WW1 combat vets are croaking like mad.

[Lancer]

...and when you are many years dead how will 'modern' people mark your passing? Personally I wouldn't give them the credit of even having the mindset to understand who you were, let alone the great journey you undertook. Death makes us all infants staring wild eyed into the abyss.

[Dr Strangelove]

So does this mean that there are no more living veterans of WW1, or is there a survivor still lingering in Russia, Italy, Turkey, Serbia, Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Austria, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Croatia, Slovenia, Poland Belgium, Ukraine, Byelorus, Georgia, Japan or Montenegro?

[Lancer]

Could mean alot of things. Life is fatal even where war is not. All generations pass in their entirety in due course.

The destiny of the long lived and soon to pass is the same.

There is no personal eternal hope on this earth that does not transend it.

[Lul Thyme]

Originally posted by Dr Strangelove
So does this mean that there are no more living veterans of WW1, or is there a survivor still lingering in Russia, Italy, Turkey, Serbia, Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Austria, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Croatia, Slovenia, Poland Belgium, Ukraine, Byelorus, Georgia, Japan or Montenegro?

I think France still has one and Germany maybe also...

[LordShiva]

Originally posted by Riesstiu IV
So young.

[Harovan]

RIP.

Serb

[Thoth]

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders Fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders Fields.

[BeBMan]

That quote from "Die Welt" in the BBC article makes no sense to me. It's true that WWI has hardly much significance here anymore for most people, but I doubt it has to do with the fact that we lost it, or that collective self pity or denial are the reasons. There could rather be made a point that such things play a role for our views on WWII and NS time as a whole, which otoh aren't forgotten at all.

Truth is that the changes brought by NS era, WWII and it's aftermath do indeed overshadow WWI in the collective German memory, but more due to it's sheer impact on Germany (kinda like "WWII changed everything") until today. Media and public discussion are full of stuff about this, sometimes to the extent that it becomes annoying.

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by Thoth
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders Fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders Fields.

That's actually quite the reactionary poem. It's pro war, take up our fight even as we die.

War is stupid. Throw rocks at it.

[Harovan]

Brecht has a better one. It's in German, and I could not find a translation.

The ballad of the dead soldier

1

Und als der Krieg im vierten Lenz
Keinen Ausblick auf Frieden bot
Da zog der Soldat seine Konsequenz
Und starb den Heldentod.

2

Der Krieg war aber noch nicht gar
Drum tat es dem Kaiser leid
Daß sein Soldat gestorben war:
Es schien ihm noch vor der Zeit.

3

Der Sommer zog über die Gräber her
Und der Soldat schlief schon
Da kam eines Nachts eine militär-
ische ärztliche Kommission.

4

Es zog die ärztliche Kommission
Zum Gottesacker hinaus
Und grub mit geweihtem Spaten den
Gefallnen Soldaten aus.

5

Der Doktor besah den Soldaten genau
Oder was von ihm noch da war
Und der Doktor fand, der Soldat war k. v.
Und er drückte sich vor der Gefahr.

6

Und sie nahmen sogleich den Soldaten mit
Die Nacht war blau und schön.
Man konnte, wenn man keinen Helm aufhatte
Die Sterne der Heimat sehn.

7

Sie schütteten ihm einen feurigen Schnaps
In den verwesten Leib
Und hängten zwei Schwestern in seinen Arm
Und ein halb entblößtes Weib.

8

Und weil der Soldat nach Verwesung stinkt
Drum hinkt ein Pfaffe voran
Der über ihn ein Weihrauchfaß schwingt
Daß er nicht stinken kann.

9

Voran die Musik mit Tschindrara
Spielt einen flotten Marsch.
Und der Soldat, so wie er's gelernt
Schmeißt seine Beine vom Arsch.

10

Und brüderlich den Arm um ihn
Zwei Sanitäter gehn
Sonst flöge er noch in den Dreck ihnen hin
Und das darf nicht geschehn.

11

Sie malten auf sein Leichenhemd
Die Farben Schwarz-Weiß-Rot
Und trugen's vor ihm her; man sah
Vor Farben nicht mehr den Kot.

12

Ein Herr im Frack schritt auch voran
Mit einer gestärkten Brust
Der war sich als ein deutscher Mann
Seiner Pflicht genau bewußt.

13

So zogen sie mit Tschindrara
Hinab die dunkle Chaussee
Und der Soldat zog taumelnd mit
Wie im Sturm die Flocke Schnee.

14

Die Katzen und die Hunde schrein
Die Ratzen im Feld pfeifen wüst:
Sie wollen nicht französich sein
Weil das eine Schande ist.

15

Und wenn sie durch die Dörfer ziehn
Waren alle Weiber da
Die Bäume verneigten sich, Vollmond schien
Und alles schrie hurra.

16

Mit Tschindrara und Wiedersehn!
Und Weib und Hund und Pfaff!
Und mitten drin der tote Soldat
Wie ein besoffner Aff.

17

Und wenn sie durch die Dörfer ziehn
Kommt's, daß ihn keiner sah
So viele waren herum um ihn
Mit Tschindra und Hurra.

18

So viele tanzten und johlten um ihn
Daß ihn keiner sah.
Man konnte ihn einzig von oben noch sehn
Und da sind nur Sterne da.

19

Die Sterne sind nicht immer da
Es kommt ein Morgenrot.
Doch der Soldat, so wie er's gelernt
Zieht in den Heldentod.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Here we go with the poetry again. Che's right, and I said the same thing on 11/11. Try this:

Dulce Et Decorum Est

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of disappointed shells that dropped behind.

GAS! Gas! Quick, boys!-- An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And floundering like a man in fire or lime.--
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.

In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,--
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.*

* literally, "Sweet and fitting it is to die for your native land"

To WWI vets, who made it through a pointless war alive

[snoopy369]

We had this argument already... can we honor the dead without bickering about politics?

All of those poems are moving and great explorations of the sentiment of their time

[onodera]

Originally posted by Dr Strangelove
So does this mean that there are no more living veterans of WW1, or is there a survivor still lingering in Russia, Italy, Turkey, Serbia, Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Austria, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Croatia, Slovenia, Poland Belgium, Ukraine, Byelorus, Georgia, Japan or Montenegro?

Not in any former USSR country, I'm afraid. We should provide better care to our WWII veterans, while we still have them.

[Dinner]

Originally posted by Dr Strangelove
So does this mean that there are no more living veterans of WW1, or is there a survivor still lingering in Russia, Italy, Turkey, Serbia, Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Austria, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Croatia, Slovenia, Poland Belgium, Ukraine, Byelorus, Georgia, Japan or Montenegro?

Or former colonial territories of the above.