WWI+RAFT+Project+Joodi

R: German Soldier A: Parents F: letter T: Life in the trenches, brother joining war

To my loving Mutter and Vater,

I wish I may say that this son of yours is doing well but I am afraid to say I am not. I wish to say that I am okay but the truth is I am not okay. I have never been this tired, hungry, cold, dirty, sore, and every other bad emotion this evil world brings with it. Everyday I see fellow comrades dying, and their dead bodies all over the trenches in which I am to fight in. I see their rotting corpses, being eaten by rats. The trenches are not a place where people should have to live. We see mud, we shower in mud, we sleep in mud, we eat mud... The life of the trenches is like living in the dark pits of hell. Everyday we have bullets raining over our heads, with luck barely missing the some of us while some of the unlucky ones are hit having their life source taken away from them. I've not had a friend that lived over a week after I have met them. Seeing them die everyday right in front of me... Everyday is like hell, having to live with having my fellow comrades taken away, having to live with the blood of others on my hand, or just having to live in a world like this at all...

I heard from Emeric that he has enlisted in the army... Please, I beg of you Mutter, Vater... Stop him! He may not be able to make it out of the war alive...I am not sure if I can make it out alive either...Mutter, Vater, if you don't want to take a chance in losing another son like you lost Friederic and maybe me, don't sent Emeric to war. It will take away the little innocence this war has left him. I do not want him to go thru what I am having to go thru. This war has changed me in ways you would never imagine. I feel as if I'm a completely different person. Please Mutter, Vater, if not for me or you, for him. I love you all. I pray that I will see you again. I pray for you all to survive this war.

From your Eldest Son Achmed Färber