All Quiet on the Western Front

Erich Remarque, author of the famous novel All Quiet on the Western Front, sheds light on his view of World War I and the horrors that came with it in the following excerpts from the novel. The narrator is a young German soldier in warfare:

“Every man is aware of the heavy shells tearing down the parapet…demolishing the upper layers of concrete”

(In a trench) “Through the entrance rushes in a swarm of fleeting rats that try to storm the walls. Torches light up the confusion. Everyone yells and curses and slaughters.”

“The first recruit actually seems to have gone insane. He butts his head against the wall like a goat.”

“Then his body drops clean away and only his hands with the stumps of his arms, shot off, now hang in the wire.”

“We have become wild beasts. We do not fight, we defend ourselves against annihilation.”

“He runs a few steps more while the blood spouts from his neck like a fountain.”

“We are insensible, dead men, who through some trick, some dreadful magic, are still able to run and to kill”

“We are completely played out that in spite of our great hunger we do not think of the provisions. Then gradually we become something like men again.”