And suddenly, like light in darkness, the real truth broke in upon me; the simple fact of Man, which I had forgotten, which had lain deep buried and out of sight; the idea of community, of unity.
Ernst Toller
2
As a boy I used to go to the Chamber of Horrors at the annual fair, to look at the wax figures of Emperors and Kings, of heroes and murderers of the day. The dead now had that same unreality, which shocks without arousing pity.
Ernst Toller
3
At that moment of realization I knew that I had been blind because I had wished not to see; it was only then that I realised, at last, that all these dead men, French and Germans, were brothers, and I was the brother of them all.
Ernst Toller
4
But before my transfer came through I fell ill. Heart and stomach both broke down, and I was sent back to hospital in Strassburg.
Ernst Toller
5
Gradually I became aware of details: a company of French soldiers was marching through the streets of the town. They broke formation, and went in single file along the communication trench leading to the front line. Another group followed them.
Ernst Toller
6
How happy I am to go to the front at last. To do my bit. To prove with my life what I think I feel.
Ernst Toller
7
I saw the dead without really seeing them.
Ernst Toller
8
I was at the front for thirteen months, and by the end of that time the sharpest perceptions had become dulled, the greatest words mean.
Ernst Toller
9
In a quiet Franciscan monastery kind and silent monks looked after me. After many weeks I was discharged. Unfit for further service.
Ernst Toller
10
Later we learned that it was one of our own men hanging on the wire. Nobody could do anything for him; two men had already tried to save him, only to be shot themselves.
Ernst Toller
11
Most people have no imagination. If they could imagine the sufferings of others, they would not make them suffer so. What separated a German mother from a French mother?
Ernst Toller
12
My hands shook and my heart pounded wildly. The air was filled with a sudden high-pitched whine, and a brown cloud of dust dimmed my field of vision.
Ernst Toller
13
My head was in a whirl, and I was trembling with excitement, surrendered to the passion of the moment like a gambler, like a hunter.
Ernst Toller
14
The French got enough from the Germans to save them from starvation; but many a woman sold herself for a loaf or a chunk of sausage.
Ernst Toller
15
The revolution is like a vessel filled with the pulsating heartbeat of millions of working people.
Ernst Toller
16
The working class will not halt until socialism has been realized.
Ernst Toller
17
We revolutionaries acknowledge the right to revolution when we see that the situation is no longer tolerable, that it has become a frozen. Then we have the right to overthrow it.
Ernst Toller
18
We thrust our fingers into our ears to stop its moan; but it was no good; the cry cut like a drill into our heads, dragging minutes into hours, hours into years. We withered and grew old between those cries.
Ernst Toller
