I´ve had the second world war in multiple classes and over several years, I have read books like Anne Frank´s diary and watched movies like Schindler´s List, and have heard numerous stories about the cruelty and barbarism of the German Nazis. But the first World War?
Even though I had it in school before and knew about the incomparable suffering and pain of the soldiers, I never fully realized what “war” meant to them. I never realized how their society forbid them to show emotions, or even the slightest mental impact, about their experiences at the front.
Reading “all quiet on the western front” and the diaries from real life French and German soldiers, taught me more than any school lesson or museum ever could have.
Not only did I learn about their horrifying living conditions and diseases that I never would have imagined even existed, like trench foot, but I also gained a deep understanding of how the returning soldiers were mentally, often as well as physically, completely broken and simply overlooked by their society. I now understand what torture the survivors went through, even though I know that it is beyond my Imagination to fully comprehend the conditions and abuse of the war, and that I never will.
To read about the war from the soldier’s point of view was an entirely new perspective, one that allowed me to learn about aspects of the war I had never really heard of before, like the comradeship between the soldiers and how that was often their only string to keep them, at least a little bit, from losing their mind. It also taught me what war does to humans: How after a while, most realize that in order to survive it, they have to “shut off” their humanity and let the most animalistic side of them take control.
Looking at the war from a modern point of view, I am simply horrified at how anyone could ever survive that, or even have the will to survive it. It is a mystery to me how the leaders and generals of the war were able to be as cold-blooded as they were and send thousand, one after another, to their certain death.
I know that I will take this and much more with me from the world war 1 readings, and that I now have an improved insight and knowledge of the war.