The view from the trenches

It is so common that we categorize people as good or bad. In history, in our fiction stories and even in our Bibles. In our stories we like to focus on heroes and villains, but to me, some of the most interesting stories involve Antiheroes. An Antihero is “a protagonist who lacks the attributes that make a heroic figure, as nobility of mind and spirit, a life or attitude marked by action or purpose, and the like.” In essence, it is the blending of the hero and the villain.Their actions and choices are sometimes questionable. In reality, this is much more likely than the hero and villain positions that we often categorize people in stories and in history.

So for me, it is very interesting to read the stories of soldiers that were part of the German army during D-Day. It seems to me that we often forget that most people in life are just that, people. There are most definitely villains, Hitler was one. But not all of the people under Hitler’s leadership were. Many were everyday people living their lives, serving their country and trying to make the best life possible.

That is what made this book so interesting to me, hearing the stories of scared, nervous and sometimes cocky young men that believed they were doing what was right for their country, Germany, and for Europe in general. It is interesting to read how one of the men talks about the fact that for them, it was about keeping Russia out of Germany. It was about safe-guarding their home under a charismatic leader that promised to put Germany first.

An interesting thing to remember in America today. Sometimes a fear of an enemy can cloud our vision from what’s in front of us.