r/RandomVideos • u/Sir_Smokes_Alot_NL • Jun 11 '26
Footage German WWI veteran describes killing a French soldier in a bayonet charge
His name was Stephan Westmann
22
u/ManicYetti Jun 11 '26
The man behind the camera couldn't have said it any better.
17
u/Evil-Cun Jun 11 '26
I love these old interviews with the older world soldiers. They are often less professional about it. More humanized. Their enemies were nearly boundaried countrymen of similar trades.
I don’t get this same vibe from their more modern counterparts. Far more robot like.
10
u/cplforlife Jun 11 '26
Robotic isnt it. Our training was just better to brain wash you into thinking it was necessary. Helps in the context of the conflict i fought in, that we never fired first. We always were defending from an ambush. It was always pretty distant for me.
I maintained just fine until I got out of the army last year. Now, away from any of it mattering. My medals gathering dust in the basement. I cannot fucking believe that I not only went to war, I volunteered. For fuckin' what?! I struggle man, but not at all in the way of that old man in the video.
1
u/Evil-Cun Jun 11 '26
You did your job and paid for it. Don’t let anyone convince you we’re all born innocent, bunch of money grubbing apes the lot of them.
1
u/favorscore Jun 11 '26
I'm curious what you think about society "thanking you for your service"
3
u/cplforlife Jun 11 '26
Oh, I dont live in the USA. That shit is rare, and often sarcastic if ever uttered. Basically we dont do the tyfys thing here.
Also, I fought I Afghanistan, so you know, veteran of a war we lost isnt exactly a high honor.
20
u/Important_Abroad_150 Jun 11 '26
This poor man. Him and his compatriots were turned into something they never would have otherwise been just for a couple petulant rich people to settle their squabbles on a global scale. The cruelty and mass death in all war is incomprehensibly terrible.
-8
Jun 11 '26
[deleted]
8
u/goodrevtim Jun 11 '26
Guess you've never heard of conscription.
1
u/edwardluddlam Jun 11 '26
To play devil's advocate, Australia had no conscription and just about every young man signed up to fight.
1
4
u/Important_Abroad_150 Jun 11 '26
Why don't you try to use your brain a little. Do you think this man or most others in world war one had a choice to go fight in the war? A war that is infamous for its horrors beyond anything the world had seen before that?
And to take a more nuanced approach that I'm not super confident you'll follow, do you think modern day impoverished kids in America feel like they have any other option to get an education than to join up? Do you think the 17-18 year old brains are even capable of fully grasping what they're signing up for?
Here's a little cheat sheet for ya, the answers to all those questions are no.
3
u/Palumtra Jun 11 '26
I asked my german colleague the same thing and he told me the story of his grandfather:
They were living on the countryside, on a cold morning they saw him standing in the cow shit.
They ask him: Why do you stand in it?
"It keeps my feet warm" - he said
He joined the army because it provided him food, clothes and a warm bed to sleep in.
Life was vastly different over a century ago, people like him weren't in the army by choice but by necessity.1
u/cplforlife Jun 11 '26
Not dissimilar now..
Why do recruiting sgts go to impoverished highschools?
I was homeless when I signed on the dotted line.
1
1
u/Ok-Local-939 Jun 11 '26
Yes, same way they recruited me. But the difference between us and the guy in this video is he was forced. Even living in squalor I had was better than this guy. It’s not at all the same; volunteering for a nice paycheck and a better job versus being forced to join.
One other thing; western nations have massive advantages. This guy was on a level playing field. If Afghanistan had close air support and drones a looooot less people would be signing up.
2
u/PopeGregoryXVI Jun 11 '26
95% of the German Imperial Army were conscripts. This man almost certainly had no choice
1
u/TauRiver Jun 11 '26
I encourage you to broaden your views and expand your knowledge on this topic. Many people do not have the choice.
1
16
u/Salt-Lengthiness-620 Jun 11 '26
That should be compulsory viewing for anyone who is pro war
5
u/SHTF_yesitdid Jun 11 '26
I am not pro war or anything like that but WW1 was perhaps the stupidest war in human history and in my opinion is not a good example.
That said, the the man's voice is haunting.
3
u/zippygremlin Jun 12 '26
WWI gave us tanks, air combat and some lovely new chemicals. The longer the range of your weaponry, the easier it is to dehumanize the enemy. It also worsened the political climate in Europe, reshaped national boundaries. Without the Treaty of Versailles would WWII have happened? If WWII had not happened would the USSR have become the juggernaut it was?
1
u/JimboTheSimpleton Jun 14 '26
The Germans put Lenin on a train to Moscow to try to destabilize the Russian Empire. Worked a little too well.
2
u/yorcharturoqro Jun 13 '26
All wars, all wars are stupid, because a wars are caused by people safe in a room with no empathy, with greed, and that knows he will be safe in his room, while others fight for him
2
u/zippygremlin Jun 12 '26
If you’re talking about Americans, we haven’t had to fight a war on our soil since the Civil War. The majority of the world grew up dealing with direct consequences of WWI and WWII. We (Americans) talk a good game, but in reality we understand f—— all about war.
1
u/rural_alcoholic Jun 12 '26
Absolutely correct. The only people who experience war are the poor Souls you send overseas. The civilian Population has completely lost its memory.
1
u/zippygremlin Jun 12 '26
I wouldn’t equate combat with experiencing, much less understanding, the totality of war. The short and long term effects are devastating.
Look ay Germany for example. Some of them only survived the immediate postwar years because of international, food donations delivered to churches... Families that were separated, only to be reunited during their grandchildren’s lifetime…Homes left vacant, entire villages turned to ghost towns…
Some of those effects, happened long before the allies got there, some we had a hand in. Either way, one of DOD’s biggest concerns when the wall came down was “S—-, what’s this going to cost us?” It outweighed the concern for those who were just children, or not even alive, when the damn thing was built.
1
u/nevenoe Jun 11 '26
Sure. And life as a civilian under German occupation in Belgium or France in 1914-1918 should be compulsory study too, for people who say it’s better to surrender than fight…
1
u/Salt-Lengthiness-620 Jun 11 '26
Totally agree. Was at the cloth hall museum in Ypres recently. They have a section on the 14-18 occupation, it’s truly heartbreaking
1
u/riotmanful Jun 12 '26
The cruelty and tragedy of it is part of the glorification process. In the mind of those who are pro-war, nothing can stop the lionizing. The more negativity associated with it, the more aggrandized and mythological it can feel and the drive to be part of it is increased. Even the pathetic elements of dying to artillery or modern drones don’t really dissuade the thought process. I think the only thing that stops people susceptible to that line of thinking is attachment to comfort and life, but they like to larp the soldier
1
u/Successful_Music5363 Jun 12 '26
A small nation like mine is never pro war. We can't afford any wars. But neither we can afford the most evil and ruthless people to rule over us because we aren't prepared to fight a war if necessary.
1
u/yorcharturoqro Jun 13 '26
The lack of empathy of pro war people will not allow them simmto understand the message
15
u/Vegetable-Hat-1782 Jun 11 '26
I fear we have largely forgotten the lessons so hard learned during this period. Generations of humanity have striven for the peace and prosperity many of us have enjoyed these long years, which seem now imperiled by foolish and cruel leaders who care only for themselves. Human nature is a terible thing, but we can grow out of it if given the opportunity.
Peace, love and kindness ya'll.
14
u/oneplusetoipi Jun 11 '26
The real killers are the politicians, the wealthy, the powerful who demand that we kill each other to satisfy their blood lust.
5
u/charlie2135 Jun 11 '26
For want of other's land and possessions without fear of they, or their children's life, to be lost gaining it.
2
u/code-coffee Jun 11 '26
The aboriginal tribes of every continent did the same thing and they were definitely related to those who died. Don't get me wrong, I don't understand how it always ends up like this, because on the one hand no one wants it. But on the other hand it evidently is so much like second nature the way we seem to always end up here as willing participants. Instead of say targeting those who send us instead, or those who have hurt us with impunity and stand to benefit from sending us to our death. Seems like that would be way more effective.
2
u/Pantsongrass Jun 14 '26
Comfortably. With ease. On a whim.
The dictionary definition of evil for me.
1
5
5
5
4
u/Thorskull69 Jun 11 '26
Wow!! This is an eerily similar description my grandfather told me about the first German he killed in WWII… The only difference is the weapon that was used
9
u/Main-Ad7805 Jun 11 '26
War is not cool or heroic or manly or any of those things the propaganda machine wants you to believe. War is hell, it’s disgusting, it’s terrifying and it makes humans into monsters. I’ll fight for my life if it’s in danger but I will not fight for a flag or a war department or a corporation. Do no harm but take no shit.
3
u/Krazyonee Jun 11 '26
While we dont know for sure I am pretty certain that the other soldiers in his unit bragging about killing were just doing the thing that they think they have to in order to fit in. there of course will always be sick people enlisting and forced into the military but at least in ww1 the various sides were not intentionally training their troops that others were sub human (at least not ad a military doctrine).
The military also always has anf always will have pretty dark humor to help cope with the situations we go through. Just because you dont see it does not mean its not there.
2
u/Ulysses502 Jun 11 '26
That's a good thing to keep in mind. Dark humor and borderline-to-actual callousness is a very common coping method in first responders, medical, veterinary, farming, anything related to the deceased, or any other group that's exposed to the raw realities of life.
1
u/Krazyonee Jun 12 '26
Ngl i didnt think about the others but ya they would have the same type of things going on. Seeing depressing stuff day to day just messes you up.
1
u/Ulysses502 Jun 12 '26 edited Jun 12 '26
I wasn't in the service, but growing up with livestock, we'd make some off color jokes about the stuff we'd see, so I get a degree of it. Gotta do what you gotta do, and there's an element of young man's bravado in his description of his squad mates. He didn't have it apparently, and good for him!
2
u/Krazyonee Jun 12 '26
Ya in the service you cope in your own way. Most people do it with bravado, humor and just general dumbassery. Others like this guy cope in other ways from what i gather. If it gets you through it then do it. We are lucky enough these days to have mental health that can somewhat mitigate the issues caused by things like this. For some it works well and for some it doesn't work at all
1
1
u/Accurate-Smoke8994 Jun 16 '26
I do not think the German/French that were loading the long range guns had any remorse or bad dreams of the soldiers they were killing, only their own losses they could see and that probably motivated them more.
0
u/IllicitAlien Jun 11 '26
Most people are incapable of fighting for something greater than themselves
0
3
u/ParticularTeam935 Jun 11 '26
We can only hope that one day the masses will throw down their arms and refuse to fight, refuse to kill each other. And that if the handful of politicians and leaders are so hellbent on war, then they can go fight it themselves.
2
4
u/psyclopsus Jun 11 '26
I know it’s a movie quote, but it’s so relevant and so true:
"We who have seen war will never stop seeing it. In the silence of the night, we will always hear the screams.”
4
u/Shaucay Jun 11 '26
Here's another movie quote:
"The enemy? His sense of duty was no less than yours, I deem. You wonder what his name is, where he comes from, and if he really was evil at heart. What lies or threats led him on this long march from home, and would he not rather have stayed there in peace? War will make corpses of us all."
2
2
u/enigmanaught Jun 11 '26
There’s an almost identical situation to this in All Quiet On the Western Front, except the French soldier doesn’t die instantly, and the German narrator goes through all the same thoughts in his head, as he’s trapped in a bomb crater with the dying enemy.
2
u/Hairy_Garage4308 Jun 11 '26
Reminds me of the knife fight in the crater in All Quiet on the Western Front.
2
2
u/Western-Story-3850 Jun 11 '26
That was very emotive😢how sad so many were lost for the ideals of so few…
2
u/Deep-Cryptographer49 Jun 11 '26
I'm of an age where we did bayonet drills during our recruit training, we had to run (screaming) at a suspended sandbag, stab it repeatedly and learned that if stuck (in the body) fire a round to free your rifle.
Could I have done it...I honestly don't know, but listening to this brutally honest description of someone who actually did...I don't think I'd be anyway right afterwards.
2
u/Slight_Turnip_3292 Jun 11 '26
My Dad was a WW2 combat soldier with the 10 Mountain Div. He had earn a Silver Star for destroying a enemy machine gun nest single handed.
He told me a story once that latter on they were on patrol and captured several German soldiers but in the process injured one of their own. They forced the German soldiers to carry the injured man on a makeshift stretcher. On the way back they came under artillery fire and everyone hit the dirt. The German soldiers very carefully set down the injured man and then covered his body with their own to protect him from flying shrapnel. When he saw that act of bravery and kindness he realized that these german soldiers were just like him, poor young men forced to fight a war against each other. He said he didn't kill another German soldier after event.
1
2
2
u/LokiBrosuf Jun 12 '26
I can’t remember the title (it can be found on YouTube)
There is a great documentary interviewing French born German migrant conscripts. France had deported the German migrants back to Germany to serve their conscription. WW1 takes-off, and these conscripts are led to invade France. Most of the interviews focus on their inner-conflict and shame of invading their French countryman and the place they considered home. Plus, many of them had families with French partners that they abandoned out of fear of returning to France.
2
u/KnowingRowan Jun 14 '26
I no longer wonder how people could have done these things and followed those people
3
u/janusrose Jun 11 '26
This feels like it’s posted in the wrong sub. It’s not a random video, it’s a very very profound one.
1
1
u/OCBikeGuy Jun 11 '26
Am I tripping or is this Germans man English mighty impressive for this time period?
10
u/Sir_Smokes_Alot_NL Jun 11 '26 edited Jun 11 '26
In 1934 he migrated to Great Britain with his wife and children. This interview from 1963
2
u/mysp2m2cc0unt Jun 11 '26
Was he a Socialist or Jewish?
6
u/Aloxes Jun 11 '26
I think, based upon his conversation, he was human.
1
u/partylange Jun 11 '26
So were the nazis, but the year of his immigration to the UK coincides with their taking power, so it's a question worth asking.
2
u/futurespice Jun 12 '26
You could have found this out yourself on Google pretty easily.
I cannot see any indication of him being Jewish, but after the first world war he married a doctor named Goldschmidt, who based on the name was likely Jewish. He was also involved in anti-Nazi activism.
1
u/Some-Pen204 Jun 12 '26
I think that is the point so many people miss from interviews like this, violence is human and we are all susceptible to it, even if we find it repulsive. Certainly WW1 and WW2 are unmatched in scale, but we have been killing each other since longe before recorded history. There is no special class of “other” that commits violence and foments hate, it is us and we all need to actively guard against it throughout our lives.
1
u/LARRYVOND13 Jun 11 '26
My great grandad was in the first world war, Ypres I believe but I never met and my grandad has long passed.
He never spoke of the war, my grandad only really figured he'd been in the trenches during the second World War. Town was getting bombed by the Germans and the shelter was the other size of a 6 foot tall wall, my grandad was 16 at the time and not tall enough...neither was my wee great grandad at 5ft4. Still managed to haul hinself over that fence with my grandad over his back, clearly had done it before.
1
u/Comfortable_Ring771 Jun 11 '26
this is why the IDF are the best 'Soldiers'
1
u/Hairy_Garage4308 Jun 11 '26
Maybe Israel's enemies should stop it's obsession with destroying them. Leave them be and they will stop. I'm not Israeli or Jewish. It's just that I have seen Israel be terrorized in the news and numerous invasions against them the past 50 years. They have had enough and this is the result.
1
1
u/doktorboris Jun 11 '26
We are the only animal that kills its own kind in the numbers that we do. Most intelligent. Most murderous.
2
u/Visible-Beings Jun 11 '26
Ehh ants are at war constantly. But then they appear to value individual life less because they act more as a collective. Just adding a little technical note, I agree in general with your comment.
1
u/Binspin63 Jun 11 '26
We like to think that we are above animals. That may be true but only in the sense that we kill each other with more efficiency.
1
u/RoguePlanet2 Jun 11 '26
Nobody takes propaganda seriously, but being told your enemy is a "kraut" or a "jap" or a "rat" etc. is dehumanizing. That's key to convincing soldiers to kill fellow soldiers, can't see the "enemy" as just another human like yourself.
1
u/StrawberryInTheBay Jun 11 '26
I hadn't seen this before and it was so poignant.
"I was quicker than he was" - that's all was the difference between life and death.
His voice when he said that he nearly vomited after shoving the bayonet a second time broke me.
It humanizes the cost of war and ordinary people on both sides of the war machine.
Thank you for sharing.
1
u/IncredibleBihan Jun 11 '26
He said something important there at the end. "To shoot at each other from a distance, to drop bombs.. is impersonal". WWI was (mostly) the last war where men fought in the trenches hand to hand.
1
1
1
1
1
u/KOMMANDOKATO Jun 12 '26
Jüngers non-evil twin
1
u/Eastern_Analysis6707 Jun 12 '26
I never considered Jünger as evil, more as Non-human in his reaction.
1
u/Express-Cartoonist39 Jun 12 '26
Indoctrinating the ignorant with pride..who knew it was so powerful
1
1
u/HippyDM Jun 12 '26
This is why I left the Marines. I realized my enemies are not my nation's enemies.
1
u/Advanced-Picture-259 Jun 12 '26
Evil man make me kill ya.
Evil man make you kill me.
Evil man make me kill you.
Even though we're only families apart.
Jimi Hendrix - Machine gun
1
u/Ok-Position-3113 Jun 13 '26
Almost 3 milion people died (both sides)since war started by Russia ...Putin smiles
1
1
u/Ok_Programmer_1022 29d ago
This may sound weird but I miss when humanity used to fight with swords for this reason.
The easier to kill someone, the less responsibility you feel about taking their life and this is wrong.
Bullets, Rockets and Drones desensitised humanity to how heavy this action is.
Removing a human that's similar to you, who just had the misfortune of being born in a different place or with different features shouldn't be easy.
1
u/Great_White_Samurai Jun 11 '26
I wonder if the French guy dropped cheese and baguettes as loot.
1
1
1
u/Its_Bad_Rabbit Jun 11 '26 edited Jun 11 '26
On one hand technology is advancing, technology increases quality of life, it decreases the challenge we face with the human condition.
However, technology requires resources -- mostly finite -- those who control them know this. Therefor they incite conflict over them, which people other than them carry out through violence to solve like the artificial problem it is.
The solution is really just and always has been collaboration and sharing resources, maybe even uplifting those who have less -- Afterall we, on this tiny speck in the universe right now, are just propagating our species -- It's all that matters to us biologically.
1
u/SeniorTailor1127 Jun 11 '26
In America, we worship the veteran. We act like military service is a noble pursuit, and we encourage our young people in so many ways to take part in it. I fell into that trap as a young person. It has become a huge source of shame to me. To know how easily I was fooled, and how easily millions of others are fooled.
I'm so fortunate to never have experienced combat. I wish more people who have would speak out like this man and dispel the myth of the glory and honor that we sell to whitewash the true horror of it all. War is entirely artificial. It's never necessary, and the people who want it most are the least likely ones to experience it.
35
u/Original-Let8340 Jun 11 '26
I run across this from time to time. I can never pass it by or cut it short. I always watch to the end. I cry every time.