As the 100th anniversary of the Great War fades into memory, these letters from it's birth are a reminder of what terrors the war contained for the young German soldiers who went to give their lives for the fatherland in the conviction of the rightness of their cause.
Painful, sad and often violently descriptive, they are the voices of the past returned after 100 years to warn the present that has forgotten their pleas and sacrifices.
The absolute horrors, the peace, the personal joys and hopes are all made more poignant when we know that it is unlikely that any of the men fighting in the first months of the war survived to see peace return to the country they loved.
"One man screams out, lethally wounded; over there another man sinks silently and lifelessly to the ground. When will it be your turn?"
"Two bullets. He was lucky because it was a quick death. His young wife, who had often accompanied us in Dresden, will she ever find out where he now lies?."
These letters should be read by new generations of young people and those who have forgotten what man will do to man when pride and anger are thrown around lightly. They may help us all to remember that the poisoned shoots of hatred and envy and the siren voices of prejudice can send loved ones to be slaughtered.
