The Children of Cain
This post consists of an excerpt from chapter nine of All Quiet On The Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque.
Remarque was a German veteran of World War I. (He later became an American citizen.) Remarque published All Quiet On The Western Front in 1929. It sold two and half million copies in the first eighteen months. Some have describe it as the most honest account of war ever written. German soldiers would simply say of Remarque’s book, “So ist es gewsen!” (That’s the way it was!)
And if you ask me what this post has to do with Holy Week, I will simply answer, much!
Read it thoughtfully.
I have entitled this excerpt as…
The Children of Cain Have a Conversation Concerning the Legacy Bequeathed Them.
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“It’s queer, when one thinks about it,” goes on Kropp, “we’re here to protect our father land. And the French are over there to protect their fatherland. Now, who’s in the right?
“Perhaps both, “ say I, without believing it.
“Yes, well now,” pursues Albert, and I see that he means to drive me into a corner, “but our professors and pastors and newspapers say that we are the only ones that are right, and let’s hope so; — but the French professors and pastors and newspapers say that the right is on their side, what about that?”
“That I don’t know,” I say, “but whichever way it is there’s war all the same and every month more countries are coming in.” Read more