Sajer, like them was (is) a very real human being who was deeply affected by what happened and has been marked for life. Have you ever hung out at a VFW? As a kid, I hung out there a lot with my father and the stories the old vets told would raise your hair - not that they weren't true, but many of the events that took place in their younger days had acquired a certain character of their own that was still very real to them but did not correspond 100% with what actually took place. How many 17-year olds today can remember what the heck they did a week ago, much less something much further in the past? When Sajer initially drafted his manuscript in the late 1950s, the war had been over at least 10 years and many of the details of what took place in the past had been forgotten or mis-remembered.
So he was still a juvenile at the time and he admits himself that he was very immature. Also, many people tend to discount the importance of the state of maturity of Sajer at the time - he turned 17 years old in January 1943 and volunteered for the GD's Feld-Ers.Btl. Believe it or not, they are people who serve in armies who don't care a flying **** about that sort of thing.
I seriously doubt that Sajer is a fraud - I've known guys in the army who fought in Vietnam who didn't know which sleeve their overseas stripes were sewn on or whether they wore their combat patch on the left or the right.
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