Odd, don't you think? I have seen war, and invasions and riots. I have heard of massacres and brutalities beyond imagining, and I have kept my faith in the power of civilization to bring men back from the brink. And yet one women writes a letter, and my whole world falls to pieces. You see, she is an ordinary woman. A good one, even. That's the point.. Nothing [a recognizably bad person does] can surprise or shock me, or worry me. But she denounced Julia and sent her to her death because she resented her, and because Julia is a Jew.I thought in this simple contrast between the civilized and the barbaric, but I was wrong. It is the civilized who are the truly barbaric, and the [Nazi] Germans are merely the supreme expression of it.
Iain Pears
His idleness was his refuge, and in this he was like many others in [occupied] France in that period; laziness became political.
idleness politics war laziness wwii
war resentment evil good jews civilization barbarism wwii nazis ordinariness pettiness
He had volunteered early, rather than waiting to be conscripted, for he felt a duty and an obligation to serve, and believed that.. Being willing to fight for his country and the liberty it represented, would make some small difference... His idealism was one of the casualties of the carnage [of Verdun].
war idealism wwi
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