1964: Stefan Westmann: How it felt to kill a man | The Great War Interviews | BBC Archive 

As is always the case in life, things aren't that simple. You have the people who start the war, and the people who're defending themselves. Are the generals, and politicians of the defenders the enemy back home who never fights? However, I do agree that those who initiate wars should have skin in the game. Emperors and Kings used to go to war by leading their men into battle, clearly risking their lives for the cause they thought worthy for bloodshed. Bush should have been right there on the front lines with the troops that invaded Iraq and Afghanistan. Obama should have been in Libya getting his hands dirty instead of droning people on a whim. Leadership having skin in the game changes how conflict is conducted or whether it is even initiated in the first place.

The banks...and who control them🤔

My great grandfather, who was at Passchendaele with the 5th Battalion Territorials of The Kings Own Yorkshire Light Infantry said this, 'Leave the soldiers and civilians alone. Get the King's and the Kaiser's, put boxing gloves on them, and then put them in a ring to sort it out between themselves. Why should the common man be killed and maimed for the likes of people who should know better how to conduct themselves?' When asked whether he would do it again his answer was NO! He told me this as a young boy, 'Once I was a young man, unaccustomed to the world, and I volunteered to go on a bit of an adventure, with dreams of foreign lands and glory. But later this adventure turned out not to be an adventure at all, but a matter of life and death, and the glory was nothing more than a slaughter of good men. So here are a few wise words from your great grandfather young boy to always remember......never volunteer for anything!'

​@@MrMoggyman Your great grandfather was correct. History vindicates him thousands of times. The problem is that the mass of humanity is often led to slaughter by the few clever wolves that surround it. The Russo-Ukrainian War, soon to become World War III, is a case in point.

You're getting it ✡️

He had the ability to see the truth, not brainwashed into thinking dying for no good reason was patriotic.

@@stbaz Only a small portion of every population is like him. The rest are gullible.

Worth saving and sharing…rest in peace.

Agreed

Agreed

It was a terrible burden for you Grandad to bear, I am certain...😞

@@andyfoxy3140 nice roblox vids, youll grow up one day

What a stupid comment - its not murder, its war. Pray you never have to experience it yourself, leave it to braver men.@@andyfoxy3140

He was a med student till the war began, served all 4 years of the war, became a doctor and professor, fled from the Nazis to England in 1934, wrote 2 books, led an emergency hospital in WW2, died 1964. What a life.

Stefan Wasteman amarite

He looked so healthy and not old by todays standards

@@theart8039 he did. very sharp mentally as well. I believe he would publish things in medical journals(the lancet) He also wrote a book.

Thank you, I wondered.

My uncle spent time in a Japanese prisoner of war camp and he too would never talk about it to any of the family.

Many times myself too sir.

I heard a U.S. WWII veteran tell a similar story. It was nighttime. He heard a German crawling towards him. When the German was only a few feet away, they both stood up at the same time. He was faster. He shot the German in the chest. The muzzle flash from his rifle allowed him to see the Germans face clearly & his life being extinguished. He said, "I see his face, & kill him every night in my dreams. I suppose I'll kill him every night until the day that I die".

Peace is just as big of a scam as war is. Both are necessary, yet also two sides of the same coin. Neither will ever be gone; pursuing one always results in the indulgence of the other. It is the human condition. There is no transcending it, and if you think humanity can transcend it, there is little difference between you and some of the instigators and supporters of the worst atrocities this planet has ever seen.

1,000's more like.

We learnt long ago. Our leaders haven't because they are never held accountable and ignore what we want. Isn't that obvious?

Not much else to do but defend if under attack. Hard to blame the Ukrainians for example.

yep 100%. Human beings are an entirely f****d race.

Thanks a lot for this information I to was wondering about the English he spoke myself as a Dutch man was in Germany during my draft as a military I met a German soldier who was in Stalingrad at WW2 and he spoke also about the horrors they suffered

We won't learn the lesson and turn away from war because there will always be someone that doesn't feel the same way you and I do.

Reddit is a cancer.

Yet most of the millions of men in the army / population / world are idiots as you can tell from his description of how they boosted after killing without a second thought. War is truely hell for intelligent, compassionate beings with a deep desire to understand the universe as do I, and I assume, you too. Yet on the other hand I’ve always been obsessed with military history and view active combat as the summum of masculinity, as I look up to this gentleman who is a doctor like me, even tough, if I’m honest with myself, I’ld be at above average risk for PTSD because of my incessant thinking about everything.

And WWI was all for nothing.

I thought the same thing. What a shame that we men kill each other. I hate violence,wars, and death. I wish nothing but peace and love and respect for everyone. ❤❤❤❤

tku

One this example from this men you can See now what stupid Ideologie Hitlers NationalSozialismus was,that a german men and human Patriot and fighter for his Land,must immigrate fromGermany to England,online because He was jewish..!?I hate Hitler and the NS in backtime in präsents[Gegenwart)and ever in future..🤔??

Are you finnish?

​@@IjkPPpmore like "Are you Finnished?

No, the common man is brainwashed through patriotic propaganda to hate people they've never met. The people pulling the strings are profiting from the wars and deaths of soldiers and civilians. Think Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld. George W. Bush was just an imbecilic puppet.

@MrMoggyman : You are right. The war never completely ends for this traumatized soldiers ! RS. MD, FRCS, Canada

@@richardsimms251 I was around all these men when I was a young boy. They would talk and talk about the campaigns they were in, the general staff (some things good and other things down right almost obscene), of the soldiers they had known including those that returned and those that died, and of the experiences they had had. BUT these conversations were only with other veterans. Why? Because only veterans knew that what they were talking of was the truth, because they too had experienced the same. The war never left them. At home, silence. Not a single thing talked about WW1. Why? Because they would immediately be shot down, being told to shut up and that nobody was interested in hearing it. Civilians did not have any idea about the reality of trench combat, and to be quite frank did not want to know. They had been fed the propaganda about what the soldiers were doing on The Western Front......and as far as the newsreels were concerned, they were having a wail of a time. But when the newspapers started filling up with pages and pages of the dead, only then did civilians begin to understand, but not one civilian could ever understand the appalling conditions and horror these men had gone through. My great grandfather always frequented the local Veterans Club (known as the Legion) every Sunday, towing me along for pop and crisps. One man sat at a table alone drinking his beer. I had noticed this man once or twice, but what I noted most was that nobody, and I mean nobody, ever sat at his table drinking with him. When I asked other veterans, they said this is how this man likes it. He has too many bad memories and does not like to be reminded of them through conversations about the war. I walked up to this man and asked, 'Did you kill any Germans in WW1?' This was a dangerous move, as some veterans could be highly unstable, and become absolutely furious at such a question. Seems, as I was a young boy, this veteran considered the question as being innocent and not of a mind trying to rake up the horrors that he had experienced. The man immediately stopped drinking his beer, and looking straight into me seriously with blue steely eyes said, 'Young boy, do you know what it is to kill a man? To take from him his mother, his father, his grandparents, his wife, his children, all of his friends, all of his pleasures in this life, and everything he ever was or ever could become? Because, to my eternal shame, I have killed many men. Never glorify war. Never glorify death. Now go.' This man had been a machine gunner. I later learned that he had been awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal (DCM), Military Medal & Bar, plus the full mutt and jeff (the 14-18 star (known as Pip) plus silver carnation pip - meaning that he was an 'Old Contemptible' having been there from day one with the BEF; the WW1 British Military Medal (known as Squeak); and the WW1 Victory Medal with bronze oak leaf clasp (known as Wilfred - the clasp indicating that this man had been mentioned in dispatches). I only saw these on Armistice Day. This man had twice nearly been barred from the club because of angry heated arguments he had entered into with what he described as 'idiots and fools' that had nearly resulted in full blown fights. However, he was tolerated and highly respected by the other veterans. This man had dragged one wounded man to a concrete pill box, saving his life, and had rescued two others in no man's land at night leading them back to safety, in both cases under enemy fire. Whether these actions resulted in his DCM and MM & Bar remained unknown. I considered, even as a small boy, that it would not be a good idea to have enquired. The veterans told me that this man had been very courageous and brave and had proven himself on more than one occasion under fire on the battlefield. For that he deserved the respect of other veterans, and the tolerance of his sometimes-nasty temper.

@@MrMoggyman interesting encounter, surprised he even went to the legion at all if he wanted to avoid memories of the war

@@jonathanjonathan7386 Not a case of avoiding memories of WW1. But a case in some instances of memories invoking PTSD. WW1 was etched onto the men that served. It was part of them, and it was like the war never ended for them. My great grandfather? Needed a release. Needed a place where it was ok to talk about the war to others who understood and who were there. Civilians never understood what these men endured at all and did not give a damn.

@@MrMoggyman After reading your story I reflect on how I always find it fascinating but incomprehensible how so many WW1 veterans said the same thing, about how terrible war and killing was, yet none or almost none of them refused to fight a war which was totally pointless and which in most cases did not involve defending your country. Why when one asks Ukrainians how they feel to shoot Russian soldiers, they say "well, they're occupiers, so I don't feel bad, they have to go home or else." It's just a curious difference.

It's so sad that all (known) people who were in the Great War are gone now. I say the same about the short time of merriment and innovation before it, the Edwardian Period, which I call the 'prepubescence of mankind' (in contrast with the devastating 'puberty' and innocence-killing of the Great War), when man felt he could conquer the world and reach his best potential. We have never returned to such a time. We have never lost our cynicism, and perhaps for good reason. That was the world that these boys grew up in, hence war for them was even more shocking than it would be for us, infinitely more so. Those who lived were the first among us to lead the path out of the ashes of the past innocence and out into the outer darkness of the new, towards man's worst nightmare come to light.

Well, it hurts both I would say.

@@CP-pf6gx Well, I only hear the killer's remorse. The killed is utterly silent, isn't he?!

@@CP-pf6gx Yes, but the one killed would die in minutes or hours. The killer would live with that traumatic memory for the rest of his life, knowing that he committed a grave sin, but that also he had no choice.

​@@d1427 Only a way of speaking. Lets say that was a bad joke.

@@shubhnamdeo2865 Just a note- killed is killed- done/gone; that means it ceases to be alive, not in minutes or hours. The wounded may hurt but the wounded is still alive while the killed is not.

If you refuse to fight you are jailed.

We live in a moment of time today where there is so much distraction forced on our senses that we don’t even perceive the lacquer.

That's not true. We haven't had a war in central Europe for almost 80 years now; I don't think this was ever the case before.

War....war never changes

⁠@@bjornopitz6561 right they are only involved in propagating that war around the world (Asia, Middle East). Otherwise was the war in Bosnia not close enough to you central Europeans?

Conflict is in human nature it's never gonna change 💔

@@bjornopitz6561 Ukraine looks pretty central to me

It's bound to be on here somewhere. Or the bbc website. But extraordinary interviews.

There is a link in the comments below. 😎

It's part of the Great War series made by the BBC in the 1960's - 26 parts -> ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-TWJlv8hy0jQ.html

Technology is not the problem if you don't FEEL something when you kill.

The british did not learn a lot...

look to Ukraine. they defend their country.

Something has to be extremely wrong with you when you decide to murder someone with a sword in the 1980s. Would you say that the US overall has become a safer country since the 1980s, though?

And I hope this incident didn't leave you traumatised.

@@Melior_Traiano Does anyone really know if they've been "traumatized" and if so, to what degree? Seeing someone killed isn't something that ever leaves you-even if it's "just" in your subconscious. I simply don't know...But thanks for your concern.

Its not like in the movies. When a man is retelling you his experiences from a war he won't necessarily act rationally. Imagine how stressful telling this story must have been for him, so his reaction at the end was likely caused by stress. Many things play out subconsciously.

Amen!

The bombing campaigns of the Second World War cost an awful lot of civilian lives. The London Blitz, Dresden, Berlin, Tokyo, Hamburg, and, of course, Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Combat deaths were nightmarish, though. Entire family lines were wiped out in that conflict.

@@robwalsh9843 Yes, in Britanny there are entire villages that were abandoned, because pretty much all their men had died in WWI. They are now overgrown ghost towns.

and the above post reminds me of all quiet on the western front

Sorry, it's lost on one of us, explain?

@@stevenlatronico8612 BBC is pro-war and the London Elite sought WWI WWII and WWIII

The victor rights the history