Fifty years after the end of the First World War, the author, a former soldier, presents an indictment against war, this war, his war. He lets men like Jaurès, Péguy, Barrès, Romain Rolland, and Alain speak. He positions himself as a defender of peace, denouncing the inhumanity of war.
Pacifist? It’s much more than that. Jean Guéhenno denounces war and especially those who praise it but do not fight it. This work, written in 1968, is very courageous, because at the time, criticizing war was rather frowned upon. The death of others, those young men who died at the dawn of their twenties. The strength of his book is that it addresses all belligerents. There are no victors here, they are all defeated because they are all dead!
The absurdity of war, its criminal nature, its denunciation: “Why do you kill me?” said Pascal in his Pensées. This question could, and indeed is, posed by all those soldiers who fell in war. The death of others is certainly a poignant testimony to the futility of war and also a vibrant tribute to all those men who fell on the battlefields of history.
A question is posed to the reader, a question still relevant today: What have we done to make war impossible? Everyone must answer it for themselves, even if the answer may be negative.
Thierry Jan, writer
