Heinrich Böll's letters from World War II are unique testimonies of daily life during times of war and hardship, serving as records of the soldier and budding writer Böll. Born in 1917, Heinrich Böll served as a private in the German Wehrmacht from 1939, experiencing the entirety of World War II until the German capitulation in 1945, in various barracks and facilities in Germany and on battlefields in France, Poland, Romania, Hungary, and Russia. He was wounded multiple times. During these years, Böll wrote letters almost daily, primarily addressed to Annemarie Cech, who became his wife during this time, but also to family and friends. The letters describe the daily life of a soldier and the realities of war.