Summary “Time to live and time to die” Remarque
April. In the Russian village there are German soldiers. The snow melts, the bodies of the dead killed in winter look out of mud mixed with water. The company is delivered to four Russian partisans: at dawn the Germans must shoot them. Among them is a young woman. Steinbrenner – a blond 19-year-old boy with the face of a gothic angel, a Nazi for all two hundred – wants to rape her, but he does not succeed. Before the execution, the woman curses them and promises that their children will take revenge on the Germans.
The front line moves every day. Some of the soldiers understand that the war is lost. Now they look at everything differently. One soldier notices that they are ruining another’s country:
It’s amazing how you start to understand others, when you yourself will… But while you’re doing well, nothing of the sort comes to mind!
Young front-line soldier Ernst Greber receives a long-awaited vacation for three weeks: he was
Greber hopes to learn something from a friend of the doctor, but meets only his daughter Elizabeth. The doctor himself is in a concentration camp. In his house, a faithful Nazi girl with a young daughter who was constantly watching Elizabeth settled. The girl is working in a factory – she sews greatcoats at the front, hoping so to help her father.
The bombings are repeated almost every three days. Greber lives in the barracks, but in the evenings he sees Elizabeth. His vacation passes, parents Ernst can not find, so decides to take advantage of the illusion of a peaceful life – life in the rear.
Ernst meets his classmate Binding, who now holds the
In the evening he comes to Elizabeth with vodka, which was given by a classmate. He talks about the truth:
… if everyone did not necessarily try to convince the other of his truth, people, perhaps, would be less likely to fight.
Elizabeth shows her neighbor’s room around the house. There is a huge portrait of Hitler. “The cult of the dictator easily turned into a religion.” Then they go for a walk. The city is like an endless morgue.
The frontierer again comes to Binding. He has a drunken Gestapo in his guest’s place. Ernst notices how serene Binding observes the sparrows:
Greber suddenly realized how hopelessly doomed all justice and compassion: they are destined to break forever about indifference, self-love and fear!
After some time, the Gestapo is sent for questioning. Ernst goes after him and pursues the Nazi in a deserted street. He thinks he can kill the Gestapo. How many people can be saved in this way! Suddenly, a woman appears to lead Greber out of numbness. He realizes that he will not kill the Nazi any more.
Ernst, at the request of a front-line friend, comes to their teacher. Graber shares his thoughts: the war must be lost to the Germans to end “with murder, slavery, concentration camps, … mass destruction and inhuman atrocities.” Will he be an accomplice, knowing all this and going back to the front? The teacher says that everyone should answer this question himself.
Greber and Elizabeth dine in the restaurant. The bombing begins. Several people die. Ernst pulls a bottle out of the open cellar: “the Ten Commandments are not for the military.” On the street they see a tree almost torn from the ground, covered with flowers. “It’s spring for the trees, that’s all.” The rest does not concern them. ” This night, young people become lovers.
Ernst makes an offer to Elizabeth. As a military wife, she will be entitled to benefits – so he can help his beloved girl. He is a front-line soldier, and they will be registered quickly without any problems. For a moment, Ernst feels completely helpless:
What they do with us… We are young, we should be happy and not be separated. What do we care about wars..?
After reflection, Elizabeth agrees.
Greber comes to the hospital to a friend who lost his leg in the war. People with disabilities meet Ernst unfriendly, but a healthy vacationer understands them: “Never argue with someone who has lost an arm or a leg – he will always be right.”
During the next bombing, Greber sees a girl of about five, pressing the baby to her chest. She does not go to the shelter. A moment after the blast wave Ernst sees her dead, pierced by a rod from the iron railings. The baby, most likely, was thrown off somewhere by a frenzied squall. After this raid on the house of Elizabeth flames are thrown, the house collapses floor by floor.
They spend the night near the house of the teacher Greber. In the morning Ernst asks for shelter from him. He warns that he hides the Jew. If a pair is found in such a place, they will not get very well. The teacher says that it is worth preserving the faith. When you are disappointed in your country, you need to believe in the world. A solar eclipse does not bear an eternal night.
Greber learns about the death of Binding: a bomb hit his house. Ernst carries away part of the food of the functionary. Then Greber goes to the teacher. A young man is met by a Jew, and a front-line soldier shares with him Binding. They are talking. Brother, two sisters, father, wife and child of a Jew died in a concentration camp. He has his own disfigured fingers, they do not have nails.
Soon the teacher is arrested by the Gestapo.
Greber learns that the parents are alive. In the first days of searches on the door with ads he left a note that he was looking for them. Now he finds a letter there: his parents are evacuated. Also, a letter from the Gestapo for Elizabeth comes: she needs to take away her father’s ashes, he died in a concentration camp. Graber decides not to say anything to his wife, he leaves the box with ashes in the church garden at the grave.
Ernst asks Elizabeth not to escort him to the station – this is too painful. He still remembers the way his mother saw him the previous time. My wife agrees. However, already at the departure of the train, Greber sees in the crowd Elizabeth. He tears to the window, but the place is not inferior to another front-line soldier, saying goodbye to his wife. Finally, Elizabeth disappears from view.
Returning to the front, Greber feels for a moment that he did not go on vacation at all. He seemed to dream of returning to his homeland. Many soldiers from his company were killed. The Russians are constantly coming. On the front, recruits are sent, who do not understand anything about the military affairs of the young men who perish one after another.
Greber is assigned to guard four Russians. There is a suspicion that they are partisans. They are imprisoned in a secure basement. One of the Russians, the old man, in broken German thanked him for his kind attitude and wants to go with them. The shelling begins. Steinbrenner appears: we must leave, and he suggests shooting the Russians. Greber refuses. A quarrel ensues between them, and Ernst kills the enemy. Then he releases the prisoners and throws down his weapons. The old man picks it up and, shooting away, shoots at the German. The eyes of Greber close.
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