trying to save their own soldiers from their fate. The first film based on the novel was created in 1930 in the USA, a second one was made in Germany in 1968. The East German television aired a mini-series based on the novel at 1970.