"Comrade, I did not want to kill you...But you were only an idea to me before, an abstarction that lived in my mind and called forth its appropiate response...I thought of your hand-grenades, of your bayonet, of your rifle; now I see your wife and your face and our fellowship. Forgive me, comrade. We always see it too late. Why do they never tell us that you are poor devils like us, that your mothers are just as anxious as ours, and that we have the same fear of death, and the same dying and the same agony--Forgive me, comrade; how could you be my enemy?"
P.S. Thanks to whoever answers.
2007-01-07 11:11:42 · 5 answers · asked by Donna H. 1 in Education & Reference ➔ Quotations
Wow. It tells of the absolute human remorse a person feels when having killed in a war.
2007-01-07 11:22:10 · answer #1 · answered by hatchland 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I remember reading "All Is Quiet on the Western Front" in high school- isn't that what this quote is from? The point is that countries line up their young men to fight "the enemy", but all the soldiers are alike, so how can they be enemies? They're human, they are so much alike, what makes them enemies? The young man in the story understood that war is futile. If war and violence solved problems, wouldn't there be peace on the earth today?
Jesus said that the second greatest command is to love your neighbor as yourself. If you're a religious person, think about whether or not you are being taught true love of neighbor. Did Jesus say that the love for neighbor ended where the national boundary lines begin? War is a tragedy and that is really the message the author was conveying.
God promises a world without war:
http://www.watchtower.org/library/w/2004/1/1/article_02.htm
2007-01-07 17:05:26 · answer #2 · answered by AMEWzing 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
In war a soldier is fighting for his cause, his country, his family.
What he is told, is that he is fighting an unbeatable foe, a disease that can take away from him all that is sacred and loved.
Only after putting a bullet in the heart of his "enemy" can he get close enough to realize he has killed another MAN. Not a disease and surely not an unbeatable foe. A man that was fighting for THE EXACT SAME reasons as he.
2007-01-07 13:31:45 · answer #3 · answered by Koskimo 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
as a manner to handle the horror of fairly some human beings dying, the warriors "turn off" their thoughts. there is room for emotions in peacetime, besides the shown fact that it warfare it is basically a remember of surviving. it incredibly is decreased to the very complication-unfastened -- dying sucks, yet they are actually not lifeless and so because it incredibly is nice.
2016-10-30 07:04:20 · answer #4 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It is easier to kill enemies in battle if we dehumanize them, and do not think of them as fellow human beings. If they are just a "bad thing" that is trying to kill you, it is not so hard to overcome the instinct, and conscience, not to kill others.
2007-01-07 11:32:45 · answer #5 · answered by geo1944 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋