The populations of the European Nations fighting WW1 were bloodthirsty themselves, nobody except the Russian people wanted the war to be resolved peacefully
For many wars, I would agree. For the World Wars, not so. Those wars were existential in nature. They were fighting for the continuing existence of their nations and ways of living. It's ridiculously easy to sit here in 2021 in peace and not realize the danger that these people fought and died for. Millions of people died to fight the nazis and stop their ideology from taking over the world. They didn't die fighting a war for someone or something they didn't care about. But war is horrible no matter how important it is to defend yourself.
@@theWebWizrd they were discussing about ww1 and ww1 wasn't a war for the reason that you posted. WW1 was just a massacre for a bunch of territory dispute between countries. WW1 is by far the worse and more nonsense war that humanity ever face.
This was taped by the BBC in 1963. Dr. Westmann died a year later in 1964. During the war he became a doctor and treated men who suffered during gas attacks. He was not trained in school to be a doctor but in the field. After the war he became a doctor in Berlin, married another doctor. After Hitler came to power in 1933 Dr. Westmann immigrated to the UK in 1934. It's refreshing to hear a man talk with remorse, regret and a sense of ethics over killing another man instead of the bragging about how tough he was. We need more men like him.
@@biancahotca3244 1893 in Berlin...which was then the Kingdom of Prussia. It's like time traveling listening to a man like this. I'm glad the BBC interviewed him.
@@RuleofFive I wonder if he felt the winds changing when Hitler came to power, like, he'd seen this sort of rodeo before and didn't want any part of it.
My great grandfather fought in WWI against the Germans at the Yzer (he was a Belgian soldier) and he always refused to speak about the war and what he had seen. When I was a young child (6 yo) I asked him if he had ever killed a man during the war. I was very, very young but I still remember how he reacted to my question... he went silent and his eyes turned very red and wet and he told me the Germans were people just like him and that he can never go back and change things. At that time I didn't understand and thought that wasn't an answer. Later on in life my grandmother told me her father never talked about it and people knew not to mention the trench war to him. The fact that I, his first great grandson and a very small innocent child, was the first one to ask him this straight question in over 6 decades had filled him with an immense feeling of pain and sadness. She told me he was overwhelmed at that moment. I never did get my answer but looking back.. I'm pretty sure I got a powerful answer. Taking other people's lives changes a man. And my grandfather (other side of the family) was 10 yo during the German occupation in WWII. He was the opposite and told me lots of stories about the war.. how German soldiers had given him chocolate one day (he had never eaten chocolate before), or how the family down the street had hidden a rescued English pilot in their basement, and how in 1944 the Canadians drove through his village with tanks and one of the Canadian soldiers had put him on the tank as they drove through the streets. He said it was the happiest day in his life at that point, how the entire village was partying. He also remembers how the locals publicly dragged a well known woman from the town through the streets by her hair.. she had slept with a German officer during the war and was almost killed by an angry mob because of it. I was a little kid in the 1980's but the war was still living on in the memories of people at that time. They had lived through it. Nowadays nobody remembers the war because everyone who was alive in the 1910's and 1940's is either dead or very old. Oh, I remember another story.. which would be unacceptable nowadays. When I was 10 yo, the early 1990's, a kid in my class had to give a presentation and he made one about WWI. He actually brought a German helmet with him to school.. with a bullet hole in it. It was something they kept in their family for decades. Apparantely his family had captured a German soldier in 1914 and they executed him on their farm. They kept his helmet as a souvernir. I don't remember how our teacher reacted to this story, but everyone in the classroom was very silent during that presentation. The kid looked like a sociopath to us. Never knew if the story was true or not, but there it was... a German helmet (with the spike on top of it) with a bullet hole in it.. (front and back, entry and exit hole) Sorry for the spam. Another story. My ex-girlfriend her grandfather was in the resistance during WWII and he was betrayed by his neighbours to the Germans, who came and arrested him. He was put against the wall with other members of the resistance and shot down. They literally shot him in his balls and left him for dead. The resistance then took him away and he recovered, fathering my ex's mother later on in life. If that bullet had been a little more to the right or the left.. my ex would have never existed. Man, when I was young people had war stories... I'm glad they got to tell them because all of these people have died by now. I can type them down on TH-cam in 2021, because they told me these things 3-4 decades ago. I'm also glad I didn't have to live through it. I don't think I would cope with it.
That’s because most of them got mown down by machine gun fire, wounded, gassed, trapped on the wire or blown to pieces before they got anywhere near close enough to actually fighting with the enemy.
@@greva2904 well no, it's actually most of them were ashamed of the war, casualties were staggering but there's still millions of soldiers who went through the war. But especially in Germany it was a mark of shame, no one wanted to talk about the old war they wanted to fight a new war.
I’ll never forget the look of sadness on my grandmother’s face when she told me the story of how my great grandpa had to beat a German with a brick he never recovered from what i heard
I(born 1961 in Hamburg/Germany) only got to know one single WW1 veteran in my life , he was the partner of my best friend's Grandma back then during the mid 1970's. Our contacts were quite few , but I remember him talking about the war to us teenage boys on one occassion. It was not much about the fighting and killing on the Eastern front , I'm sure , that it must have been hard for him to recall , but he elaborately talked about how he made it back home after the end of the war from Eastern Prussia to Hamburg , often on foot , poaching with his pistol and throwing grenades into ponds to have fish to eat on the long , long way home. A very intense video about "the war to end all wars" but which was not and sadly is never going to be . Thanks for sharing.
“War is a place where young people who do not know and do not hate each other kill each other, because of the decision of old men who know and hate each other, but do not kill each other ”. Erich Hartman
"Forward he cried (from the rear) and the front rank died And the General sat and the lines on the map moved from side to side" --lyrics to "Us and Them" from Pink Floyd's "The Dark Side of the Moon"
@@GuitarGuy057 Its very simple, we've been conducting war since our ancestors exterminated the Neanderthals and took their women to breed with. Regardless of how civilised we appear, we will always be primates that fight over women, money and status. It's always linked to one
My father was affected by this book All Quite on the western front he served in WW ll and after worked in motion pictures and and ended up starring in the TV version of All Quite he said it was a very difficult role... this was a moving account!! By the way I look at your reel you are extremely talented all the best !!!
As a Frenchman, his story breaks my heart. But it was war, no one had a choice. The respect he shows for his victim is honorable. May this man be blessed
That is just a fact of Mother's Nature (dont get weird, this is just my religion). No one has a choice in being enlisted, especially if there is Evil in the world ordering them to protect themselves, but the obscenity is the Human Nature of enjoying murder. I don't judge those who enjoy murder.....well, I mean in this capacity at least. Errrrr this is complicated. But I will choose to see them as who they really are. Part of the Problem, of living with her. Mother Nature is cruel, and idk, there was a character on TV who had a cruel mother, and that character was cruel as well. And he became depressed because he was still a good person, technically.
His name is Stefan Westmann. He was a corporal in the German 29th Infantry Division. He fought at Verdun and the Somme. This interview was taken as part of the BBC series, Great War in 1964.
Flanders - in the Artois, spring 1916 Based on a true story It was in the thicket of the Artois forest ... Deep in the woods, on blood-soaked ground, a wounded German warrior lay stretched out and his calls rang in the night. In vain ... His wake-up call did not echo ... Should he bleed to death like an animal that perished in solitude? Suddenly ... heavy steps approaching from the right. He hears them stamping into the forest floor ... And new hope sprouts from his soul. And now from the left ... And now from both sides ... Two men are approaching his pain camp, it's a German and a French. And both look at each other with suspicious eyes and threateningly hold their rifles at the ready. The German warrior asks: “What are you doing here?” “The poor man's cry for help hit me.” “It's yours Enemy! "" It is a man who suffers! "And both of them wordlessly lower their rifles. Then they braced their hands together and carefully lifted the sore warrior, as if on a stretcher German chain of guards came. “Now it's done. Here he will be loyal to him. "And the Frenchman turns into the forest. The German, however, grabs his hand, looks at him, moved into troubled eyes, and says to him with foreboding seriousness:" I don't know what fate will determine us, that inexplicable the stars rule. Perhaps I will fall, a victim of your bullet. Perhaps mine will stretch you into the sand - Because the approximation of battles is indiscriminate, But whatever it may be and whatever may come: We only live the consecrated hours, As there is in man that man has found ... And now goodbye! And God guide you! Written by Adolf Hitler I hope its translated alright, german is the language of creation and poetry and i dont know english that well.
He ended up keeping that Frenchman alive with his memory. By recognizing he was just a boy like himself, that Frenchman is remembered. He may be nameless but we all know that Frenchman now.
Reminded of the story of an encounter between a US AAF bomber and a Luftwaffe fighter during WWII. The German pilot ambushed the bomber as it was returning from a mission over Germany. Though riddled with holes and barely flying, the American bomber stayed aloft. Out of curiosity, the German pilot flew closer to inspect the damage. He ended up locking eyes with the American pilot in the cockpit. Instead of finishing them off, the German pulled into an escort position and flew them out safely over the North Sea. The American bomber survived and the two pilots connected decades later after the war and became best friends.
There is a rather famous story that is quite similar involving Japanese ace Saburo Sakai as well. While flying above Java early in the war, and with orders to shoot down *any* allied plane, Sakai encountered a Dutch military transport plane and prepared to down it. The plane was transporting wounded soldiers and had medical personnel on board, as well as civilian children that were being evacuated away from the combat zone. As he closed on the plane he noticed a Dutch nurse holding a child and peering out the window at him, and the woman reminded him of a teacher he had when he was younger. Disobeying his orders he instead pulled up alongside the transport and wobbled his wings, the Dutch pilot gave him a salute, and Sakai allowed the transport to safely continue on.
There is a picture from 1984 that says it all. It is of Francois Mitterrand and Helmut Kohl in Verdun commemorating the battle. Helmut Kohl's father had fought at Verdun and was heavily traumatised. As a result young Helmut was often woken by his father crying at night. You can see how the support of Mitterand holding Kohls hand helped him from bursting in tears. One of the most impressive photos ever taken.
You can also see pictures of Robert McNamara meeting with General Giap, or Donald Rumsfeld palling with Saddam Hussein. The puppet-masters turn the switch back and forth as to who is friend and who is foe according to which rich guy wants to make money here or there at the expense of the little people. So Iraq is a friend, then an enemy. Vietnam is an enemy then a friend. Russia is friend then enemy then friend then enemy. Germany is enemy, enemy again, then friend. Stories are told, but it is always rich people conning the poor people to be whatever sucker flavor of the month that they want.
Forever is nothing as nothing is forever. Evermore every star will burn out including our sun. That information we viewed is just temporary as are we. Perhaps souls are real and the human mind will live on another plain of existence but this physical world (as science explains) will not. Take care enjoy the experience.
@@georgebuller1914 You think people don't know how violence looks like? Showing that won't change anything, people know the consequences of killing someone else, and they still do it.
@@VNuxion I disagree! Too many people - children and adults alike - are lured into the falsehood that death is trivial, by the crap violent games that seem to flood our modern world. Games where, if you get 'killed' you can reset things with a few clicks, or where you can gain extra 'lives' by achieving some goal in the game. They should be made to watch video footage of people actually dying from violent actions. There is nothing glorious or glamorous about someone puking up Arterial blood from a knife or bullet wound. If that doesn't work then they should be made to actually attend an emergency room whilst medical professionals are trying to save some poor sod's life from major traumatic injury. Finally, ANYONE who carries a knife or gun should be imprisoned for at LEAST 10 years. If they use that weapon, then that sentence should be increased to ACTUAL life - not a few poxy years!
@@georgebuller1914 Games? Really? So many things happening nowdays that influence young people to commit such crimes and you think that games are the ones to blame? There were no games last century or five hundred years ago and people were still able to kill each other with no relevant reason at all. Where are you from? Because you don't seem to know how primitive humans still are. There is no logical reason why people kill each other, it is just our nature. People, including teenagers are very capable of knowing what are the consequences of shooting someone. They do it, and they don't care about how gore it looks or about the pain, very naive of you when thinking that people would change their minds about crime just because you showed them things that they already know. Specially in third world countries that's normal, you can't change human nature, we might live in societies but we will always be destructive towards other of our kind.
I bet he worked as an English teacher in Germany. In those days after WW1, not many people spoke a foreign language. One of the few opportunities for Germans to learn and speak English at that time was in high school - as students or teachers. I assume that this recording was made after WW II, probably he was in his 20s during WW I, so he studied at a university after the war.
@@ruhri0411 He moved in England in 1930s because of the Nazi.. He was a medicine student in 1913, and in the second world war he took care of injured british soldiers.
This is by far the most profound, the most moving, the most thought-provoking thing I have ever watched on youtube. How it came into my recommendations, I have no idea, but I am so glad it did, and that I watched it.
If you want another video like that, here's one: th-cam.com/video/lb13ynu3Iac/w-d-xo.html This man, J. Robert Oppenheimer, was greatly involved in the Project Manhattan, that created the first nuclear bombs. A few weeks later, his deadly creation was tested on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This is the video of his regrets. You'll never see someone as dead inside as this man, for he became death, the destroyer of worlds.
@@LightSchiffer Ugh, yeah possibly but the only reason we haven't had major warfare is because of nukes. Greatest friend and worst enemy. th-cam.com/video/Qrze43Uchm8/w-d-xo.html - this is the best doc you will find on the manhattan project
Ironically from a man who ordered mass slaughter of civilians in other countries, and detention of his own citizens for the crime of being descended from certain other nationalities.
“How I wished he would have raised his hand.” That part broke me. He grieved for that French soldier. There is no greater shame than that in all the ugliness of war, kind men such as he are forced to cast aside their humanity.
@@andrewtucker94 Desertion is punishable by death, and retreat is often not an option as failure, according to officers some officers and commanders, means you are not a solider, and those officers, most likely, do not know what it’s like to fight in a uncommon war.
Let’s not neglect the brainwashing. As a veteran, who did nothing extraordinary, but I remember the feelings my buddies and I would have in training. We literally would fantasize about killing the “enemy”. Little did we know the true enemy was our chain of command and the system that runs on the blood of the less fortunate.
I'm an ex-soldier myself and I'm truly grateful that in my service I've never had to take another man's life. Had the circumstances been different I'm acutely aware that my adversary may have well been my best friend. This is why I will always be eternally grateful that I've never had to take another man's life in war time.
I was a rickshaw taxi driver for 7+ years in Budapest, and met many young British, American etc. lads here. Had good fun chatting while I drove them on sightseeing courses. Once on such occasion, I thought, "if we were born into the 1920s/30s, these nice guys would had been my mortal enemies". Scary as hell.
You see your enemy upfront. You can see his facial expressions, you can see him as a human being like you. I think Snipers have something similar. They scout HVTs for days and technically get to know them. It is onesided yeah but they start to know their target. What he does all day, his routines, maybe what he likes. And then if they have to. They kill them. It might not be totally the same, but this person isn't just a silhouette that you see from afar. It is a living person like yourself.
@@RenegadeSamurai it’s like a primitive way of thinking it’s like how a lion hunts their kill it’s a mindset no one can get used to I would imagine. Are you a combat vet yourself? Also, imagine living in a trench day in and day out with rats & disease & death all around you
War isn't just shooting across a field, it's not a video game. Back then we used people called "tunnel rats" and all sorts of experimental weaponry from the flamethrower to mustard gas (both are banned in modern war by the Geneva convention) Now we have special operatives (spec ops) every country gas it's own, I'm from the UK so it's SAS (special air services) and SBS (special boat services), Russia has spetznaz, America has navy seals, ect. So what happens is you get you soldiers to take ground form a base of operations and push forward while you have you spec ops doing the up close and dirty (it should be noted this is only one example of what spec ops do they don't just fight in wars) My point is war never changed we have been shooting across the battle field since we had bows the only thing that changed was the weapons. Even ancient times used scouts, spys, assassins to do the dirty and even in today even the common soldier will have to learn CQC (close quarters combat) for when they have to do take a life and "see the white of the eye"
He explanes it in a beautiful way, it's incredible. Have u consider how much times he processed those moments? They were, very sadly, the most important moments of his life, the moment in which, for several circumstances, he killed a man.
I wrote in wikipedia about him. A very honorable, respectable man. Wikipedia states that he helped both german and allied soldiers that suffered from poison gas attacks, which could have maybe led to trouble with the german military authority at that time, which shows his great philantropist side and his kind heart. That moved me deeply. The only good thing which is coming out of war is that there are people that can realy deeply explain you why war is horrible and should never occur. Never!
This interview was taken in 1963. Stephen Westmann, the man being interviewed moved to England in the early 1930s. So no surprise he speaks English well, although with a thick German accent.
@@gta4haterhq IQ has little to do with literacy and eloquence, rather it is education that makes that distinction. IQ can only change the speed at which one is educated.
People didn't even know much about shell shock, now PTSD, back then. Soldiers suffering under PTSD were sent back because they were marked as fake and potential deserters.
Shame the lives of such young people have been taken away as a result of the ambitions of a few... This was beautiful as it was heartbreaking. If everyone felt the way this man did, we wouldn't have war. Once power gets into a politician's head, it corrupts the mind
This is no that simple, 90 % of the french people wanted to fight germans to bring back Alsace-Lorraine region that they stole from us. And there is the same thing in other countries, this is not only poltics.
It would be nice if what your suggesting is true, that simply the problem is power corrupted politicians. Unfortunately reality doesn't care about your simplistic view of the situation, its much more complicated than that. Kill or be killed isn't just something that applies to war times but also international politics too. People want conflict, on a deep level, and they will find it one way or another.
@@pavroka5622 To be fair, all of Europe was but one big melting pot with all big powers competing in an insane arms race, war was inevitable. One has to remember that prior to WWI, war was not regarded as despicable or cruel but as a legit means of politics. That view only just began to change with WWI because WWI exceeded all previous wars in terms of cruelty and loss of life.
@@Prometheus7272 People want conflict based on inheritance imposed through millions of years of evolution. Conflict and avarice for killing are based on Darwinian selection. Some have the IQ to rise above it, and some don't. What used to work well as violence in the interests of competition in the Stone Age is now obsolete, especially if people want civilization to survive. The people who want violence to continue are the war industry types who make money off the violence they scheme to bring about. What is simplistic is to play along with the direction they want to steer you like sheep or cattle.
@@jpguidry6969 - I don’t think he meant this is made up, but rather tried to point how mission focused the man is, so much he doesn’t take the leisure time after pouring this personal traumatic story, in a sharp detailed way. Maybe the old man was still a soldier in battlefield in some way, it is common among those who suffer PTSD.
@@carl4243 I don't know if I'd call it ironic. I think it's moreso telling of the drive and passion that people have. To some, uniting their people/nation is the highest calling.
The highest of respect to this gentleman, who talks so honestly and open-heartedly about the cruelties of war, when he was born in a generation, where talking about your feelings was not really commonplace. Also respect for his really proper english, it has astonished me, that he‘s able to talk so fluently in a foreign language in his generation. He seems like a very honest and likeable human being.
It is quite unusual for a man of his generation to be that fluent in English as it wasn't regularly taught at school back then like it is today. But this is Stephan Westmann, he was a student of medicine at the time he was drafted. After The Great War he became Professor at the Berlin University but migrated to the UK when the national socialists took over. He had a medical practice there and lived in the UK until his death in the mid-1960's (shortly after this interview actually) which would explain his proficiency in the English language.
No film in the world brings anyone closer to war than an eyewitness account. And yet it is still miles away from what you feel when you yourself are in such a situation and have to fight in a war. Thank you for this special clip. I hope we learn from it.
Hitler is a murderer A German soldier is a fighter They both live in war Just analyze what they do and you will realize the difference of killing people and killing soldiers during war.
@@ilmonachefabestemmiaregerm6364 Especially considering the time period. German soldiers today are trained to know wrong from right. Soldiers back then were trained to never question orders.
@@danielstirling88 You clearly took that comment personal. On a video about a man looking into the dying eyes of the man he had just killed....maybe tone it down a bit.
@Good try You mean the all-powerful God that is all-knowing and all-powerful that is responsible for him being there in the first place? God put him there in a situation of kill or be killed then proceeded to personally haunt him for taking such actions to protect himself? God damn what a cruel sadistic little bitch. I pray your god burns in hell.
@Dean SpencerPoland got invaded, and there was nothing really stopping it, since Germany was preparing for it for a long time, So not sure what do you mean by Poland starting a war, it could surrender without any resistance, I guess, but it doesn't sound like good solution, lol.
@@lscibor it wasnt just Germany that invaded Poland though russia split up Poland with Germany before Germany carried on trying to take over other countries and russia was just watching close to make sure it was Russia next
@Dean Spencer Lol, so give Germans Czech because they need it and it's important, give them Danzig/Gdańsk because it's important too, and what next? What should France have done to avoid invasion in 1940? Avoiding confrontation was exactly the policy of western European powers and it failed miserably,. Polish goverment would have to be completely braindead to hand powerful port city to aggressive neighbor, especially with it's frail economy. It would only encourage them further too. German were interested in violence and conquest and it became apparent just few weeks after invasion of Poland where various atrocities and ethnic cleansings started. You are really writing this as if 3rd Reich regime had been reasonable one, and we all know it wasn't true at all...
@Linh Nguyen are you Vietnamese? Are you opposed to the communist government there? Because if you are then I understand why you don’t like that comment, it has a Hegelian/Marxist framework, class warfare and all that.
He probably wrote it down beforehand, which isn't a bad thing at all. If your words are precise, then you can hit way deeper spots in the human consciousness and subconsciousness
I've watched this multiple times now & it blows me away every time. I don't think its so much a story about killing a man as it is a story about the death of ones humanity in war.
I'm the great-great-grandson of a fallen WW1 soldier, who fought under the Union Jack and died in hospital only months before the armistice, and this brought me to tears. I've never gotten to know any of my relatives that fought in world wars, both my paternal great-grandfathers (WW2) passed before I was born and my maternal great-grandfathers, both gone now as well, were born in the mid-30s so "missed out", but I honestly hope that had my great-great-grandad Private AV Tizard had grown old with such dignity and grace, and compassion, as Corporal Westmann. Rest in peace Corporal, and may your compassionate testimony and humanity survive forever
you have missed the point of his story entirely. He is not giving an antimilitarist, pacifist message; he is rather saying that all the culture and rationality we believe to be the children of, is but a thin layer that will chip off when war starts. He is describing man as the animal it is and no message of peace or next-love will ever change it.
@@amoreazione3563 I don't think that is all he meant. That was one point of him yes, that under certain circumstances mankind can degrade into the state of heartless animals again. But he also critized those who made the decision to start the war and war in general. He does not say it, but it is in the way how he talks about the Frenchman he killed, that he could have shaken his hand and be best friends with this person and he had nothing personally against him, but they were forced to kill each other just because they wore different uniforms and spoke different languages. He blames war for the fact that it transformed him and his companions from civilized humans into killing animals. If you believe he did not critize war and think his standpoint is not pazifistic, then I think you didn't get his message...
He describes his PTSD from the situation, citing no sleep, cold sweats, night terrors. It's almost like both men are doomed either way, one suffers a painful death, the other lives with the haunting memory/ramifications of taking a life.
@@willnyethehockeyguy5828 Some of us speak German either way, what's your point? The French speak french still. Invading someone with an army is not enough to destroy them culturally. The English understood that which is why we're speaking it right now.
For thousands of years, one had to be close to the enemy to kill. Now, even though you can shoot an artillery piece or drop a bomb without any idea whether you have killed someone, or control a drone and kill onscreen, soldiers still suffer nightmares for decades. Think of how many men have had the same experience as this man, of killing someone close enough to bleed on you. The collective trauma of warfare can only be guessed at.
You cannot put a price on little video clips like these--the faces of the men who were there, telling those little individual horror stories that comprise the great trauma of the Great War. I am very glad that Herr Westmann was able to share this with us.
An honest man with honest feelings. Killing somebody up close is something that changes you forever, not like dropping bombs or shooting an artillery shell from 12 miles away.
Especially when You gotta stab 'em. Gotta get up close and personal, so close that You can smell 'em. So close that You can hear "Death's Rattle". But if you're quick and depending where ya get 'em and what You're using (sharpened Flat-head works too well). It can be quick. Shitty thing about dying is how "cold" it feels, among other things like how the "cold" eminates from "the Blue". If You're Lucky in Life, Ya Die Quickly Once. Sadly, I've only been Lucky in Death...for now anyway. Maybe 3rd Time's the Charm, but that ain't up for Me to decide. So It Goes
@@danielb7117 not many people know what a death rattle is...glad you brought that up. Unless shot directly in the head, most of the time it takes multiple shots or bayonet thrusts to kill someone. If you have been there, you know..it is not like the crap you see in hollywood. Let the politicians go to war, keep your kids from it.
@Captain Canuck sentient, thus, not sapient, they are not aware of themselves, they are aware they exist but not of their conscious like we are, mind you I do think we should be more humane towards our farm animals, but ultimately they are biologically below us, and that’s to say nothing of the bugs the commenter had originally mentioned, which barley even feel pain as we do.
Respect to this man, at the end of the day, they were all scared, young men, forced to fight for something they didn't start, may he and the fallen soldiers rest in peace
@@bolloxed1056 yeah, maybe a lot of them but I have no doubt that patriotic and crazy soldiers that just wanted to kill others where in all sides of the war
My great great great uncle fought in WWI as an Austrian Soldier and was killed in the war. I don’t know if he died a soldier or a prisoner but to think that ordinary men can turn to killers so quickly baffles me. War tears us apart and all you can do is to kill others so you don’t die. My great great great uncle was unfortunately on the receiving end of a man that did not want to die himself, only fearing because they were wearing different uniforms. I don’t k ow much about him but I imagine he was a young man when he died, robbed of his life over the death of an iconic figure.
I mean maybe tricked before but nowadays in my country becoming a solider is one of a very few ways out of poverty in many areas. It’s what the establishment consciously relies on for a steady stream of personnel.
It's kill or be killed. You don't think you just act because that's what's expected of you. There's a fair likelihood under any other circumstance that you could be good friends but because it's a battlefield, wearing different uniforms, you're mortal enemies. Soldiers have to tell themselves that the enemy is less than human. Demonize them. They're monsters. But are they really?
@@OnePolishMoFo They needed to dehumanize the enemy because when you think about it too long, you see yourself in them. That frightens many soldiers so they shut themselves off from their emotions. Many take their own lives because of what they do. A sad reality
@@snakevenom4954 I think they should know they are human and it could be them and the same reaonings and feelings. We should understand what we are doing and why it must be done. Lying to them and then them reflecting is what causes PTSD unless they had a traumatic attack done to them by another instead of the killing themselves
this guy seems to have more respect for human life than most people nowadays. it's funny how we still keep fighting and war still going. the more things change the more it stays the same
Its like humanity would never learn. The only thing that we learned is how to make better weapons to kill better. You said it, we are tricked into comitting those mistakes over and over, because the more the things changes, the more they stay the same.
A beautiful testimony. Any universal soldier who has kept his humanity could say the same after having gone through such an ordeal. "War is a massacre between people who don't know each other, to the benefit of people who know each other but never kill each other" (translated from Paul Valéry).
So hard to grasp, this is a powerful video. These boys (either faction) put their life on the line to fight for a political cause, its almost sickening. Soldiers in that position deserve nothing but respect for the fact they might be scarred mentally or physically for the rest of their lives. Love your channel btw! :)
It’s nice to see you here History Secrets, that was indeed a very powerful story he told. I can’t imagine what it would be like to have to live with those memories
@@lazykoalabros6254 War is destruction for personal gain, it all starts about land, resources, race, even opinion. I hate it, I despise the people who make others fight in their place, who make them throw their lives away for a cause that will not benefit them.
@@sethael1741 A certain degree of dumbness or better say a non-reflective, non-emphatic attitude(?) which does not mean a lack of intelligence necessarily, for that matter, is pretty useful in an army. To have mentally sensible people who reflect on their actions, who have emphathy for the enemy makes them unreliable in combat to a certain degree in the longer run. That is what every army tries to avoid by training on neutral targets, neutralizing language "soft target", "collateral damage", "engaging" the enemy...not fighting, killing, butchering them, blowing civilians to hell,,.... you know the game very well, so why reacting that harsh? He is right in essence.
Incredibly heartbreaking to hear this. Glad he was able to talk about it, bottling up something like that must be incredibly hard on your mental health. It's sad to me that so many normal and otherwise friendly people were forced to do horrible things because people in power demanded it.
I just want to hold this man's hand, thank him, and tell him how much his words mean to the world...how much his perspective means to human understanding and growth.
I could only imagine the French soldier was thinking the same thing, at the same moment, but just more hesitant. And that ended up being the last thing that he did, the world is so strange
The hammer that fell from the mans hand with the intent or hurting another will echo throughout the time but that very echo will never be heard at all by the ones who are going to pick the hammer themselves
My grandfather never spoke too seriously of his time in WWII, his way of dealing with the sacrifice of his youth was through humour (in the most dark British way). When we had to care for him as his Alzheimer's got bad at around 93/94 years of age the effects of the war really came back. Once we took him to church at Christmas for midnight mass along with my parents. During the service I noticed Grandad getting distressed and starting to cry (I’d never seen him get emotional like this and it was shocking to see as his generation clearly hid this from everyone) When I tried to comfort him he said to me “ I don’t belong here” Why? “Because I’ve killed people” It was so hard to know what to say and to see such a proud, strong man break down like this. At the time the church had many people from so many races, nationalities & backgrounds around us. Also as it was Christmas service there were representatives from local Muslim, Jewish & Sikh communities attending. All I could say to him was “look at the people around you, look at their children playing together in the church. YOU DID THIS! Everything you had to sacrifice, everything you had to do meant something. We are all here together, all races, religions, backgrounds. Together. United. Free. Because of what you fought for."
"We could have been best friends,he was just like me.We only spoke another laguage and wore different uniforms.” Got me.He grieved for the French soldier.War really ruins things.He is/was a good man🙏🏼❤️
Well... it doesn’t ruin anything no matter what anyone says, it’s the way to make change, that’s how they freed the slaves, do you really think slavery would’ve died out in even a few generations? Even if every us president was against it it would still thrive.
@@SupaSillyThyme fighting for something you believe in, ie freeing slaves, is different from fighting people you don't know without having anything personal against them, ie two countries going to war. In the first case you know you're doing this for the "greater good", you're freeing slaves. But in the latter, you don't really know why you're going to war, do you? What do you gain out of it? You're just getting told and given demands, without reason, really.
My grandfather was a gunner in the Merchant Fleet during WWII and he said much the same. He had nothing against the German pilots and if they'd met at a bar instead of in a war they could have been friends. Instead he tried to kill them and their friends as they tried to kill him and his friends.
Great Grandfather ( german WW I soldier ) said once to me: After battle you could hear the whispering, sometimes shouting of one common word over all trenches whitch made him think how absurd war is: "Mama"
watch?v=waKuuEwq0fo these old men fought the italian invasion of greece on the 2nd world war. You can understand what they are saying just looking at their eyes. "we were hearing the people we shot lying there screaming 'aqua' and 'mama'" "there were italian kids, i didn't want to shoot them, but they killed my friends left and right, i was on the machine gun, i didnt want to, they were kids, but i killed them all... how will my soul present itself to god, i m going to hell" war has been portrayed as heroic and fun, good guys vs bad guys, but war is ugly and fought by men that do not wish it
@@gloth Unless a nation's life faces peril, war is murder. Those poor people fought to defend their homeland and in the end they take all the burden on themselves.
He spend his life saving people, made a oath as a physician to save people, and then its confronted with a necessity of taking the life of all people that it´s not from the same side. Life brings us to really dificult situations. His words however are of an enormous generosity!
A beautiful soul put into an obnoxious situation. And he was so right, hand to hand combat has to be the cruelest situation a soldier can be placed in. Good on him. Vale.
"And he died. I felt physically ill. I nearly vomited. My knees were shaking..." It's unimaginable what war is really like. Just trying to picture the scene this veteran describes sends shivers down my spine.
Yeah, wars and taking lifes in general are not as fun as movies make it seem...most of the time you are high on Adrenaline and once it wears of it all comes crashingdown
@@kam6206 yeah there’s this sniper who within his first 3 months of his first deployment racked up 33 confirmed kills, he said his first kill, he couldn’t sleep, he’d close his eyes and see that mans face everytime he closed his eyes. He said as his deployment went on and the more people he’d kill, he’d have night,weed where he sees all their faces flash through. He said it really haunted him, it’s a nightmare he still has constantly, seeing all the faces of the men he’s killed.
Worms do not have a spine. It is way too convenient that he is a WWI veteran since there are 0 of them alive today to confirm the story. It is also too convenient that it is published by a dude on TH-cam but I can't find the original BBC video. Here be dragons, terrorists, plagiarists, trademark infringers, pirates of all kind and you be one of them.
This should be seen by the world. This is a lesson taught again and again in time just for us to ignore it and continue to fight? This man is truly an amazing person for not only seeing the human in himself, but his adversary.
We would have no more “good soldiers” as this man put it, and while I know that I could not fathom my reaction to the same situation as he was in, I would hope that I could see the humanity in my enemy and the animal in me, while acknowledging the impersonal attribute that all wars carry between the soldiers on the ground, standing across from one another, both sides human and animal
“the good soldier kills without thinking of his adversary as a human being. The very moment he sees in him a fellow man, he is not a good soldier anymore.” - this is what someone told Stephan Westtman (a WW1 veteran) during the great war. It's a shame to live in a world where philosophies like this exist.
@@SiqZR6 not so easy... Maybe you should say this gentleman truly believe in his duty, and I respect him, but he is also a pawn in the hands of criminal American politicians. USA is responsible for a lot of wars, golpes and murders all over the world. And for being the only ones who dropped not one but two nukes over unarmed civilians. A crime toward all umankind.
Yes, I would hope so. Or he could be like this German soldiers' comrades, unfazed by it all - I guess it depends to what level the individual lets the war machine indoctrinate and desensitize them. So sad :(
@@chrisvanegmond3157 He may have said they were unfazed. And thats what he thought he sawe. You never know what's going on in People's minds and hearts. Especially if there is a superior officer next to you. I am sure he looked unfazed himself to others that moment.
And that means it is not for real and just propaganda cus yt promotes antifa and George Soros leftist attackes and they suppress those telling the truth.
His words are not only expressed so beautifully and powerfully, they are done so in a second language. He has a better command of the English Language than many native english speakers.
@@Dee-nonamnamrson8718 he was forced to kill that soldier, to take a life. You can see in his face when he tells the story that he was still dealing with the inner demons from his actions.
Serious question, is this real? A while ago I watched a "documentary" about the War of the Worlds where they used actors to tell their perspectives as if they were actually present back then, this video gives me exactly that same vibe, the sound and video are both really good to actually be from a black/white era, and the way he tells his tale is way too perfect, so I would really like to know if this is fake.
@@gerhardsmith7892 Hey Gerhard, I looked into this video more and it definitely seems to be real. The veteran's name is Stefan Westmann and he even has his own Wikipedia page: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephan_Westmann
The good soldier fights for a day where men like them are no-longer needed. This man is a masterpiece of humanity.-- something war has lost-- humanity. War once had it--- and chivalry. WW1 was the end of that.
This was so amazing. I am grateful this man was apart of this world. If only we had more people like him in the world today. Since I was a child I have been fascinated with the experience of combat. I think because it is so foreign to my life's experience I can't even fathom the magnitude of living through events like this gentleman described. The difference in my life today to other's around the world today is so great. All the turmoil in the Middle East, Africa, even in places in my own country like Chicago and so many other places. I'm of Norwegian and Irish decent and I usually think of Norway as a very peaceful country but they just suffered the loses of that bow attack... Dear Lord, please bless the people of this world, especially those who are suffering things that I cannot even imagine. We are not so different as people, though circumstances may differ I believe you created us all with love and because of that, we should, like this gentleman, respect the life of all no matter the differences. Thank you for blessing us with kind souls like this man to remind me of how special all life truly is because only you have the power to create life. I love you. Amen. God bless you all.
I hope you met that French soldier on the other side, sir. I hope you got that handshake and all your guilt and sadness was washed away when you looked in his eyes again.
My grandfather, who served in the Manchester Regiment, once told me that sometimes, a German soldier opposite them would shout across in English, asking if anyone knew so-and-so from Manchester. Once, they took some Bavarians prisoner and one had been a barber in Derby before the war. He swapped a razor for a tin of cigarettes. I use it today. Good Solingen steel and it still keeps a good edge. My granddad said, like this gentleman, in other circumstances, they would have been the best of mates.
my grandfather ( german WW2 soldier ) spend his last years in Spain with grandma; she complained that he spend most time working with the english neighbour ( also WW2 soldier ) altough they could hardly ever understand each other
My Grandpa told my father he was so glad as the word behind him were: "Hans, put down the gun". He told my father he had such a "good" time in england, and the germans and the english people had a very nice time there in jersey. War ist just sad, people kill each other without any sense..
British soldiers who captured Germans troops were suprised how decent were the Germans compared to the Frenchs and did not really understand why they were at war against them. At the same time they could observe that unlikely the others, Prussians were arrogant and inflexible.
i remember seeing a letter in a case at the Imperial War Museum. The letter was written by a Londoner after the famous Christmas Truce in 1914. The soldier wrote his parents that he'd met a German, "a nice bloke who once lived on the Holburne Rd around the corner from our house before the war."
I feel bad for the Germans in WW1, getting dragged into a war they didn’t start, then getting all the blame. It makes the events leading up to WW2 back a lot more sense when you learn about it.
Gavrilo Princip was conned into shooting Archduke Ferdinand. Easy to do, as he thought it was good for his country. In reality, Ferdinand was one of the best friends the Serbs could have among the leadership of Austria, which is why the warmongers wanted him gone. Kind of like if JFK the peacemaker gets killed, his death was supposedly going to be a rallying cry pretext to invade Cuba (if people had bought the fabricated lie that Oswald was a Castro commie). So, front men for the British caused Princip to do the assassination and Austria responded predictably. Russia had to help their Slavic cousins and that brought in Germany predictably. Now England had a cause of action against Germany (along with France) and what do you know? Germany lost all kinds of colonies in Africa and the Middle East, and Britain and France just happened to be standing around to pick them up. Hitler was posed and financed into his job by the Bush Dynasty, Dulles brothers manipulations, Harriman, and other bankers. They knew Hitler was a rabid psychotic nut case primed to go for a world war against primarily Russia, and voila! Helping fund Hitler got them a big big war where they could make big bucks. Germany got suckered into two world wars, and now Putin has been suckered into attacking Ukraine. More money for the war industry that switched from Afghanistan to Ukraine as soon as our Kremlin spies understood Putin was going for the bait. The people who aspire to something for nothing are the easiest ones to con.
@@jacobsacres6038 They started one of the most extreme extermination campaigns in history (aka the holocaust). They deserve zero sympathy. Most Germans are still racist bigots to this day. They were absolute barbaric savages with no humility and deserve no sympathy for either war they participated in. When more time passes they will be forgiven.
@@Frobbl Agreed, this is absolutely the wrong lesson to be teaching. Teach the rights and wrongs of war, and expose the wrongdoings of the elites and establishment, but never, ever teach your kid to hesitate or show mercy in a life or death battle. They don't even have to go to war to face such a scenario.
@@userLeckerButtermilch That's how many people in germany learn english. I also said it that way, because my teacher told me, it was right. I only learned to say it the right way after I watched hundreds of TH-cam videos. Nowadays I help students, if they have pronunciation issues as much as I can.
My grandpa survived the Spanish Civil War. Once he said to me: "I never, ever, shoot to anybody during all my service. War is the most futile thing I've ever seen, and war among brothers is the most terrible one." I've remembered him as I was hearing the attitude of this WW1 veteran.
Huh? You do realise there are people who can speak other languages fluently. I have a friend who speaks four languages fluently without an accent. She can switch between them with ease.
@@BrianHAviation yes, but please consider that english was NOT taught in schools the way it is today, especially not in Germany in these days. The ones who learned more than the basics had a more profound knowledge of it back then, than nowaydays, that may be true. As it is with almost all sciences and so on. German schools were very very strict and the niveau was excellent.
His words are haunting, especially during this time. I honestly believe most people on this earth are good and do good deeds. It's only a small percentage that lust after ultimate power and are completely corrupted. Unfortunately those people often times ruin it for the rest of humanity. They ruin it for people who just want to live a good life, live in peace, have opportunities and prosperity. Evil exists in this world. There are people who possess no empathy for their fellow humans. We need to stop giving those people the power that they so desperately want and choose wisely who we elect into powerful positions.
During WW1 my grandfather (German) was a very young soldier in Verdun too. He told the following story: One day he and his group got the order to storm the "enemies´" (French) position. They jumped out of the ditches and ran towards the other side. My grandfather soon got shot into both his legs, fell down and lay on the ground. Immediately afterwards a French soldier stood over him with his gun and a bayonet attached on the front of it. My grandfather expected to get stabbed to death like he had seen so often. Instead the French soldier hanged his gun over one of his shoulders, took my grandfather onto his other shoulder and brought him to a French lazarette. That´s how my grandfather became POW. Here´s the interesting part: When my grandfather - a farmer´s son from rural north-western Germany, who in those days had probably never seen someone from abroad - referred to the French soldier he said (in flat German dialect): "This guy was t-o-t-a-l-l-y black ... as black as coal." I recently asked a friend of mine from France what this could mean, and he said that the French army had soldiers from Senegal fighting and that they were usually the first ones who had to run against the (German) enemy thus having to bear the highest risk. It´s quite impressive that this guy (from Senegal) had nonetheless the courage and humanity to save a live instead of ending it. Humanity is possible - even at war. (Greetings to the people of Senegal.) :-) P.S.: My grandfather told this story to his son/my father (a little boy of 13 during WW2) and my father much later told it to me.
Thank you for sharing this story with us. It is very moving. The action of this young man amidst the barbarism of war made it possible for you to be able to re-tell the story today. Thank you.
Impressive story. I think that back in those days and despite the horrors of this war, there was still more humanity than we could imagine. It reminds me of a story of my great grand father, when he was a Belgian soldier during the great war. He was crawling in the trenches one day when he suddenly stood eye to eye with a German soldier. They looked at each other for a few seconds and then they just turned their backs and each went their own way. "Why I didn't kill him? He did not do anything wrong to me, nor did he have the intention", he explained later. As this soldier said, these men were just regular people. Farm hands, students, a baker, shop keeper,... And they all hated the war equally. No matter which side you were on.
When I was a kid, my dad and I met an American WW2 veteran who had a sadder story. He said that one day he was in the woods and was separated from his squad, so he was alone. He was shot at by a sniper, who missed, but he dropped and feigned death to avoid drawing more fire. He heard the shooter approaching, so he subtly drew his sidearm underneath his coat; when the shooter turned over his body, hoping to get a look or maybe loot his body, the American shot and killed him, only to be horrified by the realization that it was a young boy, probably in his late teens. The American was a little bit older, I think he said his mid 20s when this happened. I can only imagine what he must have carried with him through the remainder of his life after that
We are often more articulate in learned languages than in native ones because by the time you get fluent enough in another language to use or understand idiom/slang/informal speech, you've spent so much time drilling the correct grammar and structure into your brain already.
His name was Stephan Westmann
Quite sad that their isn't anymore ww1 veterans in the world
And the interview year?
@@searchingforfoodonyoutube2500 Should be the early 1960s - on other platforms the publishing year is 1963
@@searchingforfoodonyoutube2500 Recorded 1963, published 1964. The narrator also died in 1964 (aged 71).
Thanks for sharing this.
this is a good example of a soldier noticing he's fighting someone else's war.
The populations of the European Nations fighting WW1 were bloodthirsty themselves, nobody except the Russian people wanted the war to be resolved peacefully
@@axcel9128 i think you missed the point of this video.
For many wars, I would agree. For the World Wars, not so. Those wars were existential in nature. They were fighting for the continuing existence of their nations and ways of living. It's ridiculously easy to sit here in 2021 in peace and not realize the danger that these people fought and died for. Millions of people died to fight the nazis and stop their ideology from taking over the world. They didn't die fighting a war for someone or something they didn't care about. But war is horrible no matter how important it is to defend yourself.
@@theWebWizrd they were discussing about ww1 and ww1 wasn't a war for the reason that you posted.
WW1 was just a massacre for a bunch of territory dispute between countries.
WW1 is by far the worse and more nonsense war that humanity ever face.
@@matteoclementi it is how capitalism resolves problems
The fact he talks about it like this, you can see he has done half a century of soul-searching over those fateful few seconds.
Hey freddie
Another one bites the dust
@@mickele77 hey gonna get you too
Half century of soul searching over those few seconds.
^ thats a great way to describe it. Well done
I just want to say, that's a clever name you got there. Freddie was born in 46 and died in 91.
This was taped by the BBC in 1963. Dr. Westmann died a year later in 1964. During the war he became a doctor and treated men who suffered during gas attacks. He was not trained in school to be a doctor but in the field. After the war he became a doctor in Berlin, married another doctor. After Hitler came to power in 1933 Dr. Westmann immigrated to the UK in 1934. It's refreshing to hear a man talk with remorse, regret and a sense of ethics over killing another man instead of the bragging about how tough he was. We need more men like him.
It was an amazing talk. War should've never happened. Do you know what year he was born in?
@@biancahotca3244 1893 in Berlin...which was then the Kingdom of Prussia. It's like time traveling listening to a man like this. I'm glad the BBC interviewed him.
He's a real man
@@RuleofFive I wonder if he felt the winds changing when Hitler came to power, like, he'd seen this sort of rodeo before and didn't want any part of it.
@@MacEwanMouse I’m sure he did. If he left Germany in 1934. That was the year Hitler came to power. He made the right move and was a good man.
My great grandfather fought in WWI against the Germans at the Yzer (he was a Belgian soldier) and he always refused to speak about the war and what he had seen. When I was a young child (6 yo) I asked him if he had ever killed a man during the war. I was very, very young but I still remember how he reacted to my question... he went silent and his eyes turned very red and wet and he told me the Germans were people just like him and that he can never go back and change things. At that time I didn't understand and thought that wasn't an answer. Later on in life my grandmother told me her father never talked about it and people knew not to mention the trench war to him. The fact that I, his first great grandson and a very small innocent child, was the first one to ask him this straight question in over 6 decades had filled him with an immense feeling of pain and sadness. She told me he was overwhelmed at that moment. I never did get my answer but looking back.. I'm pretty sure I got a powerful answer. Taking other people's lives changes a man.
And my grandfather (other side of the family) was 10 yo during the German occupation in WWII. He was the opposite and told me lots of stories about the war.. how German soldiers had given him chocolate one day (he had never eaten chocolate before), or how the family down the street had hidden a rescued English pilot in their basement, and how in 1944 the Canadians drove through his village with tanks and one of the Canadian soldiers had put him on the tank as they drove through the streets. He said it was the happiest day in his life at that point, how the entire village was partying. He also remembers how the locals publicly dragged a well known woman from the town through the streets by her hair.. she had slept with a German officer during the war and was almost killed by an angry mob because of it. I was a little kid in the 1980's but the war was still living on in the memories of people at that time. They had lived through it. Nowadays nobody remembers the war because everyone who was alive in the 1910's and 1940's is either dead or very old.
Oh, I remember another story.. which would be unacceptable nowadays. When I was 10 yo, the early 1990's, a kid in my class had to give a presentation and he made one about WWI. He actually brought a German helmet with him to school.. with a bullet hole in it. It was something they kept in their family for decades. Apparantely his family had captured a German soldier in 1914 and they executed him on their farm. They kept his helmet as a souvernir. I don't remember how our teacher reacted to this story, but everyone in the classroom was very silent during that presentation. The kid looked like a sociopath to us. Never knew if the story was true or not, but there it was... a German helmet (with the spike on top of it) with a bullet hole in it.. (front and back, entry and exit hole)
Sorry for the spam. Another story. My ex-girlfriend her grandfather was in the resistance during WWII and he was betrayed by his neighbours to the Germans, who came and arrested him. He was put against the wall with other members of the resistance and shot down. They literally shot him in his balls and left him for dead. The resistance then took him away and he recovered, fathering my ex's mother later on in life. If that bullet had been a little more to the right or the left.. my ex would have never existed. Man, when I was young people had war stories... I'm glad they got to tell them because all of these people have died by now. I can type them down on TH-cam in 2021, because they told me these things 3-4 decades ago. I'm also glad I didn't have to live through it. I don't think I would cope with it.
I wouldn't know what to do if someone brought a helmet like that into my classroom!
my grandfather also had some souvenirs from the first ww, english and french helmets (he was german). that was common amongst that generation.
gg
my great granfather fought in WW1 . i am from india though my geat grandpa died before i was born
sir do you remember the moon landings? what were they like?
This is the first time I heard a World War 1 veteran describing how he killed his enemy.
That’s because most of them got mown down by machine gun fire, wounded, gassed, trapped on the wire or blown to pieces before they got anywhere near close enough to actually fighting with the enemy.
@@greva2904 well no, it's actually most of them were ashamed of the war, casualties were staggering but there's still millions of soldiers who went through the war. But especially in Germany it was a mark of shame, no one wanted to talk about the old war they wanted to fight a new war.
It is so sad, they were killing their own brothers. Imagine if they could see the state of Europe now, they never would’ve fought.
I’ll never forget the look of sadness on my grandmother’s face when she told me the story of how my great grandpa had to beat a German with a brick he never recovered from what i heard
I(born 1961 in Hamburg/Germany) only got to know one single WW1 veteran in my life , he was the partner of my best friend's Grandma back then during the mid 1970's.
Our contacts were quite few , but I remember him talking about the war to us teenage boys on one occassion.
It was not much about the fighting and killing on the Eastern front , I'm sure , that it must have been hard for him to recall , but he elaborately talked about how he made it back home after the end of the war from Eastern Prussia to Hamburg , often on foot , poaching with his pistol and throwing grenades into ponds to have fish to eat on the long , long way home.
A very intense video about "the war to end all wars" but which was not and sadly is never going to be .
Thanks for sharing.
“War is a place where young people who do not know and do not hate each other kill each other, because of the decision of old men who know and hate each other, but do not kill each other ”. Erich Hartman
War is not any one thing.
"Forward he cried (from the rear)
and the front rank
died
And the General sat
and the lines on the map
moved from side to side"
--lyrics to "Us and Them" from Pink Floyd's "The Dark Side of the Moon"
@@GuitarGuy057 Senseless slaughter is a damn fine description if you ask me
@@GuitarGuy057 Its very simple, we've been conducting war since our ancestors exterminated the Neanderthals and took their women to breed with.
Regardless of how civilised we appear, we will always be primates that fight over women, money and status. It's always linked to one
I think erich hartman says respect my authorita too
How eloquent this man is.
It brings me back to the book "All Quiet on the Western Front"
would highly recommend
I think i know it or atleast Something similar
My father was affected by this book All Quite on the western front he served in WW ll and after worked in motion pictures and and ended up starring in the TV version of All Quite he said it was a very difficult role... this was a moving account!! By the way I look at your reel you are extremely talented all the best !!!
Im Westen nichts Neues...we had to read it in Germany in school.
Yes, we read this for my first year in college, by Erich Maria Remarque.
Class was called, Men at War. Professor Brown.
Watch the adoptions as well. Both are pretty solid
As a Frenchman, his story breaks my heart. But it was war, no one had a choice.
The respect he shows for his victim is honorable.
May this man be blessed
That is just a fact of Mother's Nature (dont get weird, this is just my religion). No one has a choice in being enlisted, especially if there is Evil in the world ordering them to protect themselves, but the obscenity is the Human Nature of enjoying murder.
I don't judge those who enjoy murder.....well, I mean in this capacity at least. Errrrr this is complicated. But I will choose to see them as who they really are. Part of the Problem, of living with her. Mother Nature is cruel, and idk, there was a character on TV who had a cruel mother, and that character was cruel as well. And he became depressed because he was still a good person, technically.
His name is Stefan Westmann. He was a corporal in the German 29th Infantry Division. He fought at Verdun and the Somme. This interview was taken as part of the BBC series, Great War in 1964.
May he Rest In Peace
the quality of this video is really good.
his interview about the somme were he describes the british charges is pretty dam amazing
Great War has some of the best interviews with veterans you could ask for.
Yes he is - my great-grandfather.
His face is enough to transmit a little bit of the flashbacks.
His eyes are so sunken in you can see the outline of his skull
Poor people man. I cannot even begin to believe the horror those soldiers had to endure. They were in hell.
It’s almost like you can see it happening in his eyes
@@mattcintron6372 , I’m sure something like that doesn’t soon leave you! It’s a terrible thing to be put in a kill or be killed situation.😕
Flanders - in the Artois, spring 1916 Based on a true story
It was in the thicket of the Artois forest ... Deep in the woods, on blood-soaked ground, a wounded German warrior lay stretched out and his calls rang in the night. In vain ... His wake-up call did not echo ... Should he bleed to death like an animal that perished in solitude? Suddenly ... heavy steps approaching from the right. He hears them stamping into the forest floor ... And new hope sprouts from his soul. And now from the left ... And now from both sides ... Two men are approaching his pain camp, it's a German and a French. And both look at each other with suspicious eyes and threateningly hold their rifles at the ready. The German warrior asks: “What are you doing here?” “The poor man's cry for help hit me.” “It's yours Enemy! "" It is a man who suffers! "And both of them wordlessly lower their rifles. Then they braced their hands together and carefully lifted the sore warrior, as if on a stretcher German chain of guards came. “Now it's done. Here he will be loyal to him. "And the Frenchman turns into the forest. The German, however, grabs his hand, looks at him, moved into troubled eyes, and says to him with foreboding seriousness:" I don't know what fate will determine us, that inexplicable the stars rule. Perhaps I will fall, a victim of your bullet. Perhaps mine will stretch you into the sand - Because the approximation of battles is indiscriminate, But whatever it may be and whatever may come: We only live the consecrated hours, As there is in man that man has found ... And now goodbye! And God guide you!
Written by Adolf Hitler
I hope its translated alright, german is the language of creation and poetry and i dont know english that well.
He ended up keeping that Frenchman alive with his memory. By recognizing he was just a boy like himself, that Frenchman is remembered. He may be nameless but we all know that Frenchman now.
This poor man probably relived this moment every night for the rest of his life
"we were boys who had just begun to love the world, and we had to shoot it to pieces"
-Erich Maria Remarque
Beautiful
I’m reading All Quite on the Western Front right now, amazing book
@@butterybuttersticks9073 same here
Buttery ButterSticks I've never read that book. Pretty sure I have a copy somewhere. I'll have to find it and read it right away.
@@butterybuttersticks9073 Watch the black and white film too, it's amazing.
Man was so articulate in a language that was not native to him
Funny thing about english...it's mostly based on the old Germanic Language.
Imagine you are having PTSD after killing someone and your comrade says, "Lmao I just choked that n00b."
@@crazyeye6424 Funny thing english is a Germanic language but has ton of French and latin vocabulary (literally thousands of words )
@@sevenchair5594 lmao you just made me laugh when I wanted to cry, kudos to you
@@Riyoshi000 I was crying too, but at least he is in a better place now, the lobby.
Reminded of the story of an encounter between a US AAF bomber and a Luftwaffe fighter during WWII. The German pilot ambushed the bomber as it was returning from a mission over Germany. Though riddled with holes and barely flying, the American bomber stayed aloft. Out of curiosity, the German pilot flew closer to inspect the damage. He ended up locking eyes with the American pilot in the cockpit. Instead of finishing them off, the German pulled into an escort position and flew them out safely over the North Sea. The American bomber survived and the two pilots connected decades later after the war and became best friends.
Wow
Charlie Brown and Franz Stigler?
@@noelblack8159 Yeah, that must be the one he's talking about.
There is a rather famous story that is quite similar involving Japanese ace Saburo Sakai as well. While flying above Java early in the war, and with orders to shoot down *any* allied plane, Sakai encountered a Dutch military transport plane and prepared to down it. The plane was transporting wounded soldiers and had medical personnel on board, as well as civilian children that were being evacuated away from the combat zone.
As he closed on the plane he noticed a Dutch nurse holding a child and peering out the window at him, and the woman reminded him of a teacher he had when he was younger. Disobeying his orders he instead pulled up alongside the transport and wobbled his wings, the Dutch pilot gave him a salute, and Sakai allowed the transport to safely continue on.
@@noelblack8159 Yeah, that sounds right to me.
There is a picture from 1984 that says it all.
It is of Francois Mitterrand and Helmut Kohl in Verdun commemorating the battle. Helmut Kohl's father had fought at Verdun and was heavily traumatised. As a result young Helmut was often woken by his father crying at night. You can see how the support of Mitterand holding Kohls hand helped him from bursting in tears.
One of the most impressive photos ever taken.
You can also see pictures of Robert McNamara meeting with General Giap, or Donald Rumsfeld palling with Saddam Hussein. The puppet-masters turn the switch back and forth as to who is friend and who is foe according to which rich guy wants to make money here or there at the expense of the little people. So Iraq is a friend, then an enemy. Vietnam is an enemy then a friend. Russia is friend then enemy then friend then enemy. Germany is enemy, enemy again, then friend. Stories are told, but it is always rich people conning the poor people to be whatever sucker flavor of the month that they want.
The beauty of the internet is that stories like these will live forever and never be forgotten.
Rest easy, sir
Unless an AI comes over and spreads the ultimate Virus
Forever is nothing as nothing is forever. Evermore every star will burn out including our sun. That information we viewed is just temporary as are we. Perhaps souls are real and the human mind will live on another plain of existence but this physical world (as science explains) will not. Take care enjoy the experience.
The beauty of the internet is that everything is forgotten in an instant. We are trained to have the attention and memory span of a goldfish
At least until youtube decides to remove it for any reason
Unless Yahoo! buys TH-cam, then wipes all the content 10 years later.
This interview should be shown in every school.
I totally agree! With all this knife crime - gang related or not - they should be made to see how obscene it is for a man to die from knife wounds...
You're soooo right
@@georgebuller1914 You think people don't know how violence looks like? Showing that won't change anything, people know the consequences of killing someone else, and they still do it.
@@VNuxion I disagree!
Too many people - children and adults alike - are lured into the falsehood that death is trivial, by the crap violent games that seem to flood our modern world. Games where, if you get 'killed' you can reset things with a few clicks, or where you can gain extra 'lives' by achieving some goal in the game.
They should be made to watch video footage of people actually dying from violent actions. There is nothing glorious or glamorous about someone puking up Arterial blood from a knife or bullet wound.
If that doesn't work then they should be made to actually attend an emergency room whilst medical professionals are trying to save some poor sod's life from major traumatic injury.
Finally, ANYONE who carries a knife or gun should be imprisoned for at LEAST 10 years. If they use that weapon, then that sentence should be increased to ACTUAL life - not a few poxy years!
@@georgebuller1914 Games? Really? So many things happening nowdays that influence young people to commit such crimes and you think that games are the ones to blame? There were no games last century or five hundred years ago and people were still able to kill each other with no relevant reason at all. Where are you from? Because you don't seem to know how primitive humans still are. There is no logical reason why people kill each other, it is just our nature. People, including teenagers are very capable of knowing what are the consequences of shooting someone. They do it, and they don't care about how gore it looks or about the pain, very naive of you when thinking that people would change their minds about crime just because you showed them things that they already know. Specially in third world countries that's normal, you can't change human nature, we might live in societies but we will always be destructive towards other of our kind.
What a beautiful man and an articulate one in a second language.
I bet he worked as an English teacher in Germany.
In those days after WW1, not many people spoke a foreign language. One of the few opportunities for Germans to learn and speak English at that time was in high school - as students or teachers.
I assume that this recording was made after WW II, probably he was in his 20s during WW I, so he studied at a university after the war.
@@ruhri0411 He moved in England in 1930s because of the Nazi.. He was a medicine student in 1913, and in the second world war he took care of injured british soldiers.
This is by far the most profound, the most moving, the most thought-provoking thing I have ever watched on youtube. How it came into my recommendations, I have no idea, but I am so glad it did, and that I watched it.
same here
I've seen and come across a lot of deep things but this very, very powerful, no doubt about it.
If you want another video like that, here's one:
th-cam.com/video/lb13ynu3Iac/w-d-xo.html
This man, J. Robert Oppenheimer, was greatly involved in the Project Manhattan, that created the first nuclear bombs.
A few weeks later, his deadly creation was tested on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
This is the video of his regrets.
You'll never see someone as dead inside as this man,
for he became death, the destroyer of worlds.
@@LightSchiffer Ugh, yeah possibly but the only reason we haven't had major warfare is because of nukes. Greatest friend and worst enemy. th-cam.com/video/Qrze43Uchm8/w-d-xo.html - this is the best doc you will find on the manhattan project
“War is young men dying and old men talking”
― Franklin D. Roosevelt
Ironically from a man who ordered mass slaughter of civilians in other countries, and detention of his own citizens for the crime of being descended from certain other nationalities.
is he insulting himself?
@@Lucerna999 probably a fake a quote
@@SomeBody-rm6hf You don’t have to be innocent of a truth to know it exists.
Its probably a quote from someone older which he is ruefully repeating.
“How I wished he would have raised his hand.”
That part broke me. He grieved for that French soldier. There is no greater shame than that in all the ugliness of war, kind men such as he are forced to cast aside their humanity.
Yes, and what would have happened if he'd 'deserted' and refused to fight? He could have been shamed by his society, or even shot by a firing squad.
@@andrewtucker94 Desertion is punishable by death, and retreat is often not an option as failure, according to officers some officers and commanders, means you are not a solider, and those officers, most likely, do not know what it’s like to fight in a uncommon war.
Let’s not neglect the brainwashing. As a veteran, who did nothing extraordinary, but I remember the feelings my buddies and I would have in training. We literally would fantasize about killing the “enemy”. Little did we know the true enemy was our chain of command and the system that runs on the blood of the less fortunate.
@@nicolasarcana6139 There'll always be a perpetual question for every soldier. "What are we fighting for?"
We do it, so others don't have to.
You can see right in his eyes how pure and good his heart is. Truly amazing how he keept composure through the hole conversation.
I know not everybody enjoys being corrected, so don't take this the wrong way, but in this use it's 'whole' and not 'hole'.
@@h.c.49 appreciate that, and sorry
I'm an ex-soldier myself and I'm truly grateful that in my service I've never had to take another man's life. Had the circumstances been different I'm acutely aware that my adversary may have well been my best friend.
This is why I will always be eternally grateful that I've never had to take another man's life in war time.
Amen.
My utmost respects to you, sir.
Solution: stop joining the army to fight for the profit of a few
I was a rickshaw taxi driver for 7+ years in Budapest, and met many young British, American etc. lads here. Had good fun chatting while I drove them on sightseeing courses. Once on such occasion, I thought, "if we were born into the 1920s/30s, these nice guys would had been my mortal enemies".
Scary as hell.
@@yourimenlibar5879 Countries needed military to stop terrorism
Imagine how much more “personal” it is to actually stab someone or strangle them to death in war than to shoot from across a field
You see your enemy upfront. You can see his facial expressions, you can see him as a human being like you. I think Snipers have something similar. They scout HVTs for days and technically get to know them. It is onesided yeah but they start to know their target. What he does all day, his routines, maybe what he likes. And then if they have to. They kill them. It might not be totally the same, but this person isn't just a silhouette that you see from afar. It is a living person like yourself.
@@RenegadeSamurai it’s like a primitive way of thinking it’s like how a lion hunts their kill it’s a mindset no one can get used to I would imagine. Are you a combat vet yourself? Also, imagine living in a trench day in and day out with rats & disease & death all around you
@@RenegadeSamurai I know a lot of combat vets and the only one sniper for sure never talked about his kills, most do not and will not.
couple people id like to get personal with.....
War isn't just shooting across a field, it's not a video game.
Back then we used people called "tunnel rats" and all sorts of experimental weaponry from the flamethrower to mustard gas (both are banned in modern war by the Geneva convention)
Now we have special operatives (spec ops) every country gas it's own, I'm from the UK so it's SAS (special air services) and SBS (special boat services),
Russia has spetznaz,
America has navy seals, ect.
So what happens is you get you soldiers to take ground form a base of operations and push forward while you have you spec ops doing the up close and dirty (it should be noted this is only one example of what spec ops do they don't just fight in wars)
My point is war never changed we have been shooting across the battle field since we had bows the only thing that changed was the weapons.
Even ancient times used scouts, spys, assassins to do the dirty and even in today even the common soldier will have to learn CQC (close quarters combat) for when they have to do take a life and "see the white of the eye"
The fact that he was able to explain so beautifully exactly how he felt, so many years after the actual incident took place is astounding.
That is what makes it so powerful.
He explanes it in a beautiful way, it's incredible. Have u consider how much times he processed those moments? They were, very sadly, the most important moments of his life, the moment in which, for several circumstances, he killed a man.
th-cam.com/video/fTW9BBsLisYo/w-d-xo.htmloo
th-cam.com/video/fTW9BBsLisYo/w-d-xo.htmloo
th-cam.com/video/fTW9BBsLisYo/w-d-xo.htmloo
I wrote in wikipedia about him. A very honorable, respectable man. Wikipedia states that he helped both german and allied soldiers that suffered from poison gas attacks, which could have maybe led to trouble with the german military authority at that time, which shows his great philantropist side and his kind heart. That moved me deeply. The only good thing which is coming out of war is that there are people that can realy deeply explain you why war is horrible and should never occur. Never!
This man speaks English better than most English people. Harrowing.
Different generation back then... Those were real men, not the hurt-feeling pansies we are today...
@@joejohnson4456 this has not so much to do with emotions rather a higher iq than the average
This interview was taken in 1963. Stephen Westmann, the man being interviewed moved to England in the early 1930s. So no surprise he speaks English well, although with a thick German accent.
@@gta4haterhq IQ has little to do with literacy and eloquence, rather it is education that makes that distinction. IQ can only change the speed at which one is educated.
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This is insane, you feel his words and the weight he carries.
Try talking to some vets of our more recent wars.
That weight never changes.
The poor guy probably lived with major PTSD. The words are beautiful but the scars on his soul !
People didn't even know much about shell shock, now PTSD, back then. Soldiers suffering under PTSD were sent back because they were marked as fake and potential deserters.
@@Illusive1313 I know and yet the damages to their lives were there
Car
How he managed to feel that way after war, and be so articulate about it all is truly amazing.
Hi
Couldn't agree more!
And in English!
He probably remembers it clear as day, assuming it was his 1st kill
@@StrangeTamer178 hopefully, for him, his only
This actually made me cry a little from how humble he was.
Shame the lives of such young people have been taken away as a result of the ambitions of a few...
This was beautiful as it was heartbreaking. If everyone felt the way this man did, we wouldn't have war. Once power gets into a politician's head, it corrupts the mind
This is no that simple, 90 % of the french people wanted to fight germans to bring back Alsace-Lorraine region that they stole from us. And there is the same thing in other countries, this is not only poltics.
It would be nice if what your suggesting is true, that simply the problem is power corrupted politicians. Unfortunately reality doesn't care about your simplistic view of the situation, its much more complicated than that. Kill or be killed isn't just something that applies to war times but also international politics too. People want conflict, on a deep level, and they will find it one way or another.
@@Prometheus7272 *some people want conflict
@@pavroka5622 To be fair, all of Europe was but one big melting pot with all big powers competing in an insane arms race, war was inevitable. One has to remember that prior to WWI, war was not regarded as despicable or cruel but as a legit means of politics. That view only just began to change with WWI because WWI exceeded all previous wars in terms of cruelty and loss of life.
@@Prometheus7272 People want conflict based on inheritance imposed through millions of years of evolution. Conflict and avarice for killing are based on Darwinian selection. Some have the IQ to rise above it, and some don't. What used to work well as violence in the interests of competition in the Stone Age is now obsolete, especially if people want civilization to survive. The people who want violence to continue are the war industry types who make money off the violence they scheme to bring about. What is simplistic is to play along with the direction they want to steer you like sheep or cattle.
"Anything else?" He asks right after flexing his impeccable storytelling skills
That's not a made-up story you can see it in his eyes
@@jpguidry6969 - I don’t think he meant this is made up, but rather tried to point how mission focused the man is, so much he doesn’t take the leisure time after pouring this personal traumatic story, in a sharp detailed way.
Maybe the old man was still a soldier in battlefield in some way, it is common among those who suffer PTSD.
Look ay his reaction when the durector says cut, he id trying hard to control his tears
Are eldery skills, my grandfather Also tells on a special way a story
Yeah
Anyone who has ever looked into the glazed eyes of a soldier dying on the battlefield will think hard before starting a war. ~Otto von Bismarck
Germans 21 years after the great war: I think we need a sequel
@@Weisior and it was started by a guy who was in those trenches and saw those things
Or it started by some guys who had never visited a trench in their life and they were living comfortably in their offices in Paris and London.
I just find it ironic that he said that considering he started countless of wars in the name of uniting germany.
@@carl4243 I don't know if I'd call it ironic. I think it's moreso telling of the drive and passion that people have. To some, uniting their people/nation is the highest calling.
The highest of respect to this gentleman, who talks so honestly and open-heartedly about the cruelties of war, when he was born in a generation, where talking about your feelings was not really commonplace.
Also respect for his really proper english, it has astonished me, that he‘s able to talk so fluently in a foreign language in his generation.
He seems like a very honest and likeable human being.
It is quite unusual for a man of his generation to be that fluent in English as it wasn't regularly taught at school back then like it is today. But this is Stephan Westmann, he was a student of medicine at the time he was drafted. After The Great War he became Professor at the Berlin University but migrated to the UK when the national socialists took over. He had a medical practice there and lived in the UK until his death in the mid-1960's (shortly after this interview actually) which would explain his proficiency in the English language.
@@cenorexia Wow thank you for your reply! I really didn‘t know that. Great to learn, who this gentleman was, thank you!
how old are you sir?
@@ashokiimc Do you mean me? I‘m 26 years old, no need to call me sir 😉
@@schonski7260 ah cool bro. You from Germany?
No film in the world brings anyone closer to war than an eyewitness account. And yet it is still miles away from what you feel when you yourself are in such a situation and have to fight in a war. Thank you for this special clip. I hope we learn from it.
This man I can call a hero of war.
Not because he killed the enemy,
but because he kept his humanity.
@Anifco67 learn the definition of murder and combat, kid.
And the french ???
@@Falconicoco exactly the same. If they didn't fight they'd have been court marshaled too
Hitler is a murderer
A German soldier is a fighter
They both live in war
Just analyze what they do and you will realize the difference of killing people and killing soldiers during war.
@@ilmonachefabestemmiaregerm6364
Especially considering the time period. German soldiers today are trained to know wrong from right. Soldiers back then were trained to never question orders.
One of the most painfully sad stories.
He spoke eloquently, better English than some English people I know.
Yes, no subtitles were needed. His English was excellent.
And no doubt my English brother speaks better German than some Germans. What of it? What a pointless comment.
@@danielstirling88 You clearly took that comment personal. On a video about a man looking into the dying eyes of the man he had just killed....maybe tone it down a bit.
@Good try You mean the all-powerful God that is all-knowing and all-powerful that is responsible for him being there in the first place? God put him there in a situation of kill or be killed then proceeded to personally haunt him for taking such actions to protect himself? God damn what a cruel sadistic little bitch. I pray your god burns in hell.
I am sceptical about the authenticity here. First he says he puts the bayonet into the French soldier's chest 0:48, and later he says his belly 3:45
This makes me cry
What a man he is
First row of any battle should be the politicians who promoted the war.
Yeah, there would be fewer wars. It's always easy to start a war when it's someone else who'll have to be in mortal danger because of it.
@Bigg GIB'S fun house oy vey shut it down
@Dean SpencerPoland got invaded, and there was nothing really stopping it, since Germany was preparing for it for a long time,
So not sure what do you mean by Poland starting a war, it could surrender without any resistance, I guess, but it doesn't sound like good solution, lol.
@@lscibor it wasnt just Germany that invaded Poland though russia split up Poland with Germany before Germany carried on trying to take over other countries and russia was just watching close to make sure it was Russia next
@Dean Spencer Lol, so give Germans Czech because they need it and it's important, give them Danzig/Gdańsk because it's important too, and what next?
What should France have done to avoid invasion in 1940?
Avoiding confrontation was exactly the policy of western European powers and it failed miserably,.
Polish goverment would have to be completely braindead to hand powerful port city to aggressive neighbor, especially with it's frail economy. It would only encourage them further too.
German were interested in violence and conquest and it became apparent just few weeks after invasion of Poland where various atrocities and ethnic cleansings started.
You are really writing this as if 3rd Reich regime had been reasonable one, and we all know it wasn't true at all...
War : a massacre of people who don't know each other for the profit of people who know each other but don't massacre each other.
- Paul Valery -
so we should massacre those who dont massacre each other
@@danielsteger8456 if the people who force you to fight is not mentally stable and very unwell to rule... then yes. Revolution
@@danielsteger8456 Only war is class war.
@Linh Nguyen are you Vietnamese? Are you opposed to the communist government there? Because if you are then I understand why you don’t like that comment, it has a Hegelian/Marxist framework, class warfare and all that.
True
Watching this nearly made me cry, this man is truly a beautiful pure soul, such an amazing spirit. He is the definition of a heart of gold
Rip Stephen Westmann (1893-1964). He was 71. Press F for respect
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So sad when you realize they were mostly just boys of 18 or 19 when they had to experience those horrors
@Tu Shan therr was a 13 yr old at the Somme
A lot of them were also 15-16
shut war fun
@@idk.904 I shouldn’t respond but I know your a troll.
@@bigmoniesponge im serious
Native English speakers can’t phrase as eloquently as this man. Clearly a very very intelligent man.
@@kiddhkane what lie?
@@theschnitzelunion5419 Just don't react on such stupidity - it's a waste of time.
@@kiddhkane lie?
He probably wrote it down beforehand, which isn't a bad thing at all. If your words are precise, then you can hit way deeper spots in the human consciousness and subconsciousness
@@crankletsplay1 writing it down would be hard for many people still.
I've watched this multiple times now & it blows me away every time. I don't think its so much a story about killing a man as it is a story about the death of ones humanity in war.
I'm the great-great-grandson of a fallen WW1 soldier, who fought under the Union Jack and died in hospital only months before the armistice, and this brought me to tears. I've never gotten to know any of my relatives that fought in world wars, both my paternal great-grandfathers (WW2) passed before I was born and my maternal great-grandfathers, both gone now as well, were born in the mid-30s so "missed out", but I honestly hope that had my great-great-grandad Private AV Tizard had grown old with such dignity and grace, and compassion, as Corporal Westmann. Rest in peace Corporal, and may your compassionate testimony and humanity survive forever
This should be shown in schools to give kids the realities of war.
you have missed the point of his story entirely. He is not giving an antimilitarist, pacifist message; he is rather saying that all the culture and rationality we believe to be the children of, is but a thin layer that will chip off when war starts. He is describing man as the animal it is and no message of peace or next-love will ever change it.
This should be shown at every WH cabinet meeting and every session of Congress.
They said that about the movie All Quiet on the Western Front. (There were three versions of the film.)
@@amoreazione3563 True. But it still should be shown. It gives insight to what it felt to be in the war.
@@amoreazione3563 I don't think that is all he meant. That was one point of him yes, that under certain circumstances mankind can degrade into the state of heartless animals again. But he also critized those who made the decision to start the war and war in general. He does not say it, but it is in the way how he talks about the Frenchman he killed, that he could have shaken his hand and be best friends with this person and he had nothing personally against him, but they were forced to kill each other just because they wore different uniforms and spoke different languages. He blames war for the fact that it transformed him and his companions from civilized humans into killing animals.
If you believe he did not critize war and think his standpoint is not pazifistic, then I think you didn't get his message...
He describes his PTSD from the situation, citing no sleep, cold sweats, night terrors. It's almost like both men are doomed either way, one suffers a painful death, the other lives with the haunting memory/ramifications of taking a life.
exactly.. that's why war is never an answer
@@saddreams3449 well we'd be speaking German right now if it wasn't for that war.. sometimes necessary lol
@@willnyethehockeyguy5828 This is WW1 tho not WW2. And WW2 came because of WW1 so...
@@willnyethehockeyguy5828 Some of us speak German either way, what's your point? The French speak french still. Invading someone with an army is not enough to destroy them culturally. The English understood that which is why we're speaking it right now.
For thousands of years, one had to be close to the enemy to kill. Now, even though you can shoot an artillery piece or drop a bomb without any idea whether you have killed someone, or control a drone and kill onscreen, soldiers still suffer nightmares for decades.
Think of how many men have had the same experience as this man, of killing someone close enough to bleed on you. The collective trauma of warfare can only be guessed at.
You cannot put a price on little video clips like these--the faces of the men who were there, telling those little individual horror stories that comprise the great trauma of the Great War. I am very glad that Herr Westmann was able to share this with us.
i'm crying and my throat hurts
its so heartbreaking that people had to go through all that and even though the war ended. the trauma stays for life
An honest man with honest feelings. Killing somebody up close is something that changes you forever, not like dropping bombs or shooting an artillery shell from 12 miles away.
Especially when You gotta stab 'em. Gotta get up close and personal, so close that You can smell 'em. So close that You can hear "Death's Rattle". But if you're quick and depending where ya get 'em and what You're using (sharpened Flat-head works too well). It can be quick. Shitty thing about dying is how "cold" it feels, among other things like how the "cold" eminates from "the Blue". If You're Lucky in Life, Ya Die Quickly Once. Sadly, I've only been Lucky in Death...for now anyway. Maybe 3rd Time's the Charm, but that ain't up for Me to decide. So It Goes
@@danielb7117 not many people know what a death rattle is...glad you brought that up. Unless shot directly in the head, most of the time it takes multiple shots or bayonet thrusts to kill someone. If you have been there, you know..it is not like the crap you see in hollywood. Let the politicians go to war, keep your kids from it.
@dadad adqwdqq are you a vegan?
@dadad adqwdqq they’re animals, not people so why would we care?
@Captain Canuck sentient, thus, not sapient, they are not aware of themselves, they are aware they exist but not of their conscious like we are, mind you I do think we should be more humane towards our farm animals, but ultimately they are biologically below us, and that’s to say nothing of the bugs the commenter had originally mentioned, which barley even feel pain as we do.
Respect to this man, at the end of the day, they were all scared, young men, forced to fight for something they didn't start, may he and the fallen soldiers rest in peace
no, not all soldiers were like this
Well said.
@@bolloxed1056 yeah, maybe a lot of them but I have no doubt that patriotic and crazy soldiers that just wanted to kill others where in all sides of the war
@@sebastianestrada4690 yeah
It's honestly saddening to see history repeat itself
My great great great uncle fought in WWI as an Austrian Soldier and was killed in the war. I don’t know if he died a soldier or a prisoner but to think that ordinary men can turn to killers so quickly baffles me. War tears us apart and all you can do is to kill others so you don’t die. My great great great uncle was unfortunately on the receiving end of a man that did not want to die himself, only fearing because they were wearing different uniforms. I don’t k ow much about him but I imagine he was a young man when he died, robbed of his life over the death of an iconic figure.
They must show this in schools. Never forget what war is.
"War is when the young and stupid are tricked by the old and bitter into killing each other." - Niko Bellic
I mean maybe tricked before but nowadays in my country becoming a solider is one of a very few ways out of poverty in many areas. It’s what the establishment consciously relies on for a steady stream of personnel.
i play gta 4 too lol
I searched for this comment^^
@@namedrop721 that's what he means by tricked.
“Cousin! Let’s go bowling!”
To have to kill a man you have never met, because he will kill you first is deeply thought provoking.
It's kill or be killed. You don't think you just act because that's what's expected of you. There's a fair likelihood under any other circumstance that you could be good friends but because it's a battlefield, wearing different uniforms, you're mortal enemies. Soldiers have to tell themselves that the enemy is less than human. Demonize them. They're monsters. But are they really?
@@OnePolishMoFo They needed to dehumanize the enemy because when you think about it too long, you see yourself in them. That frightens many soldiers so they shut themselves off from their emotions. Many take their own lives because of what they do. A sad reality
@@snakevenom4954 I think they should know they are human and it could be them and the same reaonings and feelings.
We should understand what we are doing and why it must be done. Lying to them and then them reflecting is what causes PTSD unless they had a traumatic attack done to them by another instead of the killing themselves
Indubitably..
Even sadder when the guy you have to kill is in the exact same situation as you
this guy seems to have more respect for human life than most people nowadays. it's funny how we still keep fighting and war still going. the more things change the more it stays the same
And it seems like, common people have not respected life even back then.
Its like humanity would never learn. The only thing that we learned is how to make better weapons to kill better. You said it, we are tricked into comitting those mistakes over and over, because the more the things changes, the more they stay the same.
A beautiful testimony. Any universal soldier who has kept his humanity could say the same after having gone through such an ordeal. "War is a massacre between people who don't know each other, to the benefit of people who know each other but never kill each other" (translated from Paul Valéry).
Wow.. Makes you silent.. Sad story. And it's the same with all wars.. Even if you survive the war, you will forever have those horrible memories.
So hard to grasp, this is a powerful video. These boys (either faction) put their life on the line to fight for a political cause, its almost sickening. Soldiers in that position deserve nothing but respect for the fact they might be scarred mentally or physically for the rest of their lives.
Love your channel btw! :)
It’s nice to see you here History Secrets, that was indeed a very powerful story he told. I can’t imagine what it would be like to have to live with those memories
Its terrefying and Horible what soldiers had to go through on all sides in all wars
@@lazykoalabros6254 War is destruction for personal gain, it all starts about land, resources, race, even opinion. I hate it, I despise the people who make others fight in their place, who make them throw their lives away for a cause that will not benefit them.
@@lovesiccat “Every soldier on every front, is a man trapped in something they have no control over”
That's a wise man. Every army's worst fear, a soldier with a brain and a heart.
yeah, because every soldier is just a dumb and bloodthirsty robot. If you dont know what youre talking about, just stfu, srsly.
@@sethael1741 A certain degree of dumbness or better say a non-reflective, non-emphatic attitude(?) which does not mean a lack of intelligence necessarily, for that matter, is pretty useful in an army. To have mentally sensible people who reflect on their actions, who have emphathy for the enemy makes them unreliable in combat to a certain degree in the longer run. That is what every army tries to avoid by training on neutral targets, neutralizing language "soft target", "collateral damage", "engaging" the enemy...not fighting, killing, butchering them, blowing civilians to hell,,.... you know the game very well, so why reacting that harsh? He is right in essence.
Seth ael imagine being so sad that you shit talk everything on the internet, stay sad
@@kunai1362 true
@@sethael1741 You must have some shrewd balls saying that in this specific video in the internet.
Incredibly heartbreaking to hear this. Glad he was able to talk about it, bottling up something like that must be incredibly hard on your mental health. It's sad to me that so many normal and otherwise friendly people were forced to do horrible things because people in power demanded it.
I just want to hold this man's hand, thank him, and tell him how much his words mean to the world...how much his perspective means to human understanding and growth.
I could only imagine the French soldier was thinking the same thing, at the same moment, but just more hesitant. And that ended up being the last thing that he did, the world is so strange
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Gotta stop eating snails.
@@777SNYM You're a funny man aren't you
@@777SNYM gotta stop eating cheeseburger and fries American
This message will echo forever. But will fall on deaf ears forever.
That might be his point.
The hammer that fell from the mans hand with the intent or hurting another will echo throughout the time but that very echo will never be heard at all by the ones who are going to pick the hammer themselves
Come again ?
But my words, like silent raindrops fell
And echoed
In the wells of silence
Only if thats what you believe
My grandfather never spoke too seriously of his time in WWII, his way of dealing with the sacrifice of his youth was through humour (in the most dark British way). When we had to care for him as his Alzheimer's got bad at around 93/94 years of age the effects of the war really came back. Once we took him to church at Christmas for midnight mass along with my parents. During the service I noticed Grandad getting distressed and starting to cry (I’d never seen him get emotional like this and it was shocking to see as his generation clearly hid this from everyone)
When I tried to comfort him he said to me “ I don’t belong here” Why? “Because I’ve killed people” It was so hard to know what to say and to see such a proud, strong man break down like this.
At the time the church had many people from so many races, nationalities & backgrounds around us. Also as it was Christmas service there were representatives from local Muslim, Jewish & Sikh communities attending. All I could say to him was “look at the people around you, look at their children playing together in the church. YOU DID THIS! Everything you had to sacrifice, everything you had to do meant something. We are all here together, all races, religions, backgrounds. Together. United. Free. Because of what you fought for."
In war; there’s one person that truly wins. The Grim Reaper. 💀
"We could have been best friends,he was just like me.We only spoke another laguage and wore different uniforms.” Got me.He grieved for the French soldier.War really ruins things.He is/was a good man🙏🏼❤️
Well... it doesn’t ruin anything no matter what anyone says, it’s the way to make change, that’s how they freed the slaves, do you really think slavery would’ve died out in even a few generations? Even if every us president was against it it would still thrive.
@@SupaSillyThyme in a way, u could say it ruined slavery and it’s popularity
@@TheShrewdMonarch ya, besides thats ignoring that people would juts go into assasinations and that business would flourish if war didnt happen
@@SupaSillyThyme fighting for something you believe in, ie freeing slaves, is different from fighting people you don't know without having anything personal against them, ie two countries going to war. In the first case you know you're doing this for the "greater good", you're freeing slaves. But in the latter, you don't really know why you're going to war, do you? What do you gain out of it? You're just getting told and given demands, without reason, really.
My grandfather was a gunner in the Merchant Fleet during WWII and he said much the same. He had nothing against the German pilots and if they'd met at a bar instead of in a war they could have been friends. Instead he tried to kill them and their friends as they tried to kill him and his friends.
Great Grandfather ( german WW I soldier ) said once to me: After battle you could hear the whispering, sometimes shouting of one common word over all trenches whitch made him think how absurd war is: "Mama"
watch?v=waKuuEwq0fo these old men fought the italian invasion of greece on the 2nd world war. You can understand what they are saying just looking at their eyes.
"we were hearing the people we shot lying there screaming 'aqua' and 'mama'"
"there were italian kids, i didn't want to shoot them, but they killed my friends left and right, i was on the machine gun, i didnt want to, they were kids, but i killed them all... how will my soul present itself to god, i m going to hell"
war has been portrayed as heroic and fun, good guys vs bad guys, but war is ugly and fought by men that do not wish it
Yes I have heard the same .
@@gloth Unless a nation's life faces peril, war is murder. Those poor people fought to defend their homeland and in the end they take all the burden on themselves.
An old Somme veteran who my dad knew said exactly the same thing.
And yet it goes on still,it always will and rarely solves anything.
@@jefftaylor4707 War makes a few a massive profit, they supply both sides.
He spend his life saving people, made a oath as a physician to save people, and then its confronted with a necessity of taking the life of all people that it´s not from the same side.
Life brings us to really dificult situations. His words however are of an enormous generosity!
A beautiful soul put into an obnoxious situation. And he was so right, hand to hand combat has to be the cruelest situation a soldier can be placed in. Good on him. Vale.
"And he died. I felt physically ill. I nearly vomited. My knees were shaking..."
It's unimaginable what war is really like. Just trying to picture the scene this veteran describes sends shivers down my spine.
Yeah, wars and taking lifes in general are not as fun as movies make it seem...most of the time you are high on Adrenaline and once it wears of it all comes crashingdown
@@kam6206 yeah there’s this sniper who within his first 3 months of his first deployment racked up 33 confirmed kills, he said his first kill, he couldn’t sleep, he’d close his eyes and see that mans face everytime he closed his eyes. He said as his deployment went on and the more people he’d kill, he’d have night,weed where he sees all their faces flash through. He said it really haunted him, it’s a nightmare he still has constantly, seeing all the faces of the men he’s killed.
@@dongambino5308 Honestly I think the second kill is always worse because most of the time you got the burden of the first on your shoulders
Mom's spaghetti
Worms do not have a spine.
It is way too convenient that he is a WWI veteran since there are 0 of them alive today to confirm the story.
It is also too convenient that it is published by a dude on TH-cam but I can't find the original BBC video.
Here be dragons, terrorists, plagiarists, trademark infringers, pirates of all kind and you be one of them.
This should be seen by the world. This is a lesson taught again and again in time just for us to ignore it and continue to fight? This man is truly an amazing person for not only seeing the human in himself, but his adversary.
Because there are people in the world that make profit out of war. And dehumanizes others for it.
History doesn't repeat it self *man does*
We would have no more “good soldiers” as this man put it, and while I know that I could not fathom my reaction to the same situation as he was in, I would hope that I could see the humanity in my enemy and the animal in me, while acknowledging the impersonal attribute that all wars carry between the soldiers on the ground, standing across from one another, both sides human and animal
@Neen Alladeem Beautifully worded.
@Caio Prado Careful with your next few words. Remember who runs the show.
“the good soldier kills without thinking of his adversary as a human being. The very moment he sees in him a fellow man, he is not a good soldier anymore.” - this is what someone told Stephan Westtman (a WW1 veteran) during the great war.
It's a shame to live in a world where philosophies like this exist.
As a retired US Marine, I only have one word about his words as a fellow Warrior... Wow...
You call yourself a warrior... very cringe bro, all you did was destroy either Vietnam or the middle east, nothing to be proud of.
How's that different.. we're listening to a German soldier here
@@Dale-TND you should shame yourself, those soldiers fight so guys like you can have freedome stop talking shit to those brave man .
@@SiqZR6 not so easy... Maybe you should say this gentleman truly believe in his duty, and I respect him, but he is also a pawn in the hands of criminal American politicians. USA is responsible for a lot of wars, golpes and murders all over the world. And for being the only ones who dropped not one but two nukes over unarmed civilians. A crime toward all umankind.
lol, Americans
I can imagine that if that French soldier was faster, then he would be thinking and saying the same things as this man
My great great grandfather was a French soldier in WWI and killed a German with his bayonet. No need to imagine, he has the exact same feeling indeed.
Yes, I would hope so. Or he could be like this German soldiers' comrades, unfazed by it all - I guess it depends to what level the individual lets the war machine indoctrinate and desensitize them. So sad :(
@@chrisvanegmond3157 or he might've been killed by said comrades, meaning he wouldn't even have the chance to...
@@chrisvanegmond3157 He may have said they were unfazed. And thats what he thought he sawe. You never know what's going on in People's minds and hearts. Especially if there is a superior officer next to you. I am sure he looked unfazed himself to others that moment.
@@TempestPoet yeah maybe they boasted to show that they're "good soldiers" while they were in front of others
War is hell
this video was blessed by yt recommendations. It must be a message for all of us
So true.
The the man truly conveyed the ugliness and horror of war.
Stfu mate
And that means it is not for real and just propaganda cus yt promotes antifa and George Soros leftist attackes and they suppress those telling the truth.
Wow I have chills&and thrills
@@blacknoir1716 u hurt me
This should be shown in every World War history class.
His words are not only expressed so beautifully and powerfully, they are done so in a second language. He has a better command of the English Language than many native english speakers.
I hope this man is resting in peace. A good man like this who did bad things doesn’t deserve to be punished, he’s been punished enough.
Agreed. He already lived the rest of his life in his own personal Hell for what he was forced to do.
@@Eyes0penNoFear What bad things did he do? He wasn't a Nazi, Nazi's didn't exist yet.
@@Dee-nonamnamrson8718 he was forced to kill that soldier, to take a life. You can see in his face when he tells the story that he was still dealing with the inner demons from his actions.
@@Eyes0penNoFear It's not an immoral act to take an enemy soldiers life during a conflict. It's your duty as a soldier.
Yeah, poor him. Forget the people he killed, right?
This man's story-telling skills are on a whole other level, I could listen to him all day
The crazy part is that he’s just recounting his memory.. Hard to relate to what he experienced.
Serious question, is this real?
A while ago I watched a "documentary" about the War of the Worlds where they used actors to tell their perspectives as if they were actually present back then, this video gives me exactly that same vibe, the sound and video are both really good to actually be from a black/white era, and the way he tells his tale is way too perfect, so I would really like to know if this is fake.
@@gerhardsmith7892 Hey Gerhard, I looked into this video more and it definitely seems to be real. The veteran's name is Stefan Westmann and he even has his own Wikipedia page: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephan_Westmann
@@purplyicy4658
Very interesting, thank you so much for clarifying that!
The good soldier fights for a day where men like them are no-longer needed. This man is a masterpiece of humanity.-- something war has lost-- humanity. War once had it--- and chivalry. WW1 was the end of that.
This was so amazing. I am grateful this man was apart of this world. If only we had more people like him in the world today. Since I was a child I have been fascinated with the experience of combat. I think because it is so foreign to my life's experience I can't even fathom the magnitude of living through events like this gentleman described. The difference in my life today to other's around the world today is so great. All the turmoil in the Middle East, Africa, even in places in my own country like Chicago and so many other places. I'm of Norwegian and Irish decent and I usually think of Norway as a very peaceful country but they just suffered the loses of that bow attack...
Dear Lord, please bless the people of this world, especially those who are suffering things that I cannot even imagine. We are not so different as people, though circumstances may differ I believe you created us all with love and because of that, we should, like this gentleman, respect the life of all no matter the differences. Thank you for blessing us with kind souls like this man to remind me of how special all life truly is because only you have the power to create life. I love you.
Amen.
God bless you all.
I hope you met that French soldier on the other side, sir. I hope you got that handshake and all your guilt and sadness was washed away when you looked in his eyes again.
That's beautiful Robert. I hope so too.
thats really beautiful. i agree
@@Ronnie-Jones this guys an alt right spam bot he responded to half the comments here with that...
if someone stuck a bayonet into my chest i wouldn't forgive them. in this life or any afterlife either.
@@jackoff4052 than you did't understand this man.
My grandfather, who served in the Manchester Regiment, once told me that sometimes, a German soldier opposite them would shout across in English, asking if anyone knew so-and-so from Manchester. Once, they took some Bavarians prisoner and one had been a barber in Derby before the war. He swapped a razor for a tin of cigarettes. I use it today. Good Solingen steel and it still keeps a good edge. My granddad said, like this gentleman, in other circumstances, they would have been the best of mates.
my grandfather ( german WW2 soldier ) spend his last years in Spain with grandma; she complained that he spend most time working with the english neighbour ( also WW2 soldier ) altough they could hardly ever understand each other
My Grandpa told my father he was so glad as the word behind him were: "Hans, put down the gun". He told my father he had such a "good" time in england, and the germans and the english people had a very nice time there in jersey. War ist just sad, people kill each other without any sense..
British soldiers who captured Germans troops were suprised how decent were the Germans compared to the Frenchs and did not really understand why they were at war against them. At the same time they could observe that unlikely the others, Prussians were arrogant and inflexible.
i remember seeing a letter in a case at the Imperial War Museum. The letter was written by a Londoner after the famous Christmas Truce in 1914. The soldier wrote his parents that he'd met a German, "a nice bloke who once lived on the Holburne Rd around the corner from our house before the war."
Thats a world war for you.
Stephan Kurt Westmann (23 July 1893 - 7 October 1964) for those wondering who he was and wanna learn more
I feel bad for the Germans in WW1, getting dragged into a war they didn’t start, then getting all the blame. It makes the events leading up to WW2 back a lot more sense when you learn about it.
Not quite sure that is an accurate description of events. Germany actively encouraged the Austro-Hungarians to initiate the war.
Gavrilo Princip was conned into shooting Archduke Ferdinand. Easy to do, as he thought it was good for his country. In reality, Ferdinand was one of the best friends the Serbs could have among the leadership of Austria, which is why the warmongers wanted him gone. Kind of like if JFK the peacemaker gets killed, his death was supposedly going to be a rallying cry pretext to invade Cuba (if people had bought the fabricated lie that Oswald was a Castro commie). So, front men for the British caused Princip to do the assassination and Austria responded predictably. Russia had to help their Slavic cousins and that brought in Germany predictably.
Now England had a cause of action against Germany (along with France) and what do you know? Germany lost all kinds of colonies in Africa and the Middle East, and Britain and France just happened to be standing around to pick them up. Hitler was posed and financed into his job by the Bush Dynasty, Dulles brothers manipulations, Harriman, and other bankers. They knew Hitler was a rabid psychotic nut case primed to go for a world war against primarily Russia, and voila! Helping fund Hitler got them a big big war where they could make big bucks. Germany got suckered into two world wars, and now Putin has been suckered into attacking Ukraine. More money for the war industry that switched from Afghanistan to Ukraine as soon as our Kremlin spies understood Putin was going for the bait. The people who aspire to something for nothing are the easiest ones to con.
The Germans deserve no sympathy even to this day
@@thecookj454 you only think that because you don’t know enough
@@jacobsacres6038 They started one of the most extreme extermination campaigns in history (aka the holocaust). They deserve zero sympathy. Most Germans are still racist bigots to this day. They were absolute barbaric savages with no humility and deserve no sympathy for either war they participated in. When more time passes they will be forgiven.
A lost generation, gone but not forgotten.
This should be the lesson one of history class in every country
Absolutely
The presidents would not want the masses to see this, their armies would stop fighting eachother.
@@ThomasStuart stfu civilian
I'm going to be a history teacher (or at least its my goal) and this is one of the things I want to teach.
@@Frobbl Agreed, this is absolutely the wrong lesson to be teaching. Teach the rights and wrongs of war, and expose the wrongdoings of the elites and establishment, but never, ever teach your kid to hesitate or show mercy in a life or death battle. They don't even have to go to war to face such a scenario.
His English is exceptionally good. No surprise BBC wanted him to go on air and describe the sheer horror of war.
It‘s perfect on the one hand, on the other hand it sounds more german than the german spoken by some germans...
@@Thomas_Bergel yeah I hate it when my german parents say "sis" instead of "this" 😭
You know you watch too much porn when you have to think about what "BBC" means
@@userLeckerButtermilch That's how many people in germany learn english. I also said it that way, because my teacher told me, it was right. I only learned to say it the right way after I watched hundreds of TH-cam videos. Nowadays I help students, if they have pronunciation issues as much as I can.
@@crankletsplay1 where are you from?
That's a man that spent a whole lifetime thinking about it and didn't mess around telling it.
Spoken like a wise man may God grant him eternal glory
My grandpa survived the Spanish Civil War. Once he said to me: "I never, ever, shoot to anybody during all my service. War is the most futile thing I've ever seen, and war among brothers is the most terrible one." I've remembered him as I was hearing the attitude of this WW1 veteran.
Most people aren't actually evil.
I hope that your Grampa lived well.
¿Era un paracaidista de la 8va compañía?
@@toothpastemain and what does this have to do with the mans grandfather, who fought in the *SPANISH CIVIL WAR* ?
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Its amazing how articulate he is considering English isnt his first language
@Fuck You.
@Fuck You no u
Huh? You do realise there are people who can speak other languages fluently. I have a friend who speaks four languages fluently without an accent. She can switch between them with ease.
@@BrianHAviation he might be a troll, I mean look at his username
@@BrianHAviation yes, but please consider that english was NOT taught in schools the way it is today, especially not in Germany in these days. The ones who learned more than the basics had a more profound knowledge of it back then, than nowaydays, that may be true. As it is with almost all sciences and so on. German schools were very very strict and the niveau was excellent.
His words are haunting, especially during this time. I honestly believe most people on this earth are good and do good deeds. It's only a small percentage that lust after ultimate power and are completely corrupted. Unfortunately those people often times ruin it for the rest of humanity. They ruin it for people who just want to live a good life, live in peace, have opportunities and prosperity. Evil exists in this world. There are people who possess no empathy for their fellow humans. We need to stop giving those people the power that they so desperately want and choose wisely who we elect into powerful positions.
During WW1 my grandfather (German) was a very young soldier in Verdun too. He told the following story: One day he and his group got the order to storm the "enemies´" (French) position. They jumped out of the ditches and ran towards the other side. My grandfather soon got shot into both his legs, fell down and lay on the ground. Immediately afterwards a French soldier stood over him with his gun and a bayonet attached on the front of it. My grandfather expected to get stabbed to death like he had seen so often. Instead the French soldier hanged his gun over one of his shoulders, took my grandfather onto his other shoulder and brought him to a French lazarette. That´s how my grandfather became POW. Here´s the interesting part: When my grandfather - a farmer´s son from rural north-western Germany, who in those days had probably never seen someone from abroad - referred to the French soldier he said (in flat German dialect): "This guy was t-o-t-a-l-l-y black ... as black as coal." I recently asked a friend of mine from France what this could mean, and he said that the French army had soldiers from Senegal fighting and that they were usually the first ones who had to run against the (German) enemy thus having to bear the highest risk. It´s quite impressive that this guy (from Senegal) had nonetheless the courage and humanity to save a live instead of ending it. Humanity is possible - even at war. (Greetings to the people of Senegal.) :-) P.S.: My grandfather told this story to his son/my father (a little boy of 13 during WW2) and my father much later told it to me.
very interesting story , thank you for sharing it !
Humanity exists, but it must be hard when there is war..
He was very Lucky. Normaly that means dead.
you can thank this french soldier even today for your own life. without his decision you and probably your children would'nt even exist
Thank you for sharing this story with us. It is very moving. The action of this young man amidst the barbarism of war made it possible for you to be able to re-tell the story today. Thank you.
I could never imagine doing anything like this. I would be the one dying probably.
Yeah you would
@@Combative and so?
Don't you see it doesn't matter in the long run?
This old man died too murdering someone.
@@pessimistkai5569 It's not a murder.
@@adanakebap101 it's still takes a toll on a person
I think I would die too. I just could not do it
Impressive story.
I think that back in those days and despite the horrors of this war, there was still more humanity than we could imagine.
It reminds me of a story of my great grand father, when he was a Belgian soldier during the great war.
He was crawling in the trenches one day when he suddenly stood eye to eye with a German soldier. They looked at each other for a few seconds and then they just turned their backs and each went their own way. "Why I didn't kill him? He did not do anything wrong to me, nor did he have the intention", he explained later.
As this soldier said, these men were just regular people. Farm hands, students, a baker, shop keeper,... And they all hated the war equally. No matter which side you were on.
When I was a kid, my dad and I met an American WW2 veteran who had a sadder story. He said that one day he was in the woods and was separated from his squad, so he was alone. He was shot at by a sniper, who missed, but he dropped and feigned death to avoid drawing more fire. He heard the shooter approaching, so he subtly drew his sidearm underneath his coat; when the shooter turned over his body, hoping to get a look or maybe loot his body, the American shot and killed him, only to be horrified by the realization that it was a young boy, probably in his late teens. The American was a little bit older, I think he said his mid 20s when this happened. I can only imagine what he must have carried with him through the remainder of his life after that
English isn't his first language yet he speaks more coherently than most English-speaking people.
We are often more articulate in learned languages than in native ones because by the time you get fluent enough in another language to use or understand idiom/slang/informal speech, you've spent so much time drilling the correct grammar and structure into your brain already.
Wow, its almost like he learned the English language academically and not through casual immersion?? 🤯