Declaration Against the War

June 1917

Journal,

Things have gotten worse. After my dysentery, I was sent back to France in January of this year to fight. But after yet another war-related incident, I have been sent to England to recover. It seems that my recovery period has given me plenty of time to ruminate upon this horrendous war.

My pacifist leanings have led me to the conclusion that the war must end. I have written this declaration, in hopes of persuading the authorities to end this catastrophic battle, and have written it on behalf of my fellow soldiers and in the name of all those who have fallen in battle.

I am making this statement as an act of wilful defiance of military authority, because I believe that the War is being deliberately prolonged by those who have the power to end it. I am a soldier, convinced that I am acting on behalf of soldiers. I believe that this War, on which I entered as a war of defence and liberation, has now become a war of aggression and conquest. I believe that the purpose for which I and my fellow soldiers entered upon this war should have been so clearly stated as to have made it impossible to change them, and that, had this been done, the objects which actuated us would now be attainable by negotiation. I have seen and endured the sufferings of the troops, and I can no longer be a party to prolong these sufferings for ends which I believe to be evil and unjust. I am not protesting against the conduct of the war, but against the political errors and insincerities for which the fighting men are being sacrificed. On behalf of those who are suffering now I make this protest against the deception which is being practised on them; also I believe that I may help to destroy the callous complacency with which the majority of those at home regard the contrivance of agonies which they do not, and which they have not sufficient imagination to realize.

In hope of a better future,
Siegfried