The Nazis didn’t just force Erich Maria Remarque to flee and ban his book.
They killed his youngest sister in retaliation, going as far as to tell her “Your brother is beyond our reach, but you will not escape us” (paraphrased.)
When he spoke about the horrors of war, when she spoke in compassion and love for people, what were they awarded with?
Erich was forced to leave with his life in threat, a man who laid down his own life thinking it was for his country. Elfriede was beheaded, brutally, taken from her life and her family and made an example.
The people who tell you stories of war in glory have long been disdained by soldiers. Wilfred Owen, another soldier in WWI (though British), calls out Jessie Pope (an infamous propagandist for the British government) for her role in sending young men to die in Dulce et Decorum Est.
He died just a week before the war ended.
We have records of Sumerian soldiers who had seen combat fighting ghosts in their sleep. This is not glory. This is not honour. This is sacrificing the young for the whims of old, uncompassionate, unfeeling and uncaring men. Bitter, making deposits in blood to cash out the war.
When they tell you stories of war in glory, remember that the heroes they speak of made their victories upon mountains of their dead.
Never trust anyone who tries to sell you war.
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