Keifer's Letter
Who could have predicted the Great War? Who could predict what came next? Maybe people in charge of the most powerul nations back then knew. But that doesn't matter anymore.
War was a gentleman's affair. Something glorious. Something magnificent, even. Some might have even considered it a sport. I remember going into the trenches. I remember the face of those that fought by my side, but not their names. I don't remember my family, my home. But i will always remember the trenches.
So many died in the grey and filthy hell that was No Man's Land.
So many men became mud.
So many, so many.
Who could have predicted the Great Bombing?
Who could have predicted the Great Plunge?
The idea of order disappered from Europe. No governments existed anymore. No industry existed anymore. Everything so many past thinkers and intellectuals fought to build, against all odds and opposite beliefs, was wiped clean from the minds of those who survived the Bombing. I was one of those. I'm still one of those.
Few survived the devastation, some have been fortunate enough to live in sparcely populated areas or, ironically, being in the frontlines during the Bombing. "Fortunate" might not be the correct word for that. Is being buried by debris, choking to poisonous gas, exploding or catching on fire worse than escaping death and witnessing everything that happend since then considered luck? I'm still trying to figure that out.
So many years have passed since i wrote all these pages. Why did i bother? There is no real answer for that. It shall never have.
-Reimar Keifer. (1933?)
