Vasily Grossman's War Reporting Collected in 'From the Front Line'

A new collection of Vasily Grossman's wartime dispatches, 'From the Front Line' (New York Review Books), translated by Robert and Elizabeth Chandler, spans from Stalingrad to Treblinka to Berlin. Grossman, born in 1905 in Berdychiv, Ukraine, was initially exempt from military service due to being overweight, asthmatic, and near-sighted. He insisted on becoming a war correspondent for the Army newspaper Red Star, edited by Major General David Ortenberg. Grossman's reporting focused on character studies rather than military strategy, but was subject to stringent censorship. The collection includes 'The Hell of Treblinka,' a 1944 report circulated at the Nuremberg trials. Grossman's work has gained totemic importance since his death, with his novels 'Stalingrad' and 'Life and Fate' being reissued. The collection highlights his insider-outsider perspective as a Jew from Ukraine, and his concept of 'senseless kindness.' The reporting remains relevant in light of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.