"All we know is that, at times, fighting the Russians, we had to remove the piles of enemy bodies from before our trenches, so as to get a clear field of fire against new waves of assault"
About this Quote
The line is ice-cold bookkeeping disguised as battlefield testimony, and that’s the point. Hindenburg isn’t describing violence so much as converting it into logistics: bodies become “piles,” a tactical obstruction to be cleared like debris. The phrasing drains the scene of grief and moral complexity and refills it with procedure. In a single sentence, mass death is folded into the workday of war.
As context, Hindenburg speaks as a German field marshal turned head of state, a figure whose authority depended on projecting steadiness amid catastrophe. World War I’s Eastern Front was marked by enormous casualties and grinding assaults, and his memoir-era voice leans hard on inevitability: “All we know is that” signals narrowed perception, as if the only legitimate knowledge is what serves operational necessity. It’s a rhetorical shrug that doubles as a claim to authenticity. If war reduces everyone to action and reaction, then responsibility becomes foggy.
The subtext is political. By emphasizing “new waves of assault,” he frames the Russians as an endless, almost natural force, pushing the listener toward a conclusion without stating it: we were compelled, we endured, we did what had to be done. It’s not only a soldier’s recollection but a leader’s self-exculpation, the kind that prepares a public to accept further militarization.
Most chilling is how the sentence manufactures emotional distance. The dead are present, but only as impediments to firing again. That’s not merely brutality; it’s the rhetoric of industrial war, where human lives are counted, stacked, and moved so the machinery can keep running.
As context, Hindenburg speaks as a German field marshal turned head of state, a figure whose authority depended on projecting steadiness amid catastrophe. World War I’s Eastern Front was marked by enormous casualties and grinding assaults, and his memoir-era voice leans hard on inevitability: “All we know is that” signals narrowed perception, as if the only legitimate knowledge is what serves operational necessity. It’s a rhetorical shrug that doubles as a claim to authenticity. If war reduces everyone to action and reaction, then responsibility becomes foggy.
The subtext is political. By emphasizing “new waves of assault,” he frames the Russians as an endless, almost natural force, pushing the listener toward a conclusion without stating it: we were compelled, we endured, we did what had to be done. It’s not only a soldier’s recollection but a leader’s self-exculpation, the kind that prepares a public to accept further militarization.
Most chilling is how the sentence manufactures emotional distance. The dead are present, but only as impediments to firing again. That’s not merely brutality; it’s the rhetoric of industrial war, where human lives are counted, stacked, and moved so the machinery can keep running.
Quote Details
| Topic | War |
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