All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque Among the ruin, the mayhem, the abolition of man, the demolition of values, faith and notions of goodness and beauty, there is hope: The comrades see and take out branches from a beautiful cherry tree…- Life, life- this is what the narrator keeps saying with gusto and evidently enjoying his existence, trapped as it is in the Inferno of war…for a another version of this note and others you could venture here: - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEVa4_CsRStSBBDo4uJWT8BSWtTTn0N1E

 All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque

Among the ruin, the mayhem, the abolition of man, the demolition of values, faith and notions of goodness and beauty, there is hope: The comrades see and take out branches from a beautiful cherry tree…-               Life, life- this is what the narrator keeps saying with gusto and evidently enjoying his existence, trapped as it is in the Inferno of war…for a another version of this note and others you could venture here:
-          https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEVa4_CsRStSBBDo4uJWT8BSWtTTn0N1E

This book is a classic.
And regarding war, there is probably no better material that one could consult on the madness, the futility of armed conflict.

-          Having said that, I would also strongly recommend War! What is it good For by the extraordinary Ian Morris, which explains that counterintuitively these armed struggles have helped progress

But in All Quiet on the Western Front the battlefields of the First World War are the epitome of tragedy and destruction.
Young men are maimed, blown to pieces, even when not killed they are mentally tortured and made to suffer.
And all in the name of a stupid conflagration that had its spark in the assassination of a duke in Sarajevo.

At one point, interlocutors discuss the origin of the warfare and they speak about the insults and the national pride:

-          I do not feel insulted says one
-          You know what, the ministers and top politicians should get on to it
-          They must fight each other as long as they wish and leave us alone

These were not the words used by the combatants, but I think that was the message conveyed to the leaders of the day.
Bad as the conflict was, it got even more nonsensical, if that is possible by having millions killed without moving the front line with more than a few meters and then ending in a disaster that produced Hitler and the Second World War.
The German rulers are to blame for their maneuver to take Russia out by sending the rascal Lenin, who indeed fomented unrest that resulted in mayhem and a revolution that brought the commies into my life as well.
I hate communism with all my heart, proved here by the connection I make-and keep doing it, alas- between whatever has a remote link and the Reds.
Among the ruin, the mayhem, the abolition of man, the demolition of values, faith and notions of goodness and beauty, there is hope:

-          The comrades see and take out branches from a beautiful cherry tree
-          Life, life- this is what the narrator keeps saying with gusto and evidently enjoying his existence, trapped as it is in the Inferno of war

One other scene which has impressed me takes place in the hospital, where people are dying, and before they are gone they are taken to the “dead room” where moribund are spending the last moments on Earth.
The hero needs to urinate, but does not know how to tell the nurse about it and that stunned me…well, it is maybe a figure of speech, but it was still surprising:

-          I mean, after watching soldiers die in excruciating pain and in their thousands, this young man has kept his innocence and, if I may say so, his purity
-          In the end, another patient helps and says: “he needs to go out” – for he is also still a naïve, chaste man

Another image of a certain beauty is dealing with…defecating on the battlefield, where some use latrines, but the more experienced have some boxes which they can take away from the crowd gathered at the improvised toilets and enjoy the serenity, magnificence of the sky and the other scenery…
But then that is a rarity, the enjoyment of tranquil moments in the middle of hell, where a man runs away, after his head has been blown off, blood is spilling out of his neck, while he is still moving in inertia…


This gruesome picture will stay with me for some time.

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