r/BeAmazed • u/Low_Weekend6131 • Oct 30 '25

History The words of a true soldier

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703

u/Mictlan39 Oct 30 '25

That “I was lucky” hits hard considering the hell that was normandy, surviving indeed was luck between the rain of bullets there.

107

u/[deleted] Oct 31 '25

It's messed up that this mans words are being played over film footage of Nazis fighting rather than British soldiers.

59

u/Weak-Doughnut5502 Oct 31 '25

Isn't that from one of the film adaptations of All's Quiet on the Western Front?

That's a WW1 novel about the horrors of war.  Goebbels banned it as unpatriotic, the Nazi's revoked the author's citizenship and he spent the war living in the US.

Though, sure, some German WW1 veterans joined the Nazis after the war. 

9

u/caceta_furacao Oct 31 '25

Frankly, everyone should read that book. It's just so humanizing. It drives home who the real enemies are. Clear and strong message.

2

u/Alcebiad3s Nov 01 '25

That’s a bit of an understatement, WW1 veterans were instrumental in Hitlers rise to power. The early SS, but especially the SA, were basically just the Freikorps under new names, and without them the Nazi party would never have achieved the power it did, there were tens of thousands of SA members in the 20s, and hundreds of thousands and eventually several million members when Hitler purged its leadership.

3

u/Educational_Cup_1701 Oct 31 '25

In fact the leader of the Nazis was a German WW1 veteran himself, wasn't he.

17

u/roastmystache Oct 31 '25

Almost every German / Austrian man was a WW1 veteran back then

1

u/rnavstar Nov 01 '25

Interesting….would like to know more. Can you keep Göring?

8

u/jason_caine Oct 31 '25

Those are clips from All Quiet on the Western Front (2022) which is WW1, not WW2. Especially considering the entire theme of that movie can be boiled down to "War is not heroic, it is hellish". I think its honestly fairly fitting.

5

u/AngryRedditAnon Oct 31 '25

What are you talking about. Those were scenes from the award winning movie "All quiet on the western front". It's about World War one. No Nazis at that time. Please educate yourself.

2

u/alteransg1 Nov 01 '25

Those are not nazis, but WW1 German soldiers from the movie adaptation of All quet on the western front. The Nazis hated the book and banned it because of it's anti-war sentiments.

1

u/scotchegg72 Nov 01 '25

His message is for all soldiers.

7

u/xoexohexox Oct 31 '25

Lucky he survived the meat grinder but still a badass for running into it head first.

6

u/Bane_of_Ruby Oct 31 '25

Landing on that beach in the pitch darkness while bullets are flying at you... the horrors the survivors must remember or repress is something none of us will ever comprehend.

4

u/sokratesz Oct 31 '25

I wish more 'successful' (healthy, rich, educated whatever) people realized that it took a bit of luck, too. Would do wonders for the way we look at one another.

1

u/ir_blues Oct 31 '25

I mean, of course it was luck. Like in every battle. But the chances there were pretty high. The survival rate was almost 99%.

1

u/Fancy_Yak2618 Nov 01 '25

My grandfather said something similar. I was doing a high school project on the Normandy landings. I asked my grandpa what’s it like being considered a hero? He said I’m not I’m just a guy who survived outta sheer luck. He said we aren’t heroes we did what we did because it was the right thing to do that’s it.