Roger Nimier: Sacrificial lambs whose howls could be heard from the Atlantic Ocean to the Caspian Sea

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Anti-war essays, poems, short stories and literary excerpts

French writers on war and peace

Roger Nimier: Selections on war

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Roger Nimier
From The Blue Hussar
Translated by Jacques Le Clercq

Well-informed minds affirm that we must believe in God. François did not believe in God, yet he was in favor of Him. He compared believers to munitions makers who furnished him with proofs, which, alas, exploded in his hands.

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The army was the refuge of all sentimentalists, who, weary of the world – such a hard world! – reverted to their childhood and drew up in ranks.

Otherwise men were all alike; it was useless to look at them as though they were stalking across movie screens. A few morons erred and made their exits by throwing themselves out of the window instead of through the door. They were decorated as heroes, and subsequently their sacrifice was dangled before the eyes of dazzled little boys, so that they might prepare themselves for the same fate at the age of twenty; but these same little boys, now grown up, preferred to sell refrigerators.

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The armies that have run up and down Europe these last few years were not fundamentally evil. But after all, they had to pretend to be strong and brutal. The most beautiful bride in the world does not go before the altar without the traditional bridal gown. The ceremonial apparel which the victorious armies wore for their meeting with history was tailored from a red and costly material. Yes, these hostages were recruited and turned into sacrificial lambs whose howls could be heard from the Atlantic Ocean to the Caspian Sea.