Sajer himself struck back against implications of fraud or fiction by claiming that "The Forgotten Soldier" was intended as a personal narrative, based on his best personal recollections of an intensely chaotic period in German military history, and not an attempt at a serious historical study of World War II: "You ask me questions of chronology, situations, dates, and unimportant details. Historians and archivists have harassed me for a long time with their rude questions. All of this is unimportant. Other authors and high-ranking officers could respond to your questions better than I. I never had the intention to write a historical reference book; rather, I wrote about my innermost emotional experiences as they relate to the events that happened to me in the context of the Second World War." Sajer further stressed the non-technical and anecdotal nature of his book in a 1997 letter to US Army historian Douglas Nash: "Apart from the emotions I brought out, I confess my numerous mistakes. That is why I would like that this book may not be used under circumstances as a strategic or chronological reference."