Summary Of German Soldiers And The Horror Of War By Mark Hewitson

During war, soldiers will begin to develop a new attitude towards combat, in which violence and death become normal occurrences. Professor Dr. Mark Hewitson’s article, German Soldiers and the Horror of War depicts the parallels seen in the soldiers’ responses to violence for both past and modern warfare. Hewitson writes “during the Great War, the ‘brutality shown by individuals’ was an expression of impulses. When the furious struggle of the present war has been decided, each one of the victorious fighters will return home joyfully to his wife and children, undisturbed by the thought of the enemies he has killed” (Hewitson 4). Hewitson hypothesizes that the soldiers who go off to fight are stimulated by their environments and the “impulses”

A sense of victory is able to dominate over a sense of empathy or remorse. In addition to the high pressure environments of war, a former Marine, Timothy Kudo, provides an insight into the minds of soldiers during combat in his article, On War and Redemption. Kudo mentions he “trained to kill for years and given the opportunity, part of [his troop] jumped at the chance to finally be Marines. Despite the school construction and shuras, that’s what it meant to make a difference in uniform; it meant killing [their] enemies. But these men weren’t enemies” (Kudo 1). Kudo depicts the fact that due to their environments, soldiers cannot regret or question their decisions. Training for service means going to extremes, even killing innocent civilians, in order to protect one’s country. Death becomes a normal occurrence and men “jump at the chance” to live up to their titles because violence is rewarded. Becoming exposed to these combat and preparation conditions, like “training to kill for years”, contributes to a greater cause, specifically causing a change in