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All Quiet on the Western Front 1525 Views


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Description:

Brace yourselves, this one's going to get sad fast. Not all war stories are tales of heroism and saving privates named Ryan. 


Transcript

00:00

Thank you all quiet on the western front Allah shmoop

00:06

good talk The name's paul All bomber Who am i

00:11

Well i'm just your typical teenager I like hanging with

00:14

my pals knocking back a few pepsi's at the end

00:17

of the day and writing oh i also happen to

00:20

have a little experience with killing and a lot with

00:22

death but more on that later if i'm telling my

00:26

story i'm going to start at the beginning and that

00:28

means going to the front lines All of my classmates

00:31

were there serving the fatherland Our teacher mr canto wrecked

00:35

saw to that he said we were the iron youth

00:39

Makes us sound kind of indestructible doesn't it But tell

00:41

that to ben I'd rather not see that kind of

00:44

death again but pima certainly wasn't in a isolated case

00:49

One hundred fifty men went to the front eighty came

00:52

back I wish i could say that my company escaped

00:55

death but that's Not quite How war works There was

00:58

franz kemmerich who lost his leg and his life a

01:01

week later I never really thought about death much before

01:04

that But well you watch a man crying as he

01:06

dies You might start to think about it too I

01:09

knew other guys though was mueller He took kemmerich surprised

01:13

boots before camera was even cold He didn't hold on

01:16

along though it was albert crop He had some colonies

01:19

but not even go home He's khun save you on

01:21

the battlefield Our platoon was young but we grew up

01:24

fast You don't really have a choice when you're forced

01:27

to watch your friends dying Maybe that's less growing up

01:30

and more complete suppression of emotion But how else do

01:33

you survive a war That boy i was a sweet

01:37

guy who wrote about his feelings Well he had to

01:40

die for the soldier in him Could live We'd become

01:43

wild animals We killed anything that moved by any means

01:47

necessary Seriously not even the rats were safe And when

01:50

it was over only thirty two from the second company

01:53

survived But hey at least our recuperation stent was sweet

01:57

Just eating sleeping and taken french lesson Since my lessons

02:01

were cut short by a seventeen daily visit home turned

02:04

out to be more than i could stomach My father

02:07

grilled me about the front lines It was so eager

02:10

For bloody battle stories It was right around your old

02:13

dad's hundredth question that i realized something most people in

02:16

my life would never understand what i have gone through

02:19

with things i had seen the things that couldn't be

02:21

unseen I was basically alone At least i had my

02:25

friends to hang out with just getting i paid my

02:28

old teacher mr cantor wreck a visit I urged him

02:31

to tell the recruits the truth about the war Something

02:33

tells me that won't be happening any time soon Before

02:37

i left i kissed my sick mother Good bye I

02:39

had a feeling i wouldn't be coming back any time

02:42

soon So all in all Yeah Super successful trip Before

02:47

returning to the action i spent some time at a

02:49

training camp next to a russian prison I felt sorry

02:52

for the prisoners as they scoured through the garbage looking

02:55

for food Maybe in another life we would've been friends

02:57

but well this was wartime And when i finally return

03:01

to my company it was business as usual I killed

03:04

the french soldier without blinking And i i mean well

03:06

sure i felt bad but well war was war ben

03:10

Kemmerich crop muehler all dead and then my closest friend

03:14

and ally stanislas kitchen ski got hitting leg carried cat

03:18

to a first aid station and tried to make him

03:20

comfortable But the orderly told me it was futile It

03:23

was dead I was shell shocked and i was alone

03:26

Not only were my friends gone but i knew my

03:28

future was hopeless Who could understand me now but if

03:32

i'm lucky all of this will be over with soon 00:03:35.058 --> [endTime] and i mean all of it

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