As World War I ran through Europe, and stories returned back from the front of disaster and tragedy, one man decided that he would tell the world of his experiences. Erich Remarque, a German soldier was the man and the story was All Quiet On the Western Front; this book describe is gruesome detail the brutality that soldiers faced from the first day of recruitment up until the end of the service, which also meant death. In fact this book, eventually becoming a movie, provided such a descriptive portrayal of the suffering and pain in the war, that is was banned from many countries around Europe.
This film depicted a life on the front that was unimaginable to the public. It pictured men short of uniforms true to their conditions, lack of food, infestation of rats, and parades of soldiers charging over trenches only to get plowed over by opposing shells. As the death toll mounted and the reserves grew thin, countries searched for new ways to recruit. Unfortunately, the movie scared away many of the young men that were left. All Quiet On the Western Front was meant to inspiration people towards the war effort, but instead it was doing exactly the opposite. People in the theater would become sick after viewing the film, and it was quite common for women to be founding running out of the theater and crying and screaming half way through. The movie became such a source of anti-war, that it was actually banned from Germany in 1933. Followed by many other countries shortly after. As a small amount of men hobbled back from the front wounded and scarred, they were barely even able to describe their experiences.
As a soldier, Remarque became the voice of the mute, serving as the eyes of families trying to figure out what kind of travesty could leave their little boys so disfigured, so afraid. He not only described the conditions of the war, but also portrayed the injuries of soldiers with such detail, that it could make anyone sick to their stomach.
