I will not tell you anything more about it. I will not go further into what happened. I will only add that half an hour later that man was no longer among the living.
We shot him.
Was it honourable and just? Is it never permissible to shoot a prisoner? Perhaps—perhaps not. I don't wish to dispute about it with anybody. In this case that question does not interest me in the least. I don't care whether it was lawful or not.
I will only honestly and openly declare that to me this little incident stands out, amongst all the appalling things I saw, as something infinitely beautiful and exalted.
I felt that at that moment I had seen cold, stern Justice face to face.
VII—STORY OF A GERMAN SOLDIER'S HOME-COMING
The day I went home was terribly long. It seemed to me as if my journey would never come to an end....
I was so deeply stirred that I could have wept. My lips quivered and my breast was as empty as if all the air had been pumped out of my lungs.
As the train glided into the small station I pulled down the window and looked out.