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I and the rest of Second Company are a few miles from the front. We’ve just returned from the front the night before, having suffered unexpected and heavy losses. Half of the men from the company are dead or wounded. Ginger, the cook, has made a meal for 150 men instead of the 80 that are left. We stand in line, Albert Kropp, then Muller, Leer, and me. All of us were in school together, and joined the army on the same day. Behind us were Tjaden, Haie Westhus, Detering, a peasant farmer, and Stansislaus Katczinsky. Ginger whom we still hold a grudge for him being a coward and not bringing food very close when the men are being shelled. He doesn't want to give out all the food or the double ration of tobacco even though out of the 150 men there were only 80 left. Kat, angry, tells him that he has cooked for Second Company and he should give everything to Second Company. They are about to fight when the company commander arrives and orders Ginger to give all the food as well as the full bread and tobacco rations to us men. Afterwards we get our mail and go out to the latrines. I couldn’t help but think back to how embarrassed we were when we were first forced to go to the bathroom in a common room as recruits. I also thought back to Kantorek, who encouraged us all to join the army. Kantorek was a small, short man, our school teacher. He lectured us so much about the importance of joining the army and patriotism that he convinced the entire class to volunteer. Only Joseph Behm had though twice about joining, but he didn't want the others to think he was a coward. None of us knew what going to war meant, but they went anyway. Behm was one of the first of our class to die. He was left for dead on the front, and when he tried to crawl back, blinded, he was killed before anyone could help him. I believe that we cannot blame Kantorek for Behm's death. There were too many teachers and older people in authority who sent boys who trusted them off to war, and would never know the truth of combat.
We went later to visit Kemmerich. The hospital stunk of infection. Kemmerich was very weak. Someone had stolen his watch off his wrist. His foot has been amputated, but he didn't know it. The others didn't tell him. They try to be encouraging, I had though of Kemmerich's mother, who cried when we left home and asked me to look out for him. l could barely look at Kemmerich's waxy skin. Muller had put Kemmerich's things underneath his bed. He’d seen Kemmerich's prized pair of boots, more comfortable than what we wear, and asked Kemmerich for them. Kemmerich didn't want to give them up, and I had too stop Muller before he argued. I can’t stop thinking the letter I will have to write to Kemmerich's mother. I do not look forward to it at all.

* Dixie: a large iron pot, esp. a 12-gallon camp kettle used by the Army.
"He lifted the lid from the Dixie again and sniffed" (Remarque, 6).

* Billets: lodging for troops.
"We stroll over to the meadow behind the billets" (Remarque, 7).


The United States was "tied up" by those in the League Of Nations when it came to war time. This shows that sometimes help can not be given because there are others who wish to control everything and if you offer to go on your own and help, it conflicts with their views.

The part about the boots was very interesting I thought because in that little segment it completely shows how, when in stressful situations, i.e. war, your "empathy", one of the many traits that make humans, human, is tested and sometimes disregarded to make way for the more important drives for survival,